Switzerland Promotes Neighbourhood Exchange Boxes

If someone were to set up a telephone booth sized box on your street filled with unwanted items, such as books, toys and small knick-knacks, and then topped it off with a “Free” sign, what would happen? If Switzerland is any indication, passers-by turned salvagers and recyclers would appear out of nowhere, sifting their way through other people unwanted discards, thinking up ways to put their newfound discoveries to good (re)use. Some would even add their own unwanted items to the box.

Neighbourhood exchange boxes have helped Geneva, Switzerland reuse 32 tons of goods thus far thanks to a program called Boites d’echange entre voisins, a box for exchange between neighbours. But can it work in other cities? Started in 2011, people leave items that they do not want, and take items that they do want. It’s that simple, or is it … The environmental benefits of increasing reuse are obvious, but from the project creator’s perspective, there is more to the Neighbourhood Exchange Box programme than just going green.

It’s also part urban art and part social experiment, providers of unusual opportunities to create social and cultural links between people in a neighbourhood.