In 1999, two companies, a group of long-term unemployed and abfallvermeider (waste-avoiders?) founded a network. Today it includes 43 companies in the Vienna area, who repair everything from leather gloves to dishwashers. Wienerzeitung reports that each year a total of 73,000 items are repaired for more than 4,400 customers, saving 11,000 tonnes of materials from going to landfill.

"We must move away from the monopolistic repair services of manufacturing companies who declare every appliance over five years old to be unrepairable." Stresses Sepp Eisenriegler, founder of the Repair and Service Centre, a project for long-term unemployed. Today the centre is a highly specialised operation, whose group of skilled workers is greatly sought after on the job market.

"We employ old professionals from various different trades, who were made redundant due to rationalisation and cut-backs, and use them to train young people," explains Eisenriegler. The popularity of the Repair and Service Centre means that his workforce is currently inundated with work: the waiting time for the repair of a video recorder is up to six months, though Eisenriegler assures that after they have been repaired they are guaranteed to function once more. Furthermore, the high number of obsolete appliances coming into the centre means that there is a constant supply of replacement parts that are no longer produced.

The Repair and Service Centre is part of the ‘‘Waste Avoidance in Vienna‘‘ initiative. Sabine Seidl, spokesperson for the initiative believes that it is necessary to convince consumers that they can live better and more cheaply if they have good repaired. Furthermore, manufacturers must be persuaded that a three-year life for electrical appliances is too short. The 43 members of the network must fulfil strict criteria

Because larger electrical appliances such as washing machines are largely non-portable, the MA48 has organised a transport service, which costs 10 Euros per journey (15 Euros if two men are required to move an item) to collect, repair and return an item. According to Peter Frybert from the MA48, this helps to save 400 tonnes of waste and around 11,000 tonnes of appliances that would otherwise put a huge strain on the recycling system.

Vienna‘‘s policy for repairing and reusing electrical goods could have an impact on a European scale: the city‘‘s positive experience will influence the EU‘‘s WEEE directive, which comes into force in August of next year, as well as the 2008 recycling quotas. According to Norbert Weiß, co-founder of the network, "The industry claimed that a repair quota of 3-5% would only be possible, though we argued that 10% was realistic." He is calling for tax relief for repair businesses with high employment costs, and more pressure on manufacturers, in the form of a cachet for repair-friendly products.

The extent to which customers value the repair system in Vienna is evident in the statistics: "Our hotline service alone has directed 4,405 customers to companies in the network, and our website receives 71,000 hits every month" says Sepp Eisenriegler