Eco-tip: Give the gift of repair for holidays

During the season of holiday gift giving, you might not expect a retailer to suggest “buy less, repair more,” and to provide on its website “lots of useful repair tricks that’ll make your grandma proud.”

Unless the retailer is Patagonia.

Since ownership of the company transferred to a trust, a collective and a nonprofit, all dedicated to environmental goals, former owner Yvon Chouinard has said: “Earth is now our only shareholder.”

Some tips and instructional videos are closely matched to Patagonia gear, such as ironing a waterproof jacket, repairing a baffle on a down jacket, fixing a loop of loose stitching on a Nano Puff jacket and closing a hole in waders. Others are universal, such as replacing a button on denim, ironing or sewing on a patch and darning a hole in a knitted garment.

To see these videos, search for the Patagonia Care and Repair website, powered by iFixit.

If you do not have the time, skills, or inclination to do repairs yourself, you may achieve the same goal environmentally by giving a gift leading to repair. Coblrshop.com is an online-based repair service for shoes and handbags. Mail in your gift recipients’ items or give a Coblrshop gift card. The company also does sneaker cleaning.

A very different type of fix-it job is represented by products made by MossPure, which aims to “repair the air.” The company sells indoor air filters based on the use of live moss, which, according to founder and CEO Jamie Mitri, capture not only carbon dioxide, as all plants do, but also dust, allergens and “toxic pollutants.” Created during a startup competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and featured on Oprah Winfrey’s “Oprah Daily,” the company builds air filters into wall art and tabletop décor.

For two of the eight nights of Hanukkah, I plan to give my wife repairs as gifts. First, I will take her favorite piece of luggage to a repair shop to have a zipper track replaced. To find a repair shop near you, search for both “shoe repair” and “luggage repair.” Most shops doing one of those types of repair also do the other, but stores often carry only one of those terms in their name.

Second, I will fix her windshield, which has a small crack in the corner. Having performed this fix once before, earlier this year, after a pebble flung by the wheel of a speeding truck put a tiny hole in my windshield, I know how to do it again. Repair kits are available at auto parts stores. Last time, I bought a Permatex windshield repair kit for $18.99 at AutoZone.

Doing the job outdoors while wearing dishwashing gloves, I was able to protect my lungs and skin from resin and adhesive chemicals meriting warning statements on the product packaging.

Exposure to chemicals is also an avoidable danger with another type of repair. Refinishing wood furniture for a loved one is a great gift, but chemicals used to remove old shellac, lacquer or varnish can be dangerous, as can be vapors created by re-staining the wood. If you are sensitive to these pollutants, taking wood furniture to a repair shop may be better than attempting the job yourself. While a homeowner must rely on ventilation provided by leaving doors and windows open, professional refinishing shops typically work under industrial air circulation units, which suck out and filter fumes before discharging them out of the building.

Steve Berry, owner of Wood Reviver in Simi Valley, explained another advantage of leaving repair work to the professionals. “All these do-it-yourselfers end up coming to me after they mess it up at home,” he said. “Homeowners are not even allowed to use the good stuff anymore,” he added, while his air filters allow him to use wood refinishing chemicals “that actually work.”

Extending the life of old items is a gift that reduces waste and honors the recipient's previous choices of what to buy and use.

David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Eco-tip: Give the gift of repair this holiday season