The first shopping center in the world that sells only reused and recycled products, from clothing to appliances, bicycles, toys, shoes and computers, emerged in Sweden in 2015, is one of the successful models of circular economy that has occurred. to be known today during the first day of the waste forum
The shopping center that receives the name of ReTuna (the result of the fusion of the word ‘re’ (reuse) and ‘tuna’ (the second part of the name Eskilstuna, the city in which said center is located) receives about a thousand Last year it had a turnover of 23 million Swedish crowns, approximately 2 million euros.
The advisor for this project, Anna Bergström, explained today during her presence at the forum that the center was rehabilitated by the City Council and that it has around twenty shops that pay rent, as well as a conference center, a restaurant and an adult training center to learn how to repair objects.
In it you can find all kinds of products, everything you may need in your home, although its presentation has nothing to do with that of traditional markets, in which all kinds of objects are usually piled up and you have to search through them. mountains of products.
The appearance is identical to that of a shopping center, each family of objects has its store. Bergström affirms that among the clientele, there are people who are aware of the environment and also the public who are looking to buy cheaper.
The forum also announced a curious initiative that is carried out in some fifty towns in Navarra that started more than 35 years ago. The director of the waste area of ??the Commonwealth of the Pamplona Region, Carmen Lainez, explains that this initiative wants to influence reuse so that there is less waste.
With the collaboration of a social entity, Traperos de Emaús, which works with people at risk of social exclusion, they have managed to achieve close to 5% reuse of the amount of waste generated, which is equivalent to about 7,000 tons per year of recovered products. for a second life. The area of ??influence is around 400,000 inhabitants.
Basically, they collect bulky floor by floor (furniture, chairs, tables…) but also textile products and waste from electrical and electronic appliances, such as refrigerators, mixers or washing machines. Some products that, according to Lainez, have an expiration date, which is called planned obsolescence. “But many can be repaired and reused,” he says.
Ingrid Winter, head of the waste and resource management unit of the regional government of Styria (Austria), explained the model of ecoparks, closed and controlled waste collection facilities that allow citizens to deposit products they do not want in them. house and for which there are no specific containers. There are currently nine assets and two more will be built soon. Two others are already planned.
These are spaces that combine recycling and recovery to promote the circular economy, thus breaking the segregation that exists between the two. The project also includes alliances with training schools, for example, providing a service of electricians who go house to house to determine whether a product can be repaired or not.
The initiative also offers the option of loaning products that, on many occasions, are used sporadically, such as tableware. In the most rural area, they will soon launch a pilot project to promote the exchange of food from private gardens.
Also speaking in today’s session was Françoise Bonnet, general secretary of the Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (ACR), an organization of European cities and regions founded in Pamplona in 1994, following the directive. packaging and which marked the beginning of selective collection.
Bonnet was critical of the large number of resources used. “If we continue like this we will need three planets in 2050,” she warned and asked to limit their consumption, in order to “mitigate climate change.”
Bonnet was also concerned about the result of the next European elections, which will be held in June, as she says she now perceives greater concern on the part of the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about competitiveness and defense than about environment.
He also wanted to reassure farmers. “The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is not sustainable and must be reviewed, but it is absurd to think that the environment goes against farmers; the Green Deal measures are not bad for them. The use of pesticides is avoided and It promotes local agriculture, which is positive,” he said.
