City of Helsingborg saves millions on reuse – invests in innovation pilot Haffa

To reach the climate goals, the City of Helsingborg needs to recycle more. How we consume and use resources affects the earth’s climate. Reusing instead of throwing away and buying new is one way to reduce our climate impact.

The City of Helsingborg works in various ways to reuse and recycle gadgets instead of buying new ones. Examples include reusing office furniture at workplaces, building materials when the city builds, playground equipment, swings, benches, etc. The city has also converted the old gymnasium in one of its communities, Gantofta, into classrooms using recycled materials.

”We need to do something to reduce our waste. One way is to reuse, another way is to share products that are not used very often or have a short time limit,” says Anders Ekdahl Ohlsson, supervisor at the labour market administration in the city of Helsingborg and one of the people working on the project.

The Haffa innovation pilot is a new way to reuse

There is a room called Återbruket (translating roughly into ”The Reuse”) where employees can drop off and pick up office furniture so that, for example, a desk chair or shelf can be used at another workplace. To facilitate and make it even easier for city employees to reuse, the City of Helsingborg has developed the innovation pilot Haffa (translating roughly into ”Get hold of”). Employees can use Haffa via their mobile phones or by logging on to their computers.

”Haffa is part of achieving Helsingborg’s climate goals. Partly by recycling more and recycling more efficiently. This helps to ensure that goods go directly from customer to customer. The initiative is also about the sharing economy: through Haffa, we can borrow products from each other that might otherwise spend most of the time in storage or on shelves. By borrowing gadgets between organisations, we can save both the economy and the environment. Already today there are often car pools and bicycle pools at the administrative level. With Haffa, we may be able to achieve this throughout the city with more products,” says Anders Ekdahl Ohlsson.

What we gain from recycling

”It is currently impossible to say how much the innovation pilot Haffa will save financially, but with Återbruket’s activities, the City of Helsingborg saved over SEK 1.5 million in 2019 by the city being able to reuse furniture and gadgets that would otherwise have ended up in the landfill,” says Anders Ekdahl Ohlsson.

”When you buy a newly produced sofa, the climate impact is the same as if you bought six reused sofas instead. Similarly, you get seven beds or nine dining groups for the same climate impact if you choose to buy reused items instead of a new product. These are strong reasons to reuse instead,” says Emma Sjöberg, environmental coordinator at the school and leisure administration.

About the project

Haffa is an internal service for staff in the City and its group companies. The gadgets are to be used at the City of Helsingborg’s workplaces and may not be taken home.

Haffa is an innovation pilot and project within the City of Helsingborg. The project has been running for two years and is still developing. The project started as a collaboration between the school and leisure administration and the labour market administration. Then the property administration joined in as well. The aim is to get all the city’s administrations involved.

Further information

You can read more about Helsingborg’s climate goals at helsingborg.se.