Author: Beatriz Martínez and Hamid Yammine
How can a municipality encourage a circular economy while promoting sustainable practices and being more accesible?
Pop-up Återbruk is a temporary reciclying service provided by Stockholm Vatten och Avfall. From April to November, two metal sheet containers move around all neighbourhoods of Stockholm offering two main services: the collection of small objects to recycle and a second hand shop where citizens can buy things collected on the same containers.
Every single Swede produces about half a tonne of rubbish annually. The city of Stockholm highlights the importance of reducing this volume and to make sure that the waste generated is disposed properly. One of the seven goals in the City of Stockholm’s environment programme 2020-2023 is "A resource-smart Stockholm". This goal includes three interim goals:
- Reduced resource utilisation and smarter consumption
- Increased recirculation of material resources within the City
- Increased resource efficiency in connection with the construction process.
The idea of Pop-up Återbruk comes from the project "Innovation procurement for recycling centre of the future" from 2016 and 2017. Incubated to function in the Stockholm Royal Seaport Neighbourhood, its main objective was to develop a concept of how to make it easier for citizens to reuse items, as well as to create a space for people to meet. Two ideas were selected of all proposed: The first one was Cirkulera (Circulate), a permanent station in the neighbourhood where all people could recycle their materials without the necessity of taking a car, as well as serving as a social meeting place for the neighbourhood. The second one, was Pop-up Återbruk.
The initiatite was carried out by Stockholm Vatten och Avfall, Sweden's largest water and waste company, which provides drinking water and treats wastewater in the City of Stockholm and Huddinge Municipality, and is responsible for waste management in the City of Stockholm. Besides, the funding on the early stages of formulation came from Vinnova. Vinnova is Sweden's innovation agency whose mission is to strengthen Sweden's innovative capacity and contribute to sustainable growth.
Right now, Pop-up Återbruk operates in nearly 30 neighbourhoods around all Stockholm
An innovative approach
Each weekend from April to November, two pink metal sheet containers are placed in a different neighbourhood from Stockholm. They locate in areas only accesible by walking or by bicycle. Locals can bring small objects of all kind to either recycle them or to give them a second life. To know when Pop-up Återbruk is going to be in each neighbourhood, Stockholm Vatten och Avfall offers a SMS service to notify its citizens of its location.
To recycle, they accept many kinds of small items, such as nail polish, expired and not expired cleaning products, painting cans, or batteries. To reuse, some of the objects which are accepted are sports equipment, clothes, shoes and small households appliances that still work. To carry more bulkier items allowed, they provide a bicycle lending system. The qualified personell will determine the value of the objects brought. Once the have determined the value, items will be distributed in those which go to donation and those which go to the reuse container.
When the collection has been made, the higher value items would be distributed into two social organizations: StadsMissionen and Myrorna. For lesser value objects, those who visited the containers are allowed to take up to 7 items per person per day.
In 2023, Pop-up Återbruk had a total of 84,000 visitors at the 24 different locations around Stockholm, received 95,000 items and 43 tons of waste were recycled.
Main positive lessons
- The establishment of spaces related to recycling and circular economy more accesible to all kinds of people.
- Promote healthy lifestyles by placing them on specific areas only reachable by foot or by bike.
Main barriers found
- The hardship of determine what items can be recycled, as well as calculating the value of those chosen to donations, and those to be displayed.
- Limited capacity of storage / not accepting bulkier objects
Potential for reaplication and scale-up
Similiar initiatives are taking place inside and outside Sweden: In the Municipality of Uppsala, Sweden, they have openned their first pop-up store to reuse furniture and household appliances.
In Antwerp, Belgium, they are also contributing to circular economy with similiar initiatives, such as The "Recycling point: the traveling mini recycling park" a mobile service for small objetcs and the "Pop-up Recycling Parks" for bigger but still managable objects.