Today enfinium, a leading UK energy-from-waste operator, has awarded over £2,800 to two repair cafés in West Yorkshire, one situated nearby its Ferrybridge facilities in Knottingley and the other nearby its Skelton Grange facility currently under construction in Leeds. The funding aims to support the two repair cafés’ work, supporting the local community to repair rather than replace faulty household items, diverting waste away from landfill and saving households money.
The two repair cafés receiving the grant funding are the Silsden Repair Café and the Otley Maker Space, both located within 30 miles of enfinium’s Ferrybridge facilities and Skelton Grange facility, respectively.
The Silsden Repair Café will use the grant funding from enfinium to contribute towards its operating costs, including rent, materials and equipment. The café also intends to use the funding to undertake volunteer management training, upskilling its forty volunteers to continue delivering the repair café’s beneficial work, for which it received the BBC Radio Leeds ‘Make a Difference’ Green Award in September.
The Otley Makers Space plans to use the funding it has received to buy equipment that will extend the range of items the café can repair. This includes a stereoscopic microscope to find faults in electronic devices and a new tablet to enable the café to 3D print replacement components.
Repairing items reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and cuts overall CO2 emissions. For example, maintaining a single television for an additional 7 years has been found to save the equivalent of 657kg CO2.1
To date, 14 Repair Cafés have received funding from enfinium’s ‘Repair Café Support Fund’ of £60,000 over a three year-period since its launch in March 2024. The Fund was set up to support cafés within a 30-mile radius of one of enfinium’s facilities in Kent, North Wales, West Yorkshire or the West Midlands.
enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund will reopen on 1 January 2025 and run until 31 May 2025. Eligible Repair Cafés can apply for funding of up to £1,500 per annum before the May 2025 deadline.
If you would like to learn more about the Repair Cafés Support Fund, or apply for funding, please visit the project website Repair Café or email communityfunding@enfinium.co.uk.
Philip Curds, Head of ESG & Sustainability at enfinium, said: “Throwing away household items is both costly for individuals and harmful for the environment. Repair cafés go a long way to addressing both of those problems, enabling communities to save money and divert their faulty household items away from harmful landfill. It is for this reason that we are proud to provide funding to these two repair cafés, both of which intend to use their grant funding to further enhance an already appreciated and important service.”
Ian Reid, Secretary of Otley Maker Space, said: “enfinium’s funding has allowed us to expand our repair services, helping people keep cherished items for longer, reduce waste, and even save money in the process. Providing a service for people to live more sustainably is needed more than ever, and with enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund, we are able to do exactly that.”
Louise Farnell, Silsden Repair Café lead, said: “Our volunteers are integral to everything we do. With thanks to enfinium’s support, we can invest in training to, grow and equip the team to continue to deliver an award-winning service for our community. We look forward to continuing to help the residents of Silsden reduce their waste and live more sustainably.”
ENDS
Notes to editor
Application process
To apply for the Repair Café Support Fund, please visit the project website Repair Café, where the application criteria are available and the application forms can be downloaded.
Statistical information
1 Öko-Institut e.V., “Economic and environmental impacts of extending the durability of electrical and electronic equipment”, 2020, p. 6.
About enfinium
enfinium is a leading UK energy from waste operator with four operational sites in the UK, in West Yorkshire, Kent and Flintshire, and two in construction. enfinium diverts 2.3 million tonnes of unrecyclable waste from climate-damaging landfill, putting it to good use by turning it into home grown energy, enough to power 500,000 UK homes. enfinium’s ambition is to transform its facilities into local ‘decarbonisation hubs’ powered by the millions of tonnes of unrecyclable waste the UK will produce for decades to come. Using existing energy from waste infrastructure, enfinium could contribute to heat networks, produce electrolytic hydrogen, or use carbon capture technology to provide durable, high quality carbon removals which will be critical for the UK to achieve net zero by 2050. For more on enfinium, please visit www.enfinium.co.uk.
