Into Norwegian culture: Byttebod- Red giveboxes for people to donate and exchange used stuff

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In Norway, the activities of exchanging used items are not new, but in the past, they were mostly spontaneous. Starting in March this year, people in Oslo regularly see Give boxes appearing at the campus of the University of Oslo as well as in most of the central districts in Oslo.

These booths are called byttebod (literaly means Exchange Booth) in Norwegian. This meaningful activity was initiated by the Sustainability Lab, the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Oslo and the Informatics Library. These red give boxes or exchange booths are located in public places so that people who have old, good things that are no longer in use can donate here for those who need them.

Anyone who finds the item they need can take it, even if they have nothing in exchange. Initially, the donations were mainly books, but gradually there were more and more items such as dishes, electrical appliances, bicycles, trees, clothes and many other household items. Norwegians have shown their enthusiastic responses to this cause.

Norwegians seem outwardly cold and introverted. It is also difficult to make friends with them when you first get to know them, but when you become close to them, you will find that they are very kind, enthusiastic, simple and especially have a great common sense, especially when it comes to nature and environment protection. In Oslo you will see every day after work, around 4.30pm onwards, a lot of Norwegians often go jogging along the beach, lakeside and climbing mountains, forests. However, very rarely you see a single piece of garbage appearing on the road or in the forest whether on the paths or in the wilderness because in addition to not leaving their own garbage, they also collect the garbage of others that they see on the road. They have such a great common sense of protecting nature and environment, so that they donate their stuff at these exchange booths not only comes from their good hearts, but also shows that they want to increase the life cycle for used items, reduce new productions and limit household waste into the environment.

I think this model, if applied in Vietnam, will be useful for many people because Vietnamese people consume a lot of fast fashion every year and the growing “virtual life” trends make women wear clothes only once to take pictures and then the “I -have-nothing-to-wear” phenomenon often happens. That’s not to mention a lot of old textbooks, utensils, books and newspapers pile up every year. What do you think if you start this cause right in your residential areas?

In the next episodes of the “Into Norwegian Culture” series, I will talk more about Norwegian typical personality traits and lifestyle and a hot topic: “dating in Norway”. Those who are interested can follow to watch more of this series.