When the coffee pot stops perking, the vacuum stops picking up dirt or that lamp no longer turns on, they usually end up in the trash. In Cincinnati, a group of volunteers discovered many can be fixed and find new homes.
These "tinkerers" are turning one person's junk into another's treasure.
It all happens on the second floor of an old warehouse. Shelves of toasters, blenders and lamps overflow onto the floor, where they're met with rows of old vacuum cleaners, microwaves and other small electronics.
"It's great to be able to find a big pile of stuff to fix," laughs Mike Conaway, a retired engineer.
On this day, he pulls a coffee pot and a dusty, orange fan from the pile. While he waits to see if the coffee maker's heating element warms up, he sets about taking apart the fan.
"Sometimes I feel like I've turned into a glorified appliance cleaner," he says. "Fans are an easy fix. Usually they're just clogged up with dog hair or whatever, and they need to have the bearings oiled or something."
Conaway is one of six volunteer tinkerers here today. The group started about a year and half ago at the Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub. That’s when a staff member realized a lot of things people wanted to get rid of just needed minor repairs.
Now, retirees like Conaway — and sometimes younger folks, too — just show up. He’s here twice a month to see what he can fix. No experience is required; most just like taking things apart and trying to put them back in working order.
Don Hoffman stands over a red, bagless vacuum, taking it apart and inspecting its pieces.
"I have no background except for things breaking at home. I'm a retired art teacher, so I just was always one of those people that, even as a kid, would tear things apart and get in trouble for doing that, and then just try to figure out how they work," he says.
The volunteers estimate about half of the appliances that come across their work table can be repaired. Those that can't are stripped of any spare parts that might come in handy later and the rest is recycled.
"We don't buy parts," Conaway points out. "There's no budget to buy parts, but stuff that comes in a lot like coffee makers, for instance — we have a tub over there that says 'coffee maker parts' — we'll put [extra parts] in a bin and save it."
The fixed appliances often end up at a local furniture bank, says the Hub's operations director and co-founder, Carrie Harms.
"They are getting them into the hands of folks who are coming out of homelessness and set up into homes. These items go into those homes to help them get off on the right foot in that new setting," she explains.
Each item goes out with a Tinker Team sticker so if it breaks again, it can be brought back for more repairs.
Conaway decided to volunteer here because he says he hates to see things go to waste and clog up landfills. And tinkering is just how he was raised.
"My dad could fix anything," he recalls. "[He] just liked to fixed stuff, and hated to see stuff get thrown away that could still work. That's probably the thing that came [to me] from Dad."
In its first year and half, the Tinker Team has given new life to nearly 1,400 household electronics.
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