The mission: Help students settle in affordably while keeping usable goods in circulation
Freshers Week at Falmouth/Exeter Universities’ Penryn Campus brings a sudden demand for household essentials, leisure items and the everyday things students need to make new accommodation feel like home. For many, that can mean buying many items in a short space of time. Falmouth Exeter Plus, who manage the campus, and SUEZ wanted to offer a practical alternative by making good-quality pre-owned items available when students were most likely to need them.
The aim was to help students access useful products at lower cost, while reducing demand for new goods and preventing reusable items from entering the waste stream.
The initiative also offered a timely way to introduce students to re-use and waste prevention at the start of university life, when many everyday habits and purchasing choices are still being formed.
Our solution: Take re-use directly to students during one of the busiest weeks of the academic year
Kernow Reuse, which has successfully reused and diverted more than 37,000 items from the waste stream overall, brought a curated range of pre-owned goods to an accessible event space close to the student halls.
Items up for sale included kitchenware and household essentials, as well as bikes, televisions, games, consoles and accessories. The range reflected the kinds of items students were likely to need for accommodation, transport and leisure.
SUEZ staff and volunteers supported the event from preparation through to pack-down. This included gathering and preparing stock, testing electrical items, setting up the space and helping to operate the shop throughout the week.
The team also spoke with students about the practical and environmental benefits of choosing pre-owned products and giving useful items a second life. By placing the pop-up close to student accommodation and within Freshers Week itself, the initiative was easy to access and became part of the wider arrival experience for the students rather than a separate sustainable activity.
The results: Strong uptake across a wide range of pre-loved items
More than 900 items, or an equivalent to 1.8 tonnes of goods, were taken home by students during Freshers Week. This included 25 bicycles and 102 electrical items alongside a wider range of household and leisure products.
The pop-up also gave students access to lower-cost alternatives to buying new and created opportunities for conversations about re-use and sustainable living throughout the week.
Delivery was supported by 11 SUEZ staff and volunteers who covered preparation, set-up, operation and pack-down, keeping the pop-up running smoothly throughout the week.
The pioneering event provides a practical example of how re-use can be built into the student experience, combining waste prevention, affordability and engagement in a format that could be adapted for future Freshers Week or end-of-year move-out activity.
The Freshers Week re-use pop-up shop was a great success, generating strong engagement from students and demonstrating the demand for affordable, pre-loved items. The event provided a practical way to encourage re-use and more sustainable choices while helping the students access affordable items at the start of the academic year. The positive response highlighted the value of bringing re-use initiatives directly to the student community.Becky Parry, Renew Manager, Cornwall