Repair or Replace? Why Britain Needs to Rediscover the Art of Fixing Things
Something breaks. What do you do? Not that long ago, the answer would often have been obvious: fix it. Shoes went to the cobbler. A broken television went to the repair shop. Clothes were altered, patched and stitched. Furniture was restored. Appliances were opened up and repaired rather than immediately dragged towards the tip.
Today, our first instinct is increasingly different. We replace it. Sometimes that’s absolutely the right decision. Nobody needs to spend £300 resurrecting a washing machine that’s old enough to remember Tony Blair. But new research suggests we may have swung rather too far in the other direction. Perfectly repairable things are being thrown away every day.
Perhaps it’s time we got a little better at asking one question before reaching for the credit card: can somebody fix this?
Repair or replace? We increasingly choose replace
Some fascinating British research published in 2026 looked at what happens to our unwanted electrical products. Researchers from the University of Surrey examined items at a municipal recycling centre and compared them with products taken to Repair Cafés.
The difference was remarkable. At the recycling centre, only around 2% to 2.5% of devices observed were considered suitable for reuse. At Repair Cafés, 50% of the items were successfully repaired, with another 28% considered potentially repairable.
Those aren’t directly comparable piles of broken stuff, of course. People taking something to a Repair Café presumably already believe there’s a chance of saving it, whereas recycling centres receive things in all sorts of conditions. But the research raises an important question: how much perfectly useful stuff are we writing off simply because it has entered a system designed for disposal rather than repair?
We used to be a nation of repairers
There was a time when repairing things wasn’t particularly worthy or fashionable. It was just normal. A worn heel didn’t mean new shoes. A broken zip didn’t mean a new coat. A faulty appliance didn’t automatically mean browsing for its replacement that evening. Things cost money, so you looked after them.
Surrounding that culture was an entire economy of skilled people who knew how to put things right: cobblers, tailors, watchmakers, radio and television repairers, mechanics, upholsterers, appliance engineers and furniture restorers. Some of those trades are still going strong. Others are considerably harder to find.
Part of that is simply because the things we buy have changed. But our attitude towards possessions has changed too.
Why did replacing things become so normal?
One fairly obvious reason is that new products became cheap. Mass production and global manufacturing have given ordinary households access to things previous generations could never have bought so cheaply. That’s brought enormous benefits, but it has also changed the calculation when something breaks.
If a new kettle costs £25, how much are you realistically going to spend having the old one repaired? If repairing a television costs almost as much as replacing it, most people aren’t going to choose the repair out of principle.
Then there’s convenience. Finding somebody who can diagnose a fault, taking the item to them, waiting for a quote and returning to collect it requires effort. Buying another one takes about thirty seconds on your phone. That’s an incredibly difficult thing for the repair trade to compete with.
But replacing isn’t always cheaper
This is where our throwaway instinct can become expensive. Research highlighted by Which? during London Repair Week in 2026 found that Londoners had spent an average of £464.21 per person over the previous year replacing damaged or broken possessions they believed could have been repaired.
Obviously, repairing something isn’t automatically cheaper. Sometimes the maths simply doesn’t work. A £250 repair on a tired £300 appliance would be difficult to justify. But a £70 repair that gives a good appliance another four years of life is a very different proposition.
The problem is that many of us never get as far as finding out. We see that something has stopped working and mentally pronounce it dead.
Sometimes the fault is ridiculously small
This is probably the most frustrating part. A machine can look completely dead while the thing actually wrong with it is relatively minor: a seal, a switch, a cable, a blocked component, a worn bearing, a battery or a small electronic part.
To somebody without the knowledge to diagnose it, there’s little difference between a £20 problem and a terminal failure. It doesn’t work. That’s all we know.
And that’s precisely where skilled repairers still have enormous value. The skill isn’t merely knowing how to replace a component. It’s knowing which component needs replacing in the first place.
