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 by:
- Educating and raising awareness about fixing, reusing, recycling, and using things in a way that helps the environment. We do this by going to events and talking to people. Fixy can also visit schools and businesses to share this important message.
- Fixy helps local repair groups in the community by spreading the word about their events and activities to more people. Fixy also shares information about potential volunteers with these groups to make them stronger and more resilient.
- 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. This helps towards reducing digital poverty.
- Under new funding, Fixy is also helping to set up smart tech drop off points where people can drop off smart tech they don’t need. They will also hold events near flats to 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?
- Check back soon for latest event listings.
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.co.uk:
- 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.