Join us for our Zero Waste event at the San Diego County Spring Valley Branch Library – Bring in an item to repair and some clothing to exchange! Get help fixing everything from computers and coffee makers to toys, clothes, and bikes!
5 pm – 8 pm: Swap Party and Fixit Clinic with @sdfixitclinic
Location: Spring Valley Library- 836 Kempton St, Spring Valley, CA 91977
A Few Friendly Reminders:
Registration required for the @sdfixitclinic so we can be prepared with supplies, tools, and volunteer experts.
Limit 1 item to be repaired per person
No registration required for the Swap Party
Limit 5 clothing item donations per person
Please bring clothing items that are lightly used- no rips, stains, or odors
According to the County of San Diego, Americans generated 32 billion pounds of textile discards in 2015. Textiles make up around 6% of all municipal solid waste generated in the U.S. Tossing textiles in the trash unnecessarily fills our local landfills and wastes the resources that went into making them including vast amounts of water, energy, land and other resources.
What is a textile? Textiles can be items of clothing, homegoods, or fabrics that are made from woven material or fibers.
1. REDUCE – Become a minimalist
Reduce your consumption of textiles, new clothes, and accessories by reducing what you purchase! The less we purchase the less we have to manage as waste at the end of that product’s useful life. Read more about the benefits of becoming a minimalist here
Did your favorite shirt loose a button? Consider learning how to sew a button back onto that top rather than buying a new piece of clothing to replace it
Not sure how to mend, sew, or repair textiles? Visit one of I Love a Clean San Diego’s upcoming FIX-IT! Repair & Reuse Workshops
Consider attending one of I Love a Clean San Diego’s upcoming Swap Parties to swap gently used clothing items and accessories with fellow community members
4. RECYCLE – Donating can lead to recycling
Turn all your hangers in your closet backwards. When you wear something, turn the hanger the correct way. After a year, if anything is still hanging backwards, donate it. Donate to a local organization and support a cause; search “Textiles/Clothing” on WasteFreeSD.org for locations
If your item of clothing is unusable, consider sending them to a textile-recycling program
Check out this donation bin field guide to learn the difference between a donation bin versus a for-profit bin
Some retailers will recycle for you H&M, Patagonia, Nike, Madewell, The North Face, Levi’s + more!
Visit WasteFreeSD.org to learn more about reduce, reuse, recycling centers, events, and resources in your area.
By now, you are likely familiar with the 3 R’s of waste reduction: Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle. But do you know about the fourth R in waste reduction? REPAIR! Choose to repair slightly broken or damaged items and decrease the amount of trash that ends up in our landfills!
Repairing is the process of fixing an item that you own, like a ripped shirt or a broken fridge, and giving it a second life. With easy access to Do It Yourself (DIY) shows and websites like Pinterest and YouTube, many people are choosing to learn how to mend their clothes and fix their household items instead of purchasing new items. In-person FIX-IT Workshops and Repair Cafes are also growing in popularity worldwide and creating community spaces where folks can share their repair skills on clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, toys, and more.
When you learn to repair the items that you already own, you can find new ways to personalize your belongings and help conserve valuable resources
Currently, 1 in every 2 people are throwing their unwanted clothes into the trash, generating more than 16 million tons of textile waste per year in the US only. The EPA estimated that 2.2 million tons of waste also comes from our small appliances, with only 5.6% getting recycled. Let’s not add on to trash in the landfills – repair your items instead.
It is easy to see why more people are choosing to repair their items once you know the environmental benefits of it. Here are just a few more of the benefits when you choose to repair:
Saves money – For some items, it is less expensive to fix them than to replace them. If a fix isn’t too difficult, you can likely find a how-to online and fix the item yourself, leaving you to only pay for materials. When deciding to either repair or replace an item, most experts say to use the 50-percent rule: if the repair cost is estimated to be 50 percent or less than the amount you paid for the item, it is usually better to repair it.
Saves energy – Repairing an item, rather than replacing it, saves energy (and resources) that would be required to make something new. Even if an item can be recycled, such as a refrigerator or computer, energy is still saved by choosing to repair.
You learn new skills – Learning a new skill can be extremely rewarding and can help build confidence. Many people who mend and sow their clothes, for example, describe the activity as a stress-releaser that helps them build patience.