Knowing when not to repair matters too
None of this means we should become emotionally attached to broken washing machines. There comes a point when replacement genuinely makes more sense. If something has repeatedly failed, parts are unavailable, the repair is disproportionately expensive or the product is simply at the end of its useful life, spending more money on it can be throwing good money after bad.
Older appliances can also be substantially less efficient than modern replacements, so keeping absolutely everything alive forever isn’t automatically the greener or cheaper option either. A good repairer should be able to tell you that.
In fact, I’d trust one considerably more if they occasionally said: “Don’t bother. It’s not worth fixing.” That’s expertise too.
Britain does have a right to repair, but it’s limited
There is some protection for consumers already. Great Britain’s Right to Repair rules introduced requirements around spare parts for certain appliances, including products such as washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and televisions. But the rules aren’t a universal right to repair everything you own, and parts and repairs can still be expensive or difficult to obtain.
It’s also worth separating those rules from your normal consumer rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act, when goods are faulty consumers can in certain circumstances require a retailer to repair or replace them. The exact remedy depends on factors including when the fault appears and whether repair or replacement is possible and proportionate.
So before paying somebody to repair a relatively new faulty product, it’s worth checking whether the retailer should actually be dealing with it.
The return of the Repair Café
Something interesting has been happening while our throwaway culture has grown. Repair Cafés have been springing up around Britain and elsewhere. The idea is wonderfully simple: people bring broken possessions along and volunteers with practical skills try to help repair them.
Electrical items, bikes, clothes, toys, small appliances and other household objects can all get another chance. Sometimes the owner learns how to fix the item themselves. Sometimes the thing is beyond saving. But plenty aren’t.
The international Repair Café network reported in 2026 that its cafés collectively see around 1.5 million visitors and approximately 1.6 million items brought in each year. There’s something rather encouraging about that. We’re surrounded by technology more sophisticated than anything previous generations could have imagined, yet there’s still demand for a room full of people with screwdrivers saying: “Let’s have a look at it.”
Repairing things supports skills we don’t want to lose
There’s another reason this matters beyond saving money and reducing waste: skills disappear when nobody pays for them. If nobody repairs shoes, eventually there aren’t many cobblers. If furniture is always replaced rather than restored, fewer people can make a living restoring it. If every faulty appliance goes straight to recycling, there’s less work for independent engineers.
Once those skills disappear from an area, getting something repaired becomes even harder. That creates its own vicious circle. Fewer repairers means repair is less convenient. Less convenient repair means more people replace. More replacement means fewer customers for repairers. Eventually we’re surprised that nobody nearby can fix anything.
Repair can be another way of supporting local businesses
When people talk about supporting local businesses, we usually think about buying something. But spending £80 with somebody who repairs what you already own is supporting a local business too. So is having your shoes resoled, getting a coat altered, having a piece of furniture restored, taking your car to an independent garage or getting a laptop repaired instead of immediately replacing it.
These aren’t glamorous businesses. You’re unlikely to see somebody on Instagram posing beside their freshly repaired washing-machine pump. But they’re useful. And useful businesses are exactly the sort of businesses worth keeping around.
Before you throw it away, ask one question
We’re never going back to a world where everything gets repaired. Nor should we. Some products aren’t economically repairable, some genuinely are worn out, and sometimes replacement is plainly the sensible choice.
But perhaps we’ve become a little too quick to assume that broken means finished. The research from Surrey suggests there’s a substantial difference between what happens when an unwanted object enters the waste system and what can happen when somebody actually looks at it with repair in mind.
So next time something gives up, don’t automatically start shopping for its replacement. Ask what has actually gone wrong. Find out what a repair would cost. See whether somebody local has the skill to save it. Then make the decision.
FindABrit is building a directory of independent British businesses and tradespeople across the country. If something needs fixing, you can find British businesses on FindABrit and see whether somebody can help before you replace it.
Because sometimes the most useful thing you can buy from a British business isn’t something new. It’s another few years from something you already own.
