The Alice Soderwall Reuse & Waste Prevention Award honors individuals or nonprofit organizations that have gone beyond the norm to reuse materials and prevent waste and has made a significant impact on the community as a result. This year's award was presented to Repair PDX at the 2015 AOR Sustainable Oregon Conference on June 5 in Bend, Oregon.

Repair PDX organizes repair café events. These events are free and they bring volunteers who like to fix things together with people who have broken items that need fixing. These events are held in community spaces such as schools, tool libraries, cafes, community centers, and bike shops. Repair PDX formed in 2013 and, using the Netherland’s Repair Café model as a starting point, held their first free repair café event on May 31, 2013. Since then Repair PDX has held 21 repair events in the Portland Metro area.

The organization’s goal is to change the mindset that replacement is the only option and to make repair the first option to address broken items. Repairing items extends the useful life of goods and keeps them out of the waste stream. It encourages the public to change their consumption behaviors by providing positive experiences with repair.

Not all items are repairable. But the fact that an attendee made the effort to bring an item in, and a volunteer fixer made an effort to try to repair it, results in a positive experience that encourages the attendee to consider repair for other items. Attendees can also learn how to do their own repairs and often participate in the repair process, learning new skills and gaining confidence in troubleshooting problems to repair their belongings.
Repair PDX is grassroots and entirely volunteer run. It relies on volunteers to organize events, be the “fixers” and provide the behind the scenes support to keep things running smoothly. To-date, Repair PDX has held 21 repair events, attempting to fix 948 items and successfully repairing 656 of them!