Green Routes | Berlin
Learning about sustainable trends in European cities and promoting sustainable solutions in urban areas
NochMall – Everything beside new!
ADDRESS: Auguste-Viktoria-Allee 99, 13403 Berlin
Berlin City Cleaning Company (Berliner Stadtreinigung -BSR) has opened in September 2020 a shopping center NochMall (OnceAgain) in the north of Berlin with used goods. We are used to secondhand shops that are dark, too full and smell not nice. This place is different. The assortment of the NochMall currently comprises around 15,000 articles in ten product groups like e.g. furniture, clothing, electrical appliances, household goods, toys, books and much more on 2,500 square meters. NochMall is a 100 percent subsidiary of BSR and employs almost 20 people. The NochMall business model is not profit-oriented. It is only intended to cover the costs of running the department shop. Many things do not have to be thrown away carelessly but can be used again and again. Well-preserved objects are sold, which are given a second life in this way. Under the motto “Re-Use instead of throwing away” the BSR thus makes an important contribution to a “Zero-Waste-City” The second-hand goods offered there are currently collected at the recycling yards Hegauer Weg and Lengeder Straße or are handed in by citizens directly at the NochMall. Beside selling goods, the NochMall wants to have a role of a circular center in Berlin with the space for different courses and training, coffee shop and a sitting place between books where each customer can sit, read and take a rest.
NochMall gives things a second life that contributes to resource protection and waste avoidance. It expands the range of offers in a sustainable way and it should become places where a new consumer behavior is tried out and creatively developed. This re-use initiative and the model of a low-waste city become very concrete and an environmentally friendly shopping experience. It supports sustainable effects in daily life. It became a place where people can experience sustainability. Apart from browsing and discovering good used goods, they are also going to hold repair cafés and upcycling workshops. This is a place for discussion events on reuse and pop-up stores for sustainable products. It should be not just a new second-hand department shop, but an innovative platform for re-use and sustainability.
