Over Black Friday? Take a free class to fix your old stuff instead

If you’d rather not wait in line for hours on Black Friday or spend hundreds online on gadgets you don’t actually need, you can go to a workshop to learn how to repair your electronics or make a DIY holiday gift instead. Make Smthng Week , a global festival run by a coalition of organizations in the maker community and Greenpeace, is hosting more than 250 events in 33 countries. It’s the second year for the festival. [Photo: © Maria Vakonaki/Greenpeace] A shift toward alternatives to consumption “is on the rise because people are getting fed up with and seeing through the idea of just buying short-term products that don’t last, and are made to be thrown away,” says Robin Perkins, who is working on the Make Smthng campaign for Greenpeace. It’s even spreading to the corporate world, where brands like Patagonia have launched initiatives to refurbish and resell worn clothes, rather than see them end up in the trash. [Photo: © Manuela Clemens/Greenpeace] The anti-consumption event, which runs between November 23 and December 3, is designed to bring together people who run repair cafes –informal events where volunteers help anyone learn how to fix broken toasters or phones–with […]

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