Did you know that the average person throws away 28 kg of clothing annually? Or that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily? Or even the fact that the average family spends more than €1,500 on clothes annually? In an era marked by overconsumption and an overflow of waste generation, there is a growing urgency to adopt sustainable practices, promote a circulating economy, and simply try to reuse.

Hi, I’m Juan Atucha, an ASB student currently in 11th grade  who is looking to make the world a better place. Last year, as a continuation of a project that was created by my sister and a friend of hers, I started selling t-shirts and donating all the profits made to a foundation called “Amigos de Rimkieta”, which aims to provide the best possible living conditions in Rimkieta, a neighborhood in the capital of Burkina Faso. After donating €3,500, I wanted to do something even more impactful: I asked María, one of the founders of the FAR (Fundación Amigos de Rimkieta) if I could take on the responsibility of financing an entire project. That is when I was presented with the “Proyecto de formación de niñas huérfanas sin escolarizar”, a project that tries to guarantee the education and vocational training of 156 uneducated orphans girls from Rimkieta. This project required €30,000 in funding. So, I got to work and started looking for different finance sources. That is when I ran into the online reselling platform “Vinted”. So, I started posting every single unused item I found at home. It didn’t matter if I would make €5 or €50 off of it, an item was an item, and that is what mattered. In a span of three months, I managed to earn €4,500, all of which has been allocated to the financing of the “Proyecto de formación de niñas huérfanas sin escolarizar” along with an additional €1,500 earned from other sources. I fell in love with the platform, what it had allowed me to do, and its missions and objectives. However, I did seem to think that there was an empty space in this market for a platform aimed at closed communities which gives more security and trust to certain associations to the “reselling world”. This inspired me to want to make a platform of this style, one that aims towards giving a second use to everything that is lying around at home, untouched, but that could still be used by others.

ReUsing is a mobile app that allows a specific collective to exchange products like books, clothes, shoes, and more, with the end goal of reducing the negative impact on the environment associated with the production of said products. It is compatible with iOS and Android, and offers an easy-to-use platform to the users. The app is entirely free for its users and any institution it is offered to. ReUsing fosters sustainability as well as a circular economy. Its objective is to find a second home for unused clothes and other objects, preventing their disposal and giving an easy exit for the families that don’t know what to do with them.

Now, you might be asking yourself: well, how does this even work? Well, users will be able to post their articles, along with some pictures and detailed descriptions, facilitating the sale or donation, in the case of posting an item for free. The app has an integrated chat feature that allows users to communicate directly with each other, ensuring a trustworthy transaction. The app will also have the option to activate notifications, in order to keep the users up to date with their messages and with other novelties that occur on the platform. As the app will be used within a community, it does not count with a payment feature, nor, therefore, with the transportation and packaging of the sold product. The payments/transactions of the products will need to be done externally, either with “Bizum”, cash, or just a transaction.

ReUsing is a platform directed towards parents and children that belong to one same community (schools, sports teams, music conservatories, amongst others). ReUsing promotes the commodity and security in the exchange of products, allowing these to happen directly within a community and with known people, minimizing the risks associated with transactions between strangers. The app represents a valuable solution for communities as a whole. It allows educational institutions to promote reusing and recycling of materials, aligning with the principles of sustainability and social responsibility (ESG – Environmental, social, and corporate governance). The app also strengthens the bonds and sense of belonging within the collective by facilitating a secure and trustworthy transaction space between community members. It offers families an affordable alternative to acquiring clothes and materials, promoting inclusion and accessibility.

Our values and objectives:

• Promoting circular economy: Facilitating the exchange of items among different people extends a products’ useful lifetime. 
• Raising awareness about sustainable consumerism: Educating users about the importance of sustainable consumerism.
• Reducing waste: Products won’t end up in landfills. 
• Extending the lifespan of items: It reduces the need for producing new materials and decreases the demand for natural resources and energy associated with manufacturing new materials. 

Our sustainable actions have a large impact in the long run.

Thank you.