Avoided emissions through reuse: The contribution of ReStore in Trondheim's circular economy transition

Bottom-up initiatives are as important as top-down measures for accelerating the circular economy transition in cities. To highlight this, the primary objective of this research is to estimate the avoided emissions through the direct reuse of household items facilitated by ReStore. The non-profit student volunteer organisation based in Trondheim, Norway used inventory data from 2019 to 2023 to conduct a life cycle assessment of its operations. The functional unit is the weight of items given away for reuse to ReStore's visitors within one semester. Additional emissions from the organisation's activities and replacement rates are accounted for in this study. The results indicate savings of approximately 100 tonnes of household items during this period, amounting to actual avoided emissions of about 415 tCO2e after subtracting the additional emissions of 0.7 tCO2e. This study shows the impact of student volunteer non-profits as change agents in a bottom-up approach to achieving a circular economy. • ReStore has saved 415 tCO2-eq emissions since 2019, mostly from furniture. • Repair and transport emissions were only 0.15 % of ReStore's potential savings. • High turnover of international students drives ReStore's circular economy role. • Collaboration with dorms and NGOs supports ReStore in waste reduction and reuse. • Countries can leverage citizen-led initiatives to close their circularity gap.