Why Repair Cafes are becoming more popular amid the anti-consumerism movement

On a drizzly Saturday morning late last month, the basement of the New Paltz United Methodist Church filled with old lamps, blunt knives, malfunctioning sound mixers and balky zippers. About a dozen volunteers welcomed the broken goods and their owners to a worldwide movement that’s evangelizing new relationships between people and their things. Repair Cafes — free events where volunteers with technical know-how help neighbors fix myriad household items — are part of a new brand of an...