Worth Fixing: Building a Community-Based Repair Ecosystem in Bali

Two decades of relatively stable economic growth in Indonesia have contributed to rising ownership of goods such as electronics and textiles. The IPSOS–CLASP Survey (2023) reveals that household ownership of electronics in Indonesia stands at 93% for televisions, 89% for refrigerators, and 78% for mobile phones. But this growth comes at a price. National waste volumes have grown 11% per year since 2021, from 28.6 million tonnes to 43.5 million tonnes in 2023 (SIPSN). On top of that, waste management in Indonesia remains far from optimal: around 11 million tonnes of waste (36%) goes unmanaged every year, ending up in rivers, ravines, and roadsides (BRIN, 2024). Urban areas across Indonesia are now grappling with waste. Bali, in particular, has become one of the most severely affected. TPA Suwung, which absorbs the majority of the island’s solid waste, received roughly 4.5 times its design capacity in just the 2022–2024 period (SIPSN; Bali Post, 2025).

What if much of that waste could actually have been prevented from reaching the landfill in the first place?

Kopernik’s latest Unmet Needs Research report, Worth Fixing: Towards a Restorative Economy for Consumer Goods, argues that the answer to Bali’s waste problem is not solely about top-down waste management policy but also through initiatives that strengthen a community-based culture of repair.

Indonesia has published its National Circular Economy Roadmap and Action Plan 2025–2045, which adopts the 9R framework as its foundation. One of the 9R clusters is “Restore,” comprising Repair, Refurbish, and Remanufacture. Compared to other clusters such as Recycling, restoration produces a significantly smaller carbon footprint. In the context of electronics, for instance, restoring a broken device generates roughly 3–12% of the CO₂ emissions of buying new, far lower than recycling, which still produces 85–95%. In short, repair wins on environmental impact.

A 2021 YouGov survey found that 63% of Indonesians say they prefer repair over buying new, placing Indonesia fourth highest among 17 countries surveyed. Yet national statistics tell a different story: only 4% of broken items are actually repaired, and just 0.07% of broken electronics ever reach a formal repair service.

To understand this paradox, Kopernik conducted field research with 223 households and 22 repair practitioners across Gerokgak and Ubud districts. The survey findings are more encouraging than the national average suggests: 44% of the 1,093 broken items reported were repaired, either through self-repair or by bringing them to a workshop. However, Kopernik’s survey also found that 32% of broken items were replaced with new ones, and 24% were simply left idle. These findings point to a significant untapped opportunity, where items that could have been repaired instead end up as waste.

Kopernik’s survey identifies five key barriers suppressing the pace of repair in communities, two on the demand side and three on the supply side. On the demand side, households often assume that broken items can no longer be fixed. Meanwhile, the second demand-side barrier is the assumption that buying new is cheaper, even though Kopernik’s own cost analysis shows the opposite trend. On the supply side, there is a human resource barrier, as few technicians are capable of handling complex repairs. The second supply-side barrier is that the majority of repair practitioners interviewed treat repair as a secondary rather than primary income, owing to the precarious nature of repair demand. Meanwhile, difficulty sourcing spare parts constitutes the third supply-side barrier. Limited access to parts means that broken items that could otherwise be fixed are turned away by repair practitioners.

Bengkel Bumi: A Local Initiative to Drive Bali’s Repair Ecosystem

Bengkel Bumi is Kopernik’s initiative to bridge this gap through a community-based repair ecosystem. The model delivers four interconnected interventions: shifting consumer awareness and behaviour, building repair skills, pricing mechanisms that make repair financially viable, and a shared spare parts and tool library. Crucially, these workshops are designed to be locally owned and operated, growing a circular economy ecosystem that is genuinely embedded in the community.

Launch Webinar

Kopernik invites you to discuss these findings further with the Bengkel Bumi research team at a webinar titled Worth Fixing: Building a Community-Based Repair Ecosystem in Bali, to be held on Wednesday, 24 June 2026 from 13.00–15.00 WIB / 14.00–16.00 WITA. Register now and be part of the conversation driving a more sustainable circular economy.