Pia Ververs, volunteer coordinator at Repair Café Herlev, has received Herlev Kommune’s annual volunteer prize, as Denmark’s network of free repair cafés grows to around 150 nationwide.
Broken sewing machines and lamps that no longer light up do not have to end up in the bin. That is the message from Ververs, who helps run Repair Café Herlev, as TV2 reports. She received Herlev Kommune’s volunteer prize earlier this month, and the mayor described her as something of a miracle worker.
The prize is awarded annually and is worth 10,000 kroner, according to Herlev Kommune, which presents it at the municipality’s volunteer summit. Per Herlev Avis, ten candidates were nominated this year.
What the volunteers in Herlev repair
Between 25 and 30 volunteers turn up when the Herlev café is open, TV2 reports. They include tradespeople, business professionals, pensioners and students, and they help with sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, computers, bikes and clothes.
Figures from Repair Café Danmark show the Herlev volunteers examined 1,858 defective items over the past 12 months. They repaired the item or identified the fault in just over 82 percent of cases. Nationally, the organization’s volunteers have contributed to an estimated saving of around 278 tons of CO2 so far this year, based on a climate calculator developed with Aalborg University.
The Herlev café is relatively new. According to Korskirken, it opened on October 7, 2023, using the church and the local scout house. The local site Heleherlev adds that the Red Cross and Repair Café Danmark started a pilot project at a Red Cross shop in Herlev, and that the café is looking at permanent premises.
Danish waste figures and the EU repair consultation
Denmark still produces large volumes of waste. Figures published in March 2026 by Eurostat show Denmark generated about 755 kilos of municipal waste per person in 2024, among the highest levels in the EU. Thomas Budde Christensen, a professor at Roskilde University who researches circular economy, told TV2 that waste statistics are difficult to compare across EU countries.
Danish data from Energistyrelsen show that in 2024 around 12,000 tons of textile waste and 64,000 tons of electronic waste were collected from households. Christensen said the repair cafés still make only a small difference to total resource use, but he sees them as the start of a countermovement. He pointed to EU work on making products easier to repair.
The European Commission launched a public consultation on easier product repairs on November 3, 2026. It runs until February 9, 2027, and is intended to prepare EU ecodesign requirements. TV2’s article does not link the consultation directly to the Herlev prize.
What free repair cafés mean for internationals in Denmark
Repair cafés work differently from a commercial repair shop. The help is free, and visitors are involved in the repair themselves, so they learn to fix things instead of buying new, TV2 reports. For newcomers watching their cost of living, that can cover items like bikes, clothes and small appliances that are expensive to replace in Denmark.
The cafés are run by local volunteers, often in churches, libraries or community houses, and in Herlev also with the Red Cross, per Heleherlev. No new Danish or EU rules take effect for consumers because of this story. The Commission’s repairability consultation is only at the input stage and closes on February 9, 2027.
