09/21/2026
Now that’s what I’m talking about!!
In Eskilstuna, Sweden, there’s a shopping mall where you won’t find the usual rows of brand-new products.
It’s called ReTuna, and it opened in 2015 as the world’s first recycling mall.
Here’s how it works:
People bring unwanted items to a special reuse depot next to the mall.
Furniture. Clothes. Toys. Electronics. Decorations and other things that might otherwise be thrown away.
Staff sort through what can still be used and distribute those items to the mall’s different shops.
Then the transformation begins.
Some items are repaired.
Others are redesigned, upgraded, repurposed or combined with different materials.
The finished products are then put back on sale — giving things that might have become waste another chance to be useful.
The mall now has shops selling everything from clothing and furniture to books, electronics, sports equipment, plants, handmade products and refurbished goods.
It’s more than just a place to shop.
It’s an example of a circular economy: instead of constantly extracting new resources, making new products and throwing old ones away, the goal is to keep existing materials in use for as long as possible.
ReTuna has now been operating for more than a decade and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
The idea is surprisingly simple:
What if the things we call “waste” aren’t actually waste?
What if they are just materials waiting for someone to give them another purpose?
In Sweden, one mall has built an entire shopping experience around that idea.
Old doesn’t have to mean useless.
Sometimes, it just means unfinished.