enfinium, a leading UK energy from waste operator, has today announced it has awarded £2,741 to two further Repair Cafés across North Wales. The grant funding has been allocated to the Colwyn Bay Repair Café in Denbighshire and Refurbs Buckley Repair Café in Flintshire, both situated near to enfinium’s Parc Adfer facility in Deeside. The funding brings the total number of North Wales Repair Cafés supported by the Repair Café Support Fund this year to four, following earlier grants awarded to both Wrecsam Repair Café and Mold Daniel Owen Repair Café in April.
The grant funding will support and expand the services of the two Repair Cafés, enabling them to continue to repair faulty household items, diverting waste from landfill, and helping individuals keep cherished possessions for longer. Repairing items reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and cuts overall CO2 emissions. For example, maintaining a single television for an additional seven years rather than purchasing a new one saves up to 657kg of CO2 emissions.1
Beyond using the funding to pay for venue and volunteer expenses, the Colwyn Bay Repair Café intends to use the funding to deliver a series of training workshops to broaden its volunteers’ repair skills, including specialist textile repair. This upskilling will expand the Repair Cafés ability to tackle a wider variety of repairs, helping to meet the growing repair demands of the Colwyn Bay community. The Repair Café also intends to invest in a mobile tool storage system to help better organise equipment, helping reduce time spent searching for tools and making it easier to track which equipment needs replenishing.
The Refurbs Buckley Repair Café will use the funding to support the delivery of twelve repair and upcycling sessions. Rather than focussing exclusively on repair, the Repair Café teaches participants how to upcycle and repurpose faulty household items that cannot be repaired, providing yet another circular solution that keeps materials in use for longer and prevents waste from being sent to landfill. The Repair Café also seeks to use the funding for a volunteer recruitment drive, strengthening its capacity to deliver repairs.
Philip Curds, Head of ESG & Sustainability at enfinium, said: “A circular future depends on communities having the tools and knowledge needed to repair household items, keeping materials in use for longer and out of landfill. Repair Cafes do exactly that. enfinium is committed to managing unrecyclable waste in the most circular way possible, and so we’re delighted to support two more Repair Cafés within Wales’ impressive Repair Café network.”
Georgia Colman, Volunteer at Colwyn Bay Repair Café, said: “enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund has allowed us to strengthen our volunteer team, improve our repair set up and raise awareness across Colwyn Bay. This serves to help local people build confidence in making their own repairs and promote a strong and lasting ‘fix it first’ culture in the community.”
Emma Ellis, Head of Communications at Refurbs Buckley Repair Café, said: “This funding will make a real difference to the Repair Café. It allows us to run more repair and upcycling workshops and bring new volunteers on board. Most importantly, it helps us give local people the skills to save money, reduce waste and support one another.”
enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund will reopen on 1 January 2026 and run until 31 May 2026. Eligible Repair Cafés can apply for funding of up to £1,500 per annum before the deadline.
To learn more about the Repair Café Support Fund, or apply for funding, please visit the project website ‘Repair Café’ or email communityfunding@enfinium.co.uk.
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 five operational sites in the UK, in West Yorkshire, Kent and Flintshire, and one in construction. enfinium diverts 2.7 million tonnes of unrecyclable waste from climate-damaging landfill, putting it to good use by turning it into home grown energy, enough to power 600,000 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.
About the enfinium Repair Cafe Support Fund
To date, 29 Repair Cafés have received funding from enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund since it was launched in March 2024. The Fund was set up to support Repair Cafés within a 30-mile radius of one of enfinium’s facilities in Kent, West Yorkshire or the West Midlands, as well as those based anywhere in the regions of Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales.
