A London social enterprise and charity that runs Restart Parties where people learn to repair broken electronics, and campaigns for the right to repair.
The Restart Project describes itself as a people-powered social enterprise fixing our relationship with electronics. Its best-known activity is the Restart Party, an event where people bring broken or slow devices, such as laptops, tablets, phones, headphones, toasters and vacuum cleaners, and volunteer repairers help them to fix them. Owners learn by doing, rather than handing the item over. If a repair cannot be finished on the day, people share tips on finding spare parts and affordable professional repairers. The aim is to make repair normal again.
It began in London in 2012 and 2013 as a response to the amount of electronic waste produced by throwaway products. An early article by Ugo Vallauri, who signed as a co-founder, said the first events were held in 2012 in places including libraries, community centres, a pub, an art gallery and a school. Janet Gunter is named as a co-founder in a 2019 Positive News profile. The project says recycling alone is not enough, criticises manufacturers for planned obsolescence, which is when products are designed to wear out, and wants people to think harder about how they buy and use devices.
The Restart Project is based in London. A European project listing gives its address as Canterbury Crescent, Brixton, London, and a Charity Commission register page lists it as a charity. It runs events across London and also works with schools and organisations to help them keep their electronics in use for longer. The Restart community platform hosts a group for Repair Café Wales, which shows its links across the UK repair network, and Library of Things lists it as a repair partner. It also develops open source tools for collecting and sharing repair data and stories, and supports the Right to Repair campaign, which wants products made so that they can be fixed.
On culture, the organisation is built around volunteers and community knowledge. Early plans described guidelines and online tools to help other groups start their own Restart Parties, and a Restarter Volunteer Handbook exists on its community forum. A global network was the early ambition. These are the organisation's own descriptions from older sources, and we did not find recent figures for events, repairs or staff.
A repair charity needs community organisers who run events, volunteer coordinators, researchers who analyse the repair data, policy and campaign staff who speak up for right to repair, designers and developers who build tools, and people who work with schools. If you like taking things apart, solving puzzles or arguing for fairer products, this is a place to learn how community action and policy fit together. Check its website for current roles and volunteering.
Website: therestartproject.org
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