Salvaging That Which Was Lost

John Eaton fixes a toaster oven in Palo Alto (SJMN)

The Bay Area, a center of technological innovation, is also one of the leaders in the nonprofit fix-it-don't-trash-it movement:

a cadre of fix-it fanatics, disgusted with planned obsolescence and our throwaway culture, has embraced "creative caring." Valuing function and respecting the age of household objects, they strive to save them from death row.

They're awaiting your stuff at a Repair Cafe in Palo Alto on Sunday, a Fix It Clinic in Albany in March, a Santa Cruz-based gathering in May and across the nation, from Seattle to Brooklyn, N.Y

The economic incentives are overwhelmingly on the side of the throwaway culture.

We had been enduring a partially working $30 toaster oven and finally were compelled to spring for a $50 replacement. Nevertheless, if the personal effort would have been modest, say one or two hours, and the parts cost $25 or less, we would have gone through the trouble of trying to fix it. Not adding a scrapped toaster to the environment's burden is worth something, as is the psychic pleasure of salvaging something that was lost.

Here's hoping that more people at least think about fixing the devices that have served them so well before throwing them away.