'Swap Shop' supports our campus community and promotes sustainability

At the end of the last academic year, our campus community donated nearly 100kg of items to the Sustainability team’s Swap Shop initiative. Now the shop will re-open, offering an affordable and sustainable way for new and returning students to gather the things they need (or want) for the start of term.  

The Swap Shop will be open for donations or collections from Friday 15 September to Friday 22 September in the Sustainability Café on Penryn Campus. It will then move to Fox Café on Falmouth Campus the following week, Monday 25 September to Friday 29 September.

If you are a student moving into new accommodation, this is a great opportunity to kit out your new home with anything you’re missing. 

We’re excited to open the Shop again and help new students make a sustainable start to the new chapter in their life by picking up lots of pre-loved items.

What is the Swap Shop? 

The Swap Shop is a new initiative aiming to help our community reduce waste and reuse resources. Coinciding with the peak moving-out period, the initiative was launched in May 2023 and was a great success. 

From smart speakers to saucepans, clothing to colouring books, just under 100kg of items were donated and over 240 pre-owned items were collected for free for reuse. The Sustainability team estimates that over half a tonne of carbon emissions was saved in the process with our community stopping resources from being wasted and reducing carbon emissions associated with processing waste or creating new items. 

The Swap Shop was delivered as a collaboration between the FX Plus Facilities team, ResLife and our Sustainability team. By getting involved with the Swap Shop, now and in the future, students and staff are embracing circular ways of living and cutting carbon – both key to a more sustainable future. 

Reflecting on the launch of the Swap Shop, Jake Causley, Sustainability Coordinator for Falmouth University, said: “One of the single-most impactful actions we can take to becoming more sustainable is choosing second-hand products over brand-new ones.

"Through actions like the Swap Shop we hope to make this easy and fun to do! We’re excited to open the Shop again and help new students make a sustainable start to the new chapter in their life by picking up lots of pre-loved items.”

Find out more about sustainability at Falmouth University