Opened in 2015, ReTuna Återbruksgalleria is a shopping center dedicated entirely to repaired and up-cycled goods. It distinguishes itself from what you might call an upscale yard sale by bringing together other vital mall elements.
As outlined on the Make Wealth History blog, the staff at the recycling depot intercept and sort incoming goods as they are dropped off, putting aside those that can be repaired or refurbished. These items are then passed on to workshops to be renovated and sold in specialist outlets for everything from furniture and building materials to computers and clothes.
And people have reason to feel good about their purchases because they are contributing to the circular economy, an alternative industrial model that encourages us to do more with less as the world’s resources become increasingly scarce.
There are 14 shops, a restaurant, an exhibition area, conference facilities and even a training college for studying recycling.
The report, co-created by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, claims that circularity could be a “tangible driver of industrial innovations and value creation” in tomorrow’s economy, and that circular business models will gain a competitive edge in the years to come because they “create more value from each unit of resource than the traditional linear take-make-dispose model”.
Source: World Economic Forum
