A repair pilot nudges students to fix, not bin, their mobiles

A repair workshop in a London student hall is showing that a screwdriver and a smartphone can do more than fix a cracked screen. The hands-on project-built skills boosted confidence and got students thinking differently about waste and what they buy.

SUEZ has partnered with Unite Students and social enterprise Team Repair to trial a phone-repair session for residents at one of Unite Students’ properties. Unite Students is the UK’s largest provider of purpose-built student accommodation, with around 64,000 residents living in 143 properties across 22 cities.

With such a large and diverse community, including many international students, Unite Students faces a familiar problem: getting residents to understand and engage with waste, recycling and consumer habits in a consistent way. The company has struggled to engage students with these topics, and this also has an impact on the quality and quantity of the waste that comes from these sites.

Rather than relying on posters or traditional talks, SUEZ and Unite Students wanted to try something more hands-on, in collaboration with Team Repair, which has developed a 12-week programme using repair kits to teach children about repair and circular economy in schools. Team Repair had been looking to create a shorter repair session for adults, and the partners saw an opportunity to test this with student residents.

A focus on phones

The workshop began with SUEZ introducing participants to its Sort It Out campaign that taught them the importance of knowing and understanding the value of the waste hierarchy. The workshop itself focused on mobile phones, which the project describes as “one of the most commonly owned and frequently replaced devices among adults”. The idea was to use an object that everyone recognises and relies on, and to show that repair is possible before replacement becomes the default.

In a single in-person session, participants learned how to:

• Use specialist repair tools safely
• Disassemble a mobile phone and identify its main internal components
• Complete simple repairs with the help of a purpose-built kit and guided online tutorials

The workshop was designed to “reduce dependency on replacements and highlight the value of repair in extending a product’s lifespan”. Throughout the session, students were asked to give feedback on their confidence before and after taking part, so Team Repair could use the results to shape a new adult-focused toolkit.

What the pilot achieved

Thirteen people took part in the workshop, a mix of students and Unite Students staff aged between 19 and 52. For most, this was something entirely new, with 77% saying that it was the first time they had tried to repair a mobile phone.

Despite the small scale, the outcomes were very positive and achieved the following results:

• 85% of participants reported increased confidence fixing a simple hardware fault
• 46% said they felt more confident opening up a mobile phone
• 54% felt more confident identifying internal components
• 31% felt more confident following a technical repair guide

Participants also responded positively to the experience itself. On the average, they gave the workshop:

• 8.9 out of 10 for “would you recommend to a friend?”
• 8.4 out of 10 for “would want to do more modules in a programme”

Their comments help bring these numbers to life. One resident said: “It was a very practical, hands-on experience, the kit and the guide were very useful. The event gave me confidence and made me feel smart repairing by myself.”

Another participant, a member of staff, called it an “amazing lesson and great team building event”, while a student described the experience as “really fun” and said they would like to “do more stuff in the future”.

Clearly, the figures and the feedback suggest that even a short, one-off workshop can build confidence and interest in repair among people who have never tried it before.

Shaping attitudes to waste and consumption

The project also set out to see whether learning a repair skill might influence how participants think about the environment and their own behaviour.

After the workshop, 69% of participants said they would be more likely to recycle. The average score for “will think more carefully about what they buy” was 4.3 out of 5, while ratings for “caring about the environment” and “importance of recycling” rose from 3.9 to 4.1 out of 5 and 4.1 to 4.4 out of 5, respectively.

All participants said they recycle in their flat and find it easy, with 85% saying they knew where to donate or sell unwanted items.

For Unite Students, it’s very important that everyone is made aware that these sustainable choices feel practical rather than abstract.

“We are always looking for fresh, innovative ways to embed sustainability into everyday life, making responsible choices easier, more practical and more meaningful for our residents and colleagues,” said James Tiernan, Unite Students Head of Sustainability.

He added that this partnership with SUEZ on this trial project has “given us an amazing opportunity to empower young people with real, hands-on skills while building their confidence to fix their own electronics rather than replace them” and that by choosing repair over replacement, “we’re not only helping our residents save money, but creating lasting sustainable habits”.

For SUEZ Key Account Manager William Rushgrove, this partnership and support for this pilot project is another proof of SUEZ’s continued commitment to support and help customers and communities take practical steps towards waste reduction, re-use and a more circular economy. “It’s been fantastic to be able to bring together our customer Unite Students and Team Repair to collaborate on this project,” he added.

SUEZ has worked with Team Repair for more than three years, mainly in primary schools. This pilot gave them a way to extend that relationship to an adult audience, test a new format and gather data on what works.

While this pilot was rooted in student housing, its lessons reach further. It shows how a simple, hands-on idea, backed by clear data, can nudge people towards repair, re-use and more thoughtful consumption. These and the practical skills that people can take away from this are the types of projects that truly change lives.