Mapping the second hand stores in Malmö

LEARN, APPLY AND COMMUNICATE (LAC) PROJECT EMP BATCH 19

ARMANDO HURTADO SANDOVAL

Wednesday, June 12th 2013

The Objective of the Map and the blog

My task was to locate in a map all the second hand stores and containers in Malmö, as well as collect information about each organization that sell/re-use clothes and other donated items.

The map with the help of the blog is intended to promote the secondhand stores in Malmö, to make the information available and easily accessible in order for people to have the chance to decide where to leave their items.

There were already maps showing different second hand stores, but I wanted to put all the stores together in the same map and make the difference of making this map more practical and informative.

Facts

According to a studies in 2011 by The Swedish Environmental Research Institute and The Swedish Environment Protection Agency or Naturvårdsverket in Swedish.

In Sweden, we consume 15kg of textiles per capita and year, which amounts to a total of about 130 000 tonnes annually in Sweden. Of this roughly 8kg are incinerated and 3kg are reused by charity organisations. The remaining 4kg either accumulates (e.g. in a closet or wardrobe).

The production of virgin textiles give rise to about 15 kg of carbon dioxide per kg textile and uses large amount of water; energy and chemicals and poses a risk both for the environment and human health.

According to Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA 2011) there has been a 40 % increase in textiles consumption between the years 2000 and 2009.

Policies and measures to reduce the consumption of virgin textile are needed.

8 of these charity organizations (Myrorna..) in 2008 they collected around 26,000 tons of textiles which included clothes, shoes, bags and belts.

In 2008 of these 26,000 tons 73% were reuse exported to other countries, 11% were sold in Sweden and the rest 16% (8kg) were incinerated.

Blog and Map in Malmö

Today a lot of clothes, shoes and household items that are no longer used are thrown away even though they are still in good condition. At the same time there are those who don’t have enough clothes to keep warm or with little opportunities to buy new clothes.

I believe it is necessary to start to re-use more and think more in our life style and consumption patterns.

The blog and the map can be an encouragement for people to think about their spending habits and the life cycle of our purchased items

Potential challenges of the project

Help people to reduce the ecological footprint in the municipality of Malmö.

Motivate people to slow down our way of consumption and re-use more, supporting more sustainable lifestyles.

Know more about the system of the second hand stores in town.

Second Hand Stores in Malmö

Certification “90 Konto” and other non profit-organizations

The Salvation Army and Barnmissionen support the second hand stores with their social projects to deliver the help to those vulnerable groups.

The Swedish Fundraising Control is a association which grants 90 accounts to organizations that conduct public fundraising if these meet a strict set of demands, performs annual checks of all organizations with 90 accounts and make sure that the fundraising activity keeps a high standard

Collection of data

This matching table helped me to organize and collect all the information of each store and containers in Malmö for the LAC project.

Communication Process

Contact by e-mail the Environment Department in Malmö, from which I didn’t receive any answer.

Contact Anna Åberg and Tora Åberg who are the owners of the store ReFurn in Malmö, which gave me an interview of their experience of their store.

I also went to many second hand stores in Malmö and told them about my project and to see if they were interesting to participate to communicate with this map, also their work and their locations.

Facebook and Twitter was the only communication media I have used to spread my blog and the map.

Expected achievements

I hope that this blog can be used continuously by more people

That people find the map useful and have more visit where they can learn more about sustainability issues.

I want to keep posting more information or news related with environment-friendly life happening in the world, which helps me to learn more and communicate to others.

I think the blog can be useful and a source of inspiration for people in other countries. They can see the way Swedish people are interested in leading toward environmental-friendly life.

Interview with ReFurn Store

The interview with Anna and Tora Åberg was by phone and e-mail.

The ReFurn franchise.

Interest in doing something for the society and the environment by spreading the word of different ways of consuming and living.

It takes a lot of time to organizing, logistics and administration of the business has been hard, the store will close after summer.

The best way to communicate the importance of re-using is doing it in a fun and commercial way, which is more effective than the regular way that is playing on peoples bad conscious.

Malmö is different from Stockholm in several ways, when it comes to running this kind of business.

Inspirational ideas

A new trend of commercial stores such as H&M and Jack & Jones is to collect used clothes for re-use. In that way they can help to reduce the impact of the fashion industry by limiting the amount of waste ending up in landfills.

My experience with this project

It is necessary to have a plan and follow the time line in order to reach the goal and objective.

Sometimes it is necessary to change the scope of the project, because lack of time or information.

The communication process should be more effective and try to knock on all the possible doors in order to have more options.

I believe that creating this map with second hand stores and stations will help other people to find their nearest spot to leave their items. As well to make people conscious of the way they are consuming clothes and items.

As a foreign inhabitant in Sweden I believe that this social entrepreneurs as combiners of resources to pursue opportunities and to catalyze social changes will influence other societies, as could be in other emerging countries such as in Mexico in order to address the social and the environment issues.

Bibliography

The report “Improved waste management of textiles” by David Palm and the Organization IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd (April 2011). Sponsored by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

http://www.ivl.se/download/18.7df4c4e812d2da6a416800080103/B1976.pdf

“You can visit my Blog” http://malmo2ndhand.blogspot.se/

Thanks for your attention!