Under a red-red-green government, the state of Berlin committed to the "Zero Waste" mission statement in its last coalition agreements (2016-2021). It is a central step towards transforming Berlin's waste management into a modern circular economy. A central approach to this is the reuse of used goods. In order to strengthen the structures in Berlin for the reuse of second-hand goods, the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection launched the "Re-Use Berlin" initiative in 2018. As in previous years, various measures were implemented in 2020 to bring the second-hand goods market out of its niche and give it broad penetrating power:

  • Organisation of Market collection days for second-hand goods in several Berlin districts
  • Implementation of Sales days for the previously collected second-hand goods in several Berlin second-hand shops.
  • Structure of a Pop-up stores for the sale of previously collected second-hand goods in a large Berlin department stores'.
  • Promotion of several Re-use events, carried out by the extended action group Re-Use Berlin and implementation of award-winning projects from the ideas competition of the previous year.
  • Implementation of a further Ideas competition To re-identify initiatives from the urban population to strengthen reuse.
  • Organisation of various Specialist dialogues with the extended action and interest group Re-Use Berlin
  • Cooperation with various textile companies for the Returns rescue - Actions and workshops to avoid waste from returns.
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