The recycling Mall named ReTuna Recycling Galleria is located 75 miles west of Stockholm, in the town of Eskilstuna, Sweden. The mall opened in August of 2015. Unlike the mall in general, ReTuna Recycling Galleria brings the concept of an environmentally friendly mall. It can be said that ReTuna Recycling Galleria is the first mall to sell only used, recycled and reconditioned goods.
ReTuna Recycling Galleria is not only the first recycling mall in Sweden but also in the world. The purpose of the establishment of this mall is to be able to better utilize the goods that already exist. The mall is built on cooperation between municipalities, non-profit organizations, and local businesses.
ReTuna Recycling Galleria is a one-stop-shop for sustainable products, providing more than dozens of different stores offering different types of needs, from used household appliances to refurbished computers and electronics-including restaurants, sporting goods stores, learning centers, conference center, and exhibition hall.
Some stores are available in ReTuna Recycling Galleria even facilitated with “do-it-yourself” showroom. There, customers who come can learn about how to repair broken home appliances. When visitors tired and hungry, they can stop at the cafes available on ReTuna. The cafes also offer food made from organic and sustainable.
To further complement the needs of visitors who come to ReTuna Recycling Galleria mall is also working with providing eco-friendly shops and beauty salons. They are also looking for designers who love the environment.
In addition, this mall is also open to business ideas that can contribute to the economy of local communities. ReTuna Management requires the business people to pay attention to ReCon’s ethos: “Sustainability is not just about maintaining and reducing, but getting more of the existing resources”.
At ReTuna, mall visitors can experience more than just sustainable shopping. Visitors can also bring items such as unused furniture or clothing to the “drive-thru” recycling depot in ReTuna.
This depot is run by a local company engaged in the social sector to receive goods brought visitors, then local workers will sort and decide which items can be distributed to stores within the mall.
Not only that, ReTuna also offers its visitors to enroll in the Design-Recycle-Reuse program for one year. Visitors can also make study visits that learn about the workings of the mall. This visit is held once a week at a cost of $ 136 US dollars.
The ReTuna Mall is just one of several attempts by Swedish society to introduce the culture of reuse as an antidote to discard culture. The government there has even begun to apply legislation that gives tax relief to citizens, for example for repairs.
The law cuts half the cost of VAT (Value Added Tax) on bicycle, clothing and footwear repairs and makes labor costs to fix equipment partially deducted by taxes.
The ReTuna mall not only can save the environment, but also create new jobs. It is evident that ReTuna Recycling Galleria has created 50 new jobs that benefit the local economy.
Though it is not easy to survive in this new business model to make a profit, so far ReTuna has generated more than imagined. In fact, ReTuna is visited by about 600-700 customers every day for seven days a week.
Initially it was not easy to apply this “unusual” mall, but finally, 67,000 residents of Eskilstuna began to open up with the idea of buying recycled goods.
This makes ReTuna increasingly eager to achieve a new, larger goal of making the city a global destination that exemplifies how sustainable life and circular economic practice actually exists.
The procurement of eco-friendly malls like ReTuna is an excellent effort to promote environmental care movement. Not only beneficial for the environment, but also for the people around. ReTuna is the first, but hopefully not the last one.
Hopefully, there will be Recycling malls like ReTuna Recycling Galleria can be developed in our own surroundings`.
