Swapping is the New Shopping

‘Don’t shop, swap!‘ was the idea behind the initiative which encouraged people to swap their goods rather than throw them away, re-use old products instead of buying new ones and by doing that help decrease CO2 emissions from the production of new items.

The Climate Advocate team, together with the green consumer site Grønn Hverdag and children’s environmental organisation Miljøagentene encouraged people to reuse old goods in an effort to eliminate CO2 emissions from the production of new items. The project was launched in November 2009 on the international Buy-Nothing Day. It was followed up with an event for last minute Christmas shoppers. During these events the Climate Advocates found that children were by far the most enthusiastic about swapping and decided to organise swapping events for children at school. By August 2010 over 700 school children had taken part. The Climate Advocates participated at the Oslo Environment Festival in June 2010 to inform the wider public about the concept of swapping. They also handed out copies of their booklet which aims to teach children more about the environmental benefits of swapping and how to organise swapping events with friends. They handed out over 250 booklets to children and their teachers before they marched down the main street of Oslo to open the festival. The next day the swappers organised a swapping market and encouraged people to swap things that they had with them for a number of other items they had spread out on a table.