Redwood City Fixit Clinics aim to breathe life back into older goods

“The key is to repair and fix the item themselves as opposed to taking it to a repair shop. It’s a learning experience for them,” Elizabeth Meeks said, division manager with the Redwood City Public Library. “Pretty much anything that someone needs help with repairing we’ll try to help them fix it.”

The program was launched in 2019 in partnership with Fixit Clinic, an organization started by Peter Mui aimed at reducing the number of items thrown into landfills by empowering the public with the skills needed to fix their belongings. From home appliances to beloved umbrellas — one passed down from a grandfather to his grandson was recently salvaged — Mui said the public is give a hands-on, in-depth look into how their stuff works.

Repairs aren’t always guaranteed but Mui noted he and his global team of volunteer Fixit Coaches will go the extra mile to attempt to save an item from the dump. The big picture goal, Mui said, is to improve the environment by shifting the way the public thinks about buying and frivolously discarding their belongings.

“The grand experiment is can we look at our consumption and consumer-based items in a different way. Can we move the needle,” Mui said. “We’re all just trying to keep this planet together and not sink it through consumerism.”

Inspiration came, in part, during the pandemic. As the public was locked indoors, many picked up hobbies or began assessing what items they had on hand but struggled to access the spare parts or tools needed to finish their projects, Mui said.

Seeing the need for support, Mui took his services global and began holding what he calls “intergalactic Fixit Clinics,” through live video streaming. He also created a chat forum on the platform Discord, where Fixit Coaches can bounce ideas off each other and coordinate repairs.

In one example, Mui recounted, a woman from Millbrae fixed her electric fan with support from a coach in Belgium who knew how to take it apart, a coach in the United Kingdom who had a similar unbroken fan and cold advice on what parts were needed, a Minneapolis coach who found how to purchase the parts and a coach in Palo Alto who drove the needed tools to the woman’s home.

“The goal is that the line of participants and coach blurs and everyone helps everyone else out,” Mui said, noting the program is not a free repair service. “Nobody knows everything about everything.”

Similar but separate from the Fixit Clinic are two new Dero Fixit Stations, bicycle service stations placed outside the Downtown Library and Redwood Shores Branch that provide cyclists with the tools needed to repair their bikes, including an air pump, stand and basic tools.

In addition to breathing new life into worn-down items, Meeks said the bike stations are meant to encourage and support multimodal transportation, a key priority in Redwood City. Separate clinics meant to teach the public how to use the stations will be announced in the near future, she said.

“We have a very active bike riding community,” Meeks said. “That’s there so anybody riding by, if they have issues with their bike they can fix it. ... People are riding bikes more now than ever before and as a transition tool, that’s something available for anyone.”

A number of groups have supported the city with these programs. Funds from the Pacific Library Partnership’s Innovation and Technology Opportunity grant helped the city purchase the bike stations while Friends of the Redwood City Public Library sponsors the Fixit Clinics.

The county’s Office of Sustainability is also a supporter of both endeavors which they said “promote a repair-first mentality” that will help the county reach its goals of reducing contributions to landfills “while creating healthy, thriving and sustainable communities.”

“Finding solutions for a sustainable future starts in our communities and that’s why the Office of Sustainability is excited to support programs that encourage sustainable transportation options, and that provide community members opportunities to learn how to reduce waste at home,” read an email statement from Rachael Londer, a senior sustainability specialist. “One of the best ways to keep things from going to the landfill is by repairing and reusing them.”

Visit the Redwood City Public Library website at redwoodcity.org/departments/library for more information on community events and recourses and the Fixit Clinic website at fixitclinic.blogspot.com/ for information on services, volunteering opportunities and more.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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