Janet Gunter

Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden

Do we really have the right to repair the things we own? How can broken items be given new value? Is repair only to be used when an object is spoiled or broken? Can repair be aspirational, playful and creative?

On today’s episode, I’m talking to Janet Gunter, the co-founder and outreach lead at The Restart Project and a leading Right to Repair campaigner. The Restart Project is a social enterprise that aims to fix our broken relationship with electronics.

We discuss:

- How attitudes to repair differ in the various places she has lived and traveled.

- How The Restart Project is a ‘people powered’ project.

- Why mending fell out of favor and how to re-ignite people’s interest in it.

- The laptop donation project she undertook during the pandemic for school children without access to the right kit for home-schooling.

- What other levers government and big business could be pulling to allow or even encourage more home repairs.

… and more!

Here are some highlights.

The systemic issues at challenge repair

“I think the other important message that we always tell people is that the barrier to repair is often systemic. So it's not on you to figure out how to change a battery in a mobile that just was designed not for that to happen. How are you going to change the battery in your Airpods when Apple itself cannot change the battery? So I think when encouraging people to make a change themselves, we need to also always reinforce that it's not only on you. And if it makes more sense for you to campaign to change the system instead of darning a sock, then please go ahead and do that.”

What manufactures can do to make repair easier

“Look at the thriving second-hand market of Dualit toasters, the high-end ones, people actually do really want your high-end ones and they don't even care if they would necessarily get it second hand. Look at a company like Patagonia with its “worn wear shop.” [Look at] this idea that you can reinforce your brand and actually take advantage of the fact that people want your products second hand. Use that to your advantage instead of [producing cheap things]. Patagonia, as far as I know, doesn't have a cheap crap line for people that don't want to pay. Instead, what they've done is they've made it easier to get their product second hand.”

Hope for the future of repair

“I think things are changing. We’ve seen big YouTubers come out in favor of repair and reuse and basically saying that shredding something, recycling it is the absolute last resort. And these are YouTubers with millions and millions of followers. So it's really brilliant to see that we are moving past recycling and that there's a real sense of change and critique in relation to our stuff and the way that we're buying stuff. The question is whether policy makers are going to keep up with the public outrage and interest, but I guess that's our challenge.”

Connect with Janet Gunter here.

Check out the Restart Project here.

Check out an interview with Felipe Fonseca about repair in Brazil here, All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K Wilkinson here, and the podcast How To Save a Planet here.

About Katie Treggiden

Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. Following research during her recent Masters at the University of Oxford, she is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.

You can find Katie on Instagram @katietreggiden.1, sign up for her e-newsletter here and if you’re a designer-maker interested in becoming more sustainable, sign up for her free Facebook Group here. If you’d like to support more fantastic content like this, you can buy Katie a ‘virtual coffee’ here in exchange for behind the scenes content and a shout-out in Season Three.

Waste: A masterclass is a 12-week programme conceived to inspire, educate and empower designer-makers to create circular products from waste. Click here to find out more or visit katietreggiden.com/masterclass.