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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Michael Weissenstein

Broken speaker? Finicky zipper? Anticonsumerist Repair Cafes urge you to fix it instead of pitch it

Paula Weinstein Facebook
Be Well Repair Cafes - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

On a drizzly Saturday morning late last month, the basement of the New Paltz United Methodist Church filled with old lamps, blunt knives, malfunctioning sound mixers and balky zippers.

About a dozen volunteers welcomed the broken goods and their owners to a worldwide movement that’s evangelizing new relationships between people and their things.

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