Keeps items out of landfills– Choosing to repair slightly broken or damaged items, instead of replacing them, keeps items that still have a useable life out of landfills. Often times, just a quick fix can extend the life of household items.
So now you know! Repair helps with waste reduction and can benefit you, your wallet, and the planet! Learn a new skill and help extend the life of the items you already own.
Looking to repair something immediately? Visit WasteFreeSD.org and search for repair shops near you that service anything from a refrigerator to a surfboard
Interested in in learning skills to help you repair items on your own?Check our events page for FIX-IT Workshops coming up!
I Love A Clean San Diego is hosting a two-hour FIX-IT! Repair & Reuse Workshop that will teach you how turn an old t-shirt into a reusable tote-bag!
Do you own a t-shirt that you really love but is now too old to be worn in public? Do you want to learn a new skill to upcycle your clothes and give them a second life? Join this workshop to learn the sustainable and skills of sewing, embroidery, and up-cycling.
This event is happening on June 16, 2022 from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM and is FREE to all registered attendees.
RSVP is required.
Get ready to get crafty!
We ask all attendees to bring a t-shirt of your choice and a reusable mug to enjoy some tea. All other materials will be provided. See you then!
Thank you to the Mateando Embroidery Club for facilitating this skills sharing portion of this workshop.
Thank you to the County of San Diego for partnering on this event.
Today’s blog post comes from ILACSD’s Program Assistant – Educator, Bethany Edgar, who breaks down the Reuse & Repair area of San Diego’s Earth Fair 2014.
Thanks to the efforts of the SD Reuse and Repair Network and their partners, this year’s Earth Fair in Balboa Park featured an area dedicated exclusively to the important topic of “Reduce, Reuse, Repair, and Repurpose.” This area was the perfect opportunity for I Love A Clean San Diego to promote our new repair database, www.RepairSD.org. People were excited to hear about this helpful new resource, commenting how difficult it can be to find information online about repairing things. After trying out the database on a tablet at our booth, quite a few people said they were impressed with how user-friendly the database is and that they would definitely use it and help spread the word about this useful tool!
For those of you who may have missed out on this unique and inspiring section of the fair, here are some highlights:
This network of local businesses, municipalities, non-profits, and interested citizens created a stage area offering workshops for fairgoers on a variety of topics including bike repair, San Diego’s zero waste plans, and furniture transformation. In their booth they showcased a number of creatively repurposed furniture items that were rescued from a truck of leftovers from a Goodwill auction on its way to the landfill, including:
This old headboard was turned into a coffee tableA dresser drawer turned into a herb garden box and a broken chair turned into a plant stand!
Bikes del Pueblo is a dedicated collective that seeks to empower local communities through bicycle education by offering open workshops to assist people in building, maintaining, and repairing their bikes. During the Earth Fair they taught several bicycle repair workshops and provided free bicycle repair manuals to fairgoers. You can find them every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm at the City Heights Farmer’s Market where they set up a mini-shop to walk people through the process of fixing their own bikes.
Boxed Green works to reuse cardboard boxes by connecting San Diegans who need boxes with local retailers who have boxes to spare. On Boxed Green’s user-friendly website, San Diegans can choose a nearby retailer, purchase boxes online for just $1 per box, then pick up the gently used boxes at their convenience directly from the retailer. This unique service saves trees and saves customers time and money when looking for moving boxes. Plus, a portion of all sales is donated to eco-focused non-profits!
Knife Savers
“Lost your edge? We can get it back for you!”
Jim Green, owner and proprietor of Knife Savers, scours thrift stores and swap meets for high quality old knives that need repair and then sells the refurbished knives at reasonable prices, thereby keeping precious resources out of our landfills and providing a valuable service to the community. Contact Jim at jimg@knifesavers.com or (619) 846-6526
Judith Toepel has created this innovative non-profit as a community building resource for clean, usable materials that may have been considered waste. reInterpret collaborates with schools, teachers, artists, and businesses on the topic of sustainability, industry, arts and education. They offer teacher workshops to inspire the use of recycled materials to aid in learning math, science, language, and creative arts as a means of meeting the Common Core Standards.
Of course, if you are ever looking for repurpose ideas, you can always check out our Pinterest page, or if you need a place to repair items, look no further than www.RepairSD.org.
