Got broken string lights? Fixing them might be easier than you think | CBC News

What’s known as the most wonderful time of the year can also be the most wasteful.

Over the winter holidays London, Ont.’s curbside waste is expected to nearly double in weight compared to the course of a normal week — largely due to food waste and excess gift packaging.

Other holiday items pile up in landfills too and there’s a growing movement of Londoners turning to repairing to keep those otherwise unwanted items out of the trash. 

“Christmas lights are always a popular item that come in,” said Londoner Paul Hoggarth.

He was one of nearly a dozen volunteer “fixers” gathered at the London Public Library’s Beacock branch on Tuesday for a monthly Repair Café to help fix everything from broken toasters to lamps and kettles.

“I have been a a tinkerer my whole life and I just enjoy taking things apart,” said Hoggarth, who started volunteering about a year ago. 

“I’m not afraid just to open something up and see what’s inside and it’s like this instantaneous puzzle. You have to piece it all together and figure it out.”

Get glowing 

After trying to fix them herself at home, Terri Smale brought some light strings to the Repair Café with hopes of getting them glowing again — and Hoggarth was there to help. 

The Londoner bought four brand new strings of lights last year costing her nearly $100 — and they already stopped working after one season, she said. 

“It’s so annoying when you go to string them up and they don’t come on. I was so sad,” she said, noting frustration with how quickly things can break today. 

“These people all have amazing skills and we’re so fortunate that they’re willing to share their knowledge and expertise so stuff doesn’t get thrown away,” she said, while watching Hoggarth work on her lights. 

Identifying the problem

When it comes to fixing lights, Hoggarth has a strategy. 

The first step is diagnosing the problem, he said. While you can remove each bulb and test it, he uses a tool to speed that process up called a non-contact voltage detector. It allows him to test if electricity is passing through. 

“The electricity has to pass through every single bulb. So, at this point it becomes fairly easy to check the string and find where the where the next problem is,” he said. 

The most unusual string light problem he’s fixed, is one where a dog had chewed right through the wires, and he had to rejoin the wires back together.

In the case of Smale’s lights, he was able to get two strands of her lights working again, after lots of tinkering and some replacement bulbs.

“It’s always very gratifying anytime that you see something fixed and somebody can leave with a smile on their face, knowing that you were able to get it fixed for them.”

There are some things you can do to lessen their changes of breaking, he said. All it takes is a little bit of moisture or corrosion over storage to stop the contacts from working, but storing them in a cool dry place can help, along with being very careful when taking them down each year. 

About one third of the time he can’t get things working again, he estimated. Coming to a Repair Café can give people the confidence to try more fixing at home, he said. 

‘Huge need’

Heenal Rajani, president of the Reimagine Institute for Community Sustainability, launched the Repair Café in London about five years ago after being inspired by other cafés around the world. 

“It’s definitely something that there’s a huge need for,” he said.

Generally as a society, we’ve lost the ability to fix things, he said, and have grown accustomed to buying cheap things, using them, throwing them away from they break, and buying a new one.”

“We don’t have to be throwing all this stuff into the landfill. We can make the most of the things that we have by repairing them and learning about how to take good care of them.”

If you can’t make it to a Repair Café, online tutorials can be a great resource, he said.

“The holidays are a very wasteful time,” he said. “Anything that we can do to reduce our impact at this time while still having a good time is, is valuable.”