Swap Shop helps new students to get their stuff together
The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Bayreuth collects household items from students who are going to leave Bayreuth soon. Afterwards, new students can benefit from the donations.
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The Swap Shop is not totally new in Bayreuth. But a small group of students revive it now. The first donnation event already took place, the second follows Sunday, 27th February. „All of us come from a sustainability background and most of us were international students that had moved from abroad and needed to buy basic household items when moving to Bayreuth which is not only expensive but unsustainable,“ explains Hannah Pepe. She is part of the organisation team from ESN. „One of the group moved into student halls and found the shared kitchen overflowing with pans and other items that past students had left behind when finishing their studies in Bayreuth. So we thought it would be a good idea to create a swap-shop type system that allows leaving students to find a new home for household items they can’t take with them whilst at the same time providing incoming students with items that they need when arriving.“
After some initial research the dedicated students found that there was already an existing idea run by ESN, but that hardly anybody seemed to know about it, and so they decided to partner with them to try and raise awareness of the scheme.
The idea behind the Swap Shop is easy: You bring your stuff, others can collect it. „There’s no money involved at all,“ stresses Hannah Pepe. „The idea is just for people to have somewhere to bring their old stuff that they can’t take with them when they leave, rather than just throwing it all away.“
The drop off events are organized at the end of each semester, when most people leave. To make sure as many people as possible are able to donate stuff, and that it’s not so limited to just a few days, there will also be an option to bring it in to the Welcome Services at the International Office on other days as well, in case people can’t make it on the official drop-of days.
The events are run by the ESN and so members of the ESN just take shifts to help out at the stall of the pop-up events and usually this is just a handful of students as the events are a few hours long. And the most important task is getting the word out so that people know the swap shop exists. „Therefore, sharing the event with people is a huge help,“ Hannah Pepe says. „Of course as donations are super important we hope that many people will be involved in donating and exchanging household items for the swap shop.“