Wednesday November 12th 2025
Edinburgh Remakery, Leith
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
An award-winning social enterprise in Edinburgh is taking a lead in the battle against digital poverty.
Winning the Queens Award for enterprise in 2022, the Edinburgh Remakery is dedicated to put an end to waste by providing people and communities with the skills and opportunities to live more susainably. Through their donations of digital devices to their community classes teaching the public how to maintain their own tech, the Leith-based charity maintains the ethos of cultivating a culture of repair and reuse.
With around 800,000 people in Scotland facing digital poverty, it can cause social isolation and disconnect from the outside world. The Edinburgh Remakery’s mission is to tackle this poverty that isn’t hugely talked about by providing discounted tech and classes in both tech and textile repair, alongside community classes that encourage socialising.
Based in the Newkirkgate Shopping Centre in Leith, what differs the remakery from other charities is their initiative to not only donate tech but teach people how to maintain devices themselves, following their strong ethos of a positive circular economy.
CEO of Edinburgh Remakery, Elaine Brown, explained:
“We are all about a circular economy, primarily repairing and reuse, so keeping things in use for longer, learning those repair skills and getting people engaged in all aspects of repair. We’re also a charity whose mission is to tackle digital poverty and to help people feel included through the power of repair.
“The chances are if you’re in food poverty, energy poverty, any type of poverty, you’ll also be in digital poverty and we tackle that trhgrough refurbishing tech and gifting that laptop or device to people who are facing that digital poverty and that gives them the gift of connectivity. Repair is absolutely crucial if we’re going to meet our net zero targets.”
Originally starting from a small group in Leith with the interest of repairing tech, in 2016 they became the Edinburgh Remakery and since then they have been on a journey to spread their ethos of an environmentally friendly circular economy, with their hard work and dedication paying off in 2022 when they were awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
Elaine explained:
“The award really shows the credibility of being a business for good is good for business, so sound business sense, embedding a circular economy approach into your business is absolutely crucial. It’s the way to go and it makes good business sense and we were delighted and honoured to have that and it’s really the icing on the cake for everything we do.
“Every day I look at my staff and know that we’re creating green jobs, jobs that are going to be required for the circular economy. Everywhere I look in what we do, even from our sewing machine rental to our techniciuan boxes, everywhere I look I see good and see impact.”
Alongside their donations and classes, the Edinburgh Remakery also sells refurbished tech at a discounted cost. Allowing people with a smaller budget to be digitally connected, the remakery is completely transparent in their sales, making sure every defect and wear is highlighted before being put on sale.
Reporter Liam Eunson visited the Edinburgh Remakery to see the important work is for Edinburgh. Watch his experience below.
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