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's activity report 2022

Background

MTÜ Uuskasutuskeskus is the largest self-sustaining social enterprise in Estonia, established in 2004 with the aim of making reuse and recycling easily accessible and everyday. The main direction of the organization is to put usable items back into circulation. The organization accepts usable items for free from both individuals and business organizations, these are sorted and put back into circulation through

Uuskasutuskeskus stores and sold to consumers at a friendly price. The sales revenues cover operating costs and part of it is directed towards expansion, to make reuse and recycling more accessible to an even larger number of Estonians across Estonia. Also, those in need are supported through various cooperation partners and other organizations or initiatives with a large social impact, and various cooperation projects are carried out.

Economic activity

Despite a rather complicated situation in the economy due to the war in Ukraine and significant price increases, the year 2022 as a whole

turned out to be the most successful ever for Uuskasutuskeskus in terms of both turnover and profit.

Uuskasutuskeskus's turnover grew by 38% in 2022 compared to the previous year and reached 4.9 million euros. Uuskasutuskeskus was visited by about 2.0 million visitors in 2022 (growth 11%) and a total of nearly 811 thousand purchases were made in stores across Estonia (growth 24%). In 2022, in addition to the online store, there were 17 Uuskasutuskeskus in 9 different Estonian cities.

Through our stores and cooperation partners, we put back into circulation 1,215 tons of textiles, to which all other product categories that are not weighed were added. The latter included footwear, toys, books, dishes and other household goods as well as large-scale furniture.

In 2022, the number of salaried employees at Uuskasutuskeskus was 153 (growth 8%) and several permanent volunteers and ÜKTs were involved.

Major projects

In cooperation with the city of Tallinn, Uuskasutuskeskus opened its store on Punane Street in March exclusively for serving Ukrainian war refugees, so that they could take for free both clothes and other basic necessities. The store was open for 3 months and during this period approximately 10,000 war refugees were served and over 180,000 items were distributed to them. Our other stores, especially Paide and

Narva, also helped Ukrainian war refugees.

In April 2022, we opened a new store in Viljandi in the Mainor Center. At the end of December, we started renovating our Mustamäe store.

In February, we opened a recycling point at the Paljassaare waste station. In cooperation with Apollo, 5 collection boxes for collecting books, board games, art supplies, etc. were added to Apollo stores at the end of October. In addition to its own stores, Uuskasutuskeskus currently has 22 collection points.

Social projects

Uuskasutuskeskus supports people in need with things through various cooperation organizations and projects. Thus, we also continued in 2022

long-term cooperation with the Association of Large Families, whose members can take things for free from our stores at the end of the month, and with the Tallinn

Social Work Center, through which residents of homeless shelters and social homes received support in the form of necessary items. As in previous years, we also supported several Estonian theaters, festivals, filmmakers, designers, students and craftsmen non-financially in the form of items and loans. More information about our various cooperation projects and partners can be found on the Uuskasutuskeskus website.

Financially, we supported the Refugee Aid, Mondo and other organizations supporting Ukraine with 668 euros earned from the charity auction of the 2022 spring campaign. In December, we supported the organizations Cats Help MTÜ and Tallinn Women's Crisis Home with 500 euros, in addition to the same monetary value

children of Tallinn Children's Shelter with experience gifts.

Sustainability report

Due to the increasing importance of sustainability issues, we started compiling the first sustainability report of Uuskasutuskeskus in 2022. We will publish the report in the first half of 2023.

Awards

Uuskasutuskeskus was awarded several different recognitions in 2022. For example, our collection houses were awarded the title of „Environmental Act of the Year 2021“ by the Ministry of the Environment. In the category of social/responsible communication, our spring marketing campaign „Give a new round“ received a silver egg award. Our Red Street store, aimed at Ukrainian war refugees, made it to the top three finalists at the Baltic Sustainability Awards gala.

Plans for next year

In 2023, we will focus on renovating stores and look for opportunities to expand collection points. Through the expansion of our activities, we want to bring reuse and recycling to an even larger number of people in Estonia.

In 2023, we will carry out our supply chain CO2 calculations (scope 3) and set goals to reduce our organization's CO2 footprint.