The hidden waste crisis on campus

A study from NHH shows that 78 per cent of young people find it difficult to live sustainably in practice – not because they do not care, but because it often requires more than good intentions.

This is exactly where ReMadrass and Grin come in. Both projects are based on a simple idea: make it easier to choose sustainable options, and people will do so.

Every year, hundreds of students replace their mattresses when moving in and out of student housing in Oslo. Historically, the solution has been simple but not very sustainable: throw the old one away and buy a new one.

ReMadrass, in collaboration with Studentsamskipnaden i Oslo (SiO) and with support from The Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund, is now testing something new: a pilot in which students at Kringsjå student village can hand in old mattresses free of charge instead of throwing them away.

The mattresses are transported to Remadrass’s factory in Jevnaker, where they first go through a specially built “mattress sauna” – developed with support from The Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund.

The heat treatment kills potential bed bugs and other pests. The mattresses are then disinfected, fitted with a new cover if necessary, and quality-checked before being sent back to the student accommodation – ready for a new student.

Mattresses that, upon inspection, prove to be too damaged or worn out to be reused are dismantled and sent on for material recycling

• This is a question ReMadrass is often asked. Hug draws a comparison with the hotel industry:

  “Think about when you sleep in a four-star hotel. On average, more than 300 people have slept in the same bed before you – and you see it as luxury, because the hotels look after the mattresses. And what about a mattress from student accommodation? It may have been used by just one or two students. We can, of course, make it at least as clean as a hotel mattress.”

• • Each mattress that is reused saves approximately 75 kg CO2 and 6 kilos of plastic.
  • The goal of the summer pilot is to save 400–500 mattresses – equivalent to more than 8 tonnes of waste.
  • If the pilot is successful, the plan is to scale up together with SiO. According to Hug, this could save more than 36 tonnes of residual waste.

Jennifer Lamson, Head of Sustainability at SIO, believes the impact of projects like this potentially extends far beyond the mattresses themselves. If students carry these attitudes and habits with them into their future jobs and everyday lives, it means there will be a large number of ambassadors for more sustainable measures, she says.

“We have worked to reduce waste for many years, and thanks to support from The Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund, we have been able to achieve a great deal and reach our goals much more quickly.”

While ReMadrass addresses what happens when students move, the company Grin focuses on something that happens every day: the use of single-use packaging in SiO's canteens.

Before the project started, SiO used between 500,000 and 600,000 single-use containers a year for food and drink on campuses in Oslo.

“We are facing a new reality in the retail industry. There is self-service, and many checkout points to avoid queues,” explains Lars Martin Berglund, CEO of Grin.

The first solution Grin and SiO tested was what Lene Kvale, Head of Sales and Marketing at SiO Food and Drink, calls a “library model”: you borrowed a container, tapped your card, and money was deducted if you did not return it.

“It created friction,” says Berglund.

“You had to direct those using reuse to separate checkouts because we did not have enough collection points to cover everyone. The most important thing when moving from single-use to reuse is that it must be simple and friction-free for the end user.”

The solution was a simple deposit return scheme.

“Now you pay a deposit when you borrow the box, and get it back when you return it,” says Berglund.

• • Before the project, SiO was at 500,000–600,000 Single-use packaging in total per year.
• • After testing the solution in 6 canteens, the use of disposable packaging fell by 24%
• • With full reuse, Berglund estimates that SiO can eliminate 14.1 tonnes of waste, and between 12 and 18 tonnes of CO2, per year.

Even with the rollout across all food outlets, Grin and SiO are not content to stop there.

“We are very keen to include everything – coffee cups and other types of cups too,” says Berglund.

“What we are doing here at SiO now is designed to be scaled up further, both across the rest of Norwegian society and out into Europe. It is a model that is simple, cost-effective, and can be set up almost anywhere.”

Kvale confirms that the ambition is to make the solution available to more people than just SiO’s own students:

“My hope is that the solution we are now piloting can be used by other places to eat in Norway. That would give users flexibility, so that you can pay a deposit on a container at Blindern and return it in central Oslo.”

The response from the students themselves has been positive: “The feedback has been very positive along the way, and they have responded well to the solution,” says Kvale.

“We would probably not have had this project today without The Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund. The funding has laid the foundation for us to now carry out Norway’s largest reuse pilot for takeaway packaging.”

ReMadrass and Grin solve two very different problems – one is about what happens when students move out, the other about what happens every time they buy lunch. But the common denominator is the same: the old solution was not good enough, and someone built a new one.