What happens to the trash that have accumulated in landfills? Nothing. That is, until recently. That’s because once people see that they’ve been disposed of, they immediately assume that these things are no longer good enough.
But remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. There must be tons of materials that can be reused, but no one had the inclination to dig these up. A German city decided to do just that – see what can be reused in landfills and resold.
It’s not often that you come across a municipal waste department and seeing the people here dedicate more time to thinking about saving things instead of throwing them away. In Hamburg, Germany, however, they have made it a point to put value in second-hand goods because there’s money to be made here. The market needs to be aware of what its potentials are. They’ve decided to capitalize on what people haul for city’s trash, fix them, and resell these back.
Stilbruch is known to be the “IKEA of used goods.” Every single day, collections from private individuals and from trash collectors on the way to landfills are collected, cleaned up, repaired, and resold. This is their way to support a more circular economy that’s found in their second-largest city.
A total of around 400,000 objects are placed and processed through two giant spacious warehouses each year. The items vary from well-worn teddy bears to refurbished laptops that still can be revived, and yes, even old kitchen counters.
The company was launched in 2001. This began as an initiative from the sanitation department. Of course, the whole effort started out small. In fact, Stilbruch only had one full-time employee for this, but as of now, they now have grown to 70 employees because people have recognized their value. They are now a large non-profit orientation that brings in a whopping €300,000 to €500,000 ($330,000 to $550,000) per year just in profit alone.
“These things are useful. They really aren’t rubbish,” said Roman Hottgenroth. He is the operations manager at Stilbruch. He talked to The Progress Network about their plans and added, “Used is the new sexy… We are trying to stop throwaway culture and wastefulness. There’s so much value in what we treat like trash.”
In order to pull of what they do, Stilbruch contracts technicians and craftsmen who make sure that all used furniture and goods is given a proper beautification. The electronics they revive can be sold and it comes with an impressive 1-year warranty as well.
The warehouse is actually a part of a wider EU movement. The whole goal is to try and cut back on all waste streams. They have honed in on used home furnishings and electronics. The priority in all their efforts is to restore their “right to repair,” to their consumers. And they operate under the knowledge that a total of 70 percent of them prefer to repair items rather than completely replace them with a brand new one.
Stilbruch has been heralded by EU and German legislatures. They have been labeled as think-tanks for pioneering models that could be done in many municipalities all over the world. Even smaller towns that don’t have enough people required to fill up a warehouse such as Stilbruch can organize flea-markets on a weekly basis. It may be in a smaller scale, but it’s still doable
They also have plans for the future. In fact, Hottgenroth is set to open another warehouse. They will even go as far as to furnish public buses with mini-libraries that all can benefit from.
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