Sirkular gjenbruk and Power collaborate in making the newly opened “RePower” store – which collects, repairs /refurbishes and sells used electronics. All the items sold in the store have been collected and sold for reuse.

A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population. In Norway, consumers enjoy staying up to date with recent technological developments, resulting in a high replacement rate of products – making Norway one of the worlds biggest producers of e-waste per capita. Although recycling rates of e-waste is high in Norway, the “stock / hoarding” culture in Norway is also high.This means that Norwegians have a tendency to buy new electronic devices, and keep their old ones in stock at home (possible due to large stocking space at home combined with affordability to upgrade to new devices)– making it an environmental problem of the future. Although % of E-waste that is recycled is high in Norway, a major barrier to achieving a circular economy is ensuring slowing the resource loop through reuse of product. Yet, there is a low reuse culture within electronics in Norway. Barriers to changing this behaviour include a lack of knowledge on how to best cycle unwanted products, how to responsibly dispose of electronics and a lack of trust in value estimates (quality of product, sanitary concerns) to enable cycling.

The RePower shop contains mobile phones, tablets, computers, TVs and appliances (washing machines etc). Items are collected mainly via two channels: a customer “deposit” system (customer gains points that they can shop with by turning in old/used products from their home) and through buying items from from suppliers who sell overhauled products, as well as trough working closely with the recycling company Norsirk which gives Power access to the volume that is delivered to the municipal waste stations. The deposit system is however crucial, as it establishes a direct line between customer and store.

In the basement of the store, the appliances that come in are roughly sorted and washed, before they are tested and repaired by Sirkular Gjenbruk AS in the appliance workshop right outside the main entrance to the warehouse. Sirkular Gjenbruk have given new life to discarded appliances by repairing and selling them since 2018 – and they received most of the items from Power. In connection with the establishment of RePower, Sirkular Gjenbruk hence moved into Power at Alnabru.

From October (launch of deposit system) to December 2021 Power received 7,500 used products from their customers in just under two months. Out of these 3,500 were repaired, while 4,000 were directly scrapped and delivered to the recycle company Norsirk. This is an almost 50% rate of saved products – which is very high!

The next RePower will open in at Rud in Bærum in the first quarter of 2022, followed by one store in Finland and one in Denmark.

Hopefully the RePower store can be a stepping stone in battling the negative mentality around reuse of electronics in Norway.