Tinkers Dam – the only wall between us and the deluge

Successful welding on replacement pot handle

By Tim Preston

Repair, reuse – some cultures, through need, can keep an object or product going for many years, or evolve it into something else useful. Unfortunately we don’t have the need – we just throw it out and go and buy another.

Just as our resources are mined to bring us new products, tinkering mines these converted resources  (discarded products and materials) on a local scale for local needs with local skills. If it wasn’t for landfill we’d be knee deep in the stuff.

usethings propose the revival and elevation of  ‘tinkering’ – some images below of repairs to articles that would have been discarded. In tinkering we’ve avoided buying another, solved a design problem with materials and process at hand – localising the revival of a product that may have consumed remote resources and energy to produce, but the end-of-life waste was certainly destined to be local.

Loose joints in chair held together with a ‘Spanish windlass’.

To tinker brings us longer product function, more skills, less waste, and less expense.

We hereby reinstate tinkering as a valuable function in society and update the  term ‘tinkers damn’ to ‘Tinkers Dam’ – the only wall between us and a deluge of discarded stuff!

For more sustainability ideas, go to usethings’ weblog