Wyndham Repair Cafe helping keeping unemployed people busy and preserving the environment
Got an iPads on the blink? A repair workshop in Melbourne’s west keeping unemployed people busy could be the answer.
Wyndham Leader
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A trash to treasure-style workshop in Melbourne’s west is keeping unemployed people busy while also promoting recycling and preserving the environment.
The Wyndham Repair Cafe was founded by Werribee resident Joe Ferlazzo, who combined his passion for recycling with his role as a supervisor for Work for the Dole to create a place for volunteers to get busy while also learning about the environment.
Mr Ferlazzo said it was “exciting” to see people becoming passionate about recycling while volunteering at the cafe.
“It’s really good to get these guys learning about the environment but also about pulling things apart and understand how they work and where they’re going,” he said.
“Most people don’t really know what happens and the whole process behind recycling and fixing things.
“I’ve had a team of volunteers for about three years, we do get those wacky things and it is really exciting and the café really tries to get the object going again because don’t want them thrown into landfill.”
The cafe operates on the second Saturday of every month and has about 10 volunteers on hand.
Since launching about three years ago, Wyndham Repair Cafe has saved “nearly a tonne” of waste from landfill; recycling and donating items otherwise heading for the tip.
But Mr Ferlazzo said the cafe was not there to take work away from commercial business, instead focusing “small fixes” which save items being thrown out.
“We service the community once a month and we get quite busy with people bringing things in that they’re considering chucking out,” he said.
Recently the cafe restored eight broken iPads which were donated to a school in India.
The cafe is part of the Grow with Joe umbrella, a non-for-profit recycling and STEM based education organisation.
Mr Ferlazzo has also applied for funding to hold “lifestyle repair” classes for people to learn to sew and change tyres.
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