Introduction

The Fixy project promotes reuse, repair and recycling throughout Somerset using ‘Fixy’ our large promotional van. The vehicle travels the county supporting existing repair groups, engaging new audiences and taking repair and reuse from ‘niche to norm’. Fixy aims to achieve this through several key themes.

• Educating and raising awareness of repair, reuse, recycling and sustainable consumption through outreach at events. Fixy is also available to visit schools and businesses.
• Fixy amplifies local repair groups in the community, helping them to extend their reach to wider audiences and promoting their events and activities. Fixy also offers an opportunity to pass on the details of potential interested volunteers to the groups to help improve their resilience.
• Fixy operates as a mobile tech amnesty point for smart tech donations such as mobile phones and laptops. All donations are given to Donate IT, a local charity which refurbishes the tech and distributes it to people, schools and groups who need them, helping to address digital poverty.
• Under its new funding, Fixy is also helping to establish smart tech drop off points and will be holding tech amnesties near flatted properties where we collect unwanted smart tech for reuse. Most people living in flats cannot currently recycle small electricals at kerbside.
• When repairers are available Fixy can operate as a mobile repair service for certain items and can offer mobile PAT testing.

The Fixy project is managed by Resource Futures, supported by Somerset Council and is a funded project. The Fixy Project is one of over 40 UK projects currently funded by Material Focus, the not for profit leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, who have provided £50,000 for the project. Fixy will lead the way in Somerset, joining other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

Contact us at: fixy@somerset.gov.uk
Follow us on Facebook @FixyProject

Fixy events

Where is Fixy?

• Wednesday 15 January, 10am to 1pm, Fixy collecting smart tech for reuse at Crewkerne Market, outside Town Hall, Market Square, Crewkerne TA18 7LN
• Saturday 18 January, 10am to 1pm, Fixy collecting smart tech for reuse at The Balsam Centre, Balsam Park, Wincanton BA9 9HB
• Sunday 2 February, 10am to 1pm, Fixy collecting smart tech for reuse at Town Hall, Christchurch Street West, Frome, BA11 1EB
• Saturday 22 February, 10am to midday, Fixy will joining Street Repair Cafe to celebrate their one year anniversary, at Street Quaker Meeting House, 36 High Street, Street BA16 0EB. Bring along any unwanted smart tech to donate.

The Fixy team will be:

• Promoting volunteer-run repair groups and opportunities to get involved
• Accepting donations of unwanted smart tech for reuse, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, digital cameras and other smart devices (see below for a full list), Data will be securely wiped by Donate IT before items are passed back into the community.

Can’t get to a Fixy event? You can donate your smart tech at one of Donate IT’s collection points across Somerset and other parts of the South West.

Need something fixed? Find local community repair groups across Somerset on our web page Somerset’s Repair Network.

Smart tech items you can bring to a Fixy event

You can donate the following through all Fixy events, including our smaller Fixy stalls without the van:

• Laptops*
• Tablets*
• Mobile Phones and Smart Phones
• Smartwatches
• Digital cameras
• Game Consoles and accessories*
• Hard Drives and External Disk Drives
• Routers*

* including power supply cable, AC adaptor and charger wherever possible.
Items must be unlocked and unlinked if using an iCloud account to enable reuse.

Other smart tech to donate? The following items can be donated when the Fixy van visits a business or a community event, or at one of the other drop-off points shown on Donate IT:

• Laptops*
• Tablets*
• PCs, Desktops, Towers*
• Mobile and Smart Phones
• Servers*
• Hard Drives
• Game Consoles and accessories*
• NAS Drives
• PC Combo and All-in-one type computer*
• Digital cameras
• Scientific calculators
• PDAs
• Routers*
• Server Rack and Cabinets
• Switches
• Thin Clients
• UPS Unit
• Wireless Access Points
• Docking Stations and Port Replicators
• DVR, NVR, PVR such as Freeview recorder or CCTV Device
• External Disk Drives
• Smart wear and Smart devices
• Smart speakers
• Smartwatches*

*Including, where relevant, the power supply cable, AC adaptor, mains power and ancillary accessories to allow re-use. Items must be unlocked and unlinked if using an iCloud account to enable reuse.

Webinar sharing the Fixy experience

Fixy’s aim is to take repair from niche to norm. There was a fantastic turnout at the Fixy project webinar “Making repair an everyday decision”. The recording of the discussion is now available.

Watch the webinar to find out results and learnings from the successful mobile electrical repair scheme, as well as learn about finding routes to engaging new audiences:

You can also download the Fixy Impact Report.