RevaluRepair: The Repair Economy

Assessing the economic, environmental and social impact of community repair of small electrical goods

Project Lead: Tech-Takeback

Tech-Takeback (TTB) currently offers residents of Brighton and Hove a collection system for end-of-life small electricals, via its service “RevaluElectricals”. Since its launch in November 2020, the team have collected over 27,000 small electrical items from over 2,200 households, weighing 25 tonnes and saving a potential 2,000 tonnes of carbon if all items are reused. To date 1.1 tonnes of printed circuit boards have been separated for recycling and over 5,463 items have been repaired and redistributed for reuse. Working with The Restart Project (TRP) and supported by the NICER Centre for Circular Metals, hosted by University College London we will undertake a feasibility study to “RevaluRepair”.

Through this feasibility project we will:
• assess the value to the local economy (skills, jobs, revenue) of setting up a high street shop to resell the repaired products,
• quantify the CO2 emissions saved due to reduced consumption emissions, and
• Assess the social impact to the community of the repair service (skills, jobs, social contact, interaction with schools).
• determine the benefits of offering 3D printed parts for repair
• create a new multicriteria assessment matrix to determine the viability of repairing items that have been discarded as waste or sent for reuse.