Green Tips: Fix it Instead

For years I wanted a blender that you simply turn on and off, like the kind I remembered having as a child. I was tired of the plastic, LED readout variety with so many different blending options. All those options seemed to do the same thing, and the blenders broke often.

I finally found a good, solid old-fashioned Waring Blender. I work my blender hard with chock-filled smoothies every morning, homemade soups and other liquefied food items, and even my Waring blender had a part wear out. I didn’t want to buy a new one because basically it still worked.  I wanted to replace the part that broke.

When I was growing up, small appliance repair shops were common. In this era of planned obsolescence with cheap, made in China everything, appliance repair shops and handymen have all but disappeared. One of the best things about the Internet however, is that you can find replacement parts on line. And that’s what I did. I searched Waring blenders, found my replacement part and ordered it.  My blender works as good as new, and I saved an almost perfectly good appliance from the landfill. I saved some money too.

In this throw away era of ours, we must think about reusing, repurposing and fixing what we already have instead of always buying new and throwing out the old. Of course the time does come when things are worn out and have to be thrown away. It’s important to recycle them if you can, but before you do, think first.  Can I fix this? Can I use it for something else?    Who knows – maybe we’ll bring back the fix-it shops of long ago with a 21st century approach and create some new jobs.  Now if they could just make a television that simply turns on and off!

For more green tips, visit greenwithbetsy.com.