Oltreché - give away the furniture you don’t need!
In the last few decades, the furniture market has changed dramatically, replacing good quality items with more accessible fast furniture. This transformation and the huge growth of moving people has caused a severe excess of furniture . It is hard to resell these unused items, so people are forced to throw them away, despite their good condition.
Oltreché connects the objects’ owners to donate, to people who cannot afford new furniture.
Local
Italy
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Lara Ida Last name: Gasparro Gender: Female Age: 28 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Italy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via San Galdino 5 Town: Milan Postal code: 20154 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+393932552334 E-mail:lara@oltreche.com
Oltreché comes from a real issue a lot of people are forced to face: how to get rid of items that no longer meet the needs or tastes of when they were purchased.
Nowadays, living in the same apartment for a lifetime is something that no longer corresponds to the most common lifestyle. According to a survey of more than 5,000 respondents conducted in Italy in 2021, Italians move on average 2.5 times during their lifetime. Twenty-five percent change more than four homes and nearly 13 percent move even six times or more.
Fast furniture is an asset for people who change homes often, and have to adapt to different spaces that in this way can be refurbished with new fashionable and low-priced objects.
However, this growing trend turns out to be damaging, as the high number of items that people have to get rid of is hard to be relocated, forcing the former to end up in landfills interrupting their potential life cycle.
The proposed online platform is designed to innovate and digitalize the clearance service aiming to donate all furniture to everyone in need.
Also, people obtain a real-time estimate of the proposed service, even discovering the environmental and social impact of the choice about to be made.
Every item is uploaded to the online platform, waiting to be “adopted” for free and shipped to their new owners, on the date set for clearance.
The objects, such as old electronics or furniture in bad condition, will be destined to specific companies which recycle them when possible or, in extreme cases, dispose of them.
In conclusion, Oltreché manages a network of contacts to minimize landfill use.
eco-sustainability
positive social impact
affordability
digitization
second-hand furniture
Fast furniture has become an integral part of peoples’ lives as it responds to an ever-increasing demand for more affordable furniture.
It exploits resources, such as precious metals and minerals, not aiming for product longevity. For example, Ikea uses nearly 1 percent of the world's harvested wood to produce its items. Furnishings produced by this supply chain last a short time due to the low quality of their material and, even so, they still end up in landfills before the end of their life cycle.
In America, people are beginning to talk about disposable furniture. According to the 2021 statistics of the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away more than 12 million tons of furniture every year.
This creates mountains of solid waste that have grown "450% since 1960".
It is a trend that is set to grow by leaps and bounds : just the e-commerce furniture market "was worth more than $27 billion in 2021, now projected to reach more than $40 billion by 2030" (Next Move Strategy Consulting report).
It is evident this trend brings a substantial environmental impact. Although new items created from recycling materials is theoretically a sustainable practice, the consumption of fossil fuels from transportation and the energy consumption of recycling the material make this operation impactful to the environment.
Oltreché's proposal drastically reduces both the amount of discarded and recycled furniture. The objective is to relocate furniture that doesn’t require restoration. Otherwise, they will be recycled or, at worst, put into landfill, depending on their condition.
The platform will be designed to allow everyone to use it intuitively. More simply, it is a digitalization of the common clearing service. Currently in Italy, this kind of activity cannot be managed remotely, but requires a direct contact with the moving company by telephone or e-mail. The idea is to create a platform in which it is possible to obtain an estimate in real time of the process’ quote and positive impact on society and the environment. After that, each donor can book a date of inspection and of final pick up.
From that moment, Oltreché will take care of every phase of the process, and the customer won’t need to worry about anything. Oltreché is an intermediary looking for people in need of the furniture items and handling the shipment to them directly.
Moreover, the platform will care about the experience of those looking for free furniture. Since it is our responsibility to upload the items on the platform, each user will be sure to be free of any scam. In addition, our concern is to manage the transport of items in order to help people who do not have a proper car or who cannot disassemble the furniture by themselves. They will have to pay just a small fee for the shipping and wait for their new item directly from their home.
In this way, both givers and takers, through simple actions, can benefit from a comfortable service that also fully respects the planet.
The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) indicates that absolute poverty is rising sharply. Today, it affects more than 2 million households (7,7%, in 2019 6,4%) and more than 5.6 million of individuals (9,4%, in 2019 7,7%). Almost two people out of five experienced economic hardships. As a result, the propensity to save rose from 8,1% to 15,8%.
Oltreché aims to make basic needs such as owning a decent kitchen, sleeping on a comfortable bed, or owning a closet in which to hang clothes accessible to everyone no matter the social standing, origin or gender. How do we do it? By charging the commission to the person who owns the furniture, not the one who receives it. This is our idea of affordability.
Quite often money is not the only obstacle to make a service accessible and affordable. Italy is the 2nd oldest country in the world and, today, just 36% of Italians are capable of using the Internet in a complex and diverse way. On top of that, our goal is to design a platform that must be friendly, intuitive, and easy to use by the less tech-savvy people. Besides, a consistent part of the Italian population, especially among the elderly, does not have access to the Internet or do not own a smartphone. Therefore, it is our priority to create a network of local non-profit associations that may act as intermediaries between Oltreché and everyone in need. This is our vision of inclusion, accessibility, and affordability.
This project is people centred, since it would not work without givers and takers. Oltreché is not designed to think in a linear way, it is not recognizable as a straight line connecting the point A to B. It is best reflected in a circular system that starts with the people (A) and ends with the people (A). The great importance we place on humans being strongly influenced us in conceiving this idea. The circle mentioned earlier is not broken by any industrial or technological process, but it is rather a technology that creates opportunities. A simple and understandable process is the key to shape an idea that is tailored to people’s needs. The service is designed to be user-friendly so it is accessible and usable by everyone.
Our concept favours both donors and receivers by matching two complementary needs. The giver has the opportunity to make a gesture that has great social impact and high environmental relevance. The receiver has the opportunity to have furniture he cannot afford or change old items.
In addition, the object will be delivered to the receiver house, in order to protect the giver from accidental damage and help the taker who doesn't have a big car or is not able to disassemble big items. We aim to make this accessible to everyone.
Today, Oltrechè is a private service that does not rely on any public, local nor regional stakeholders. We took this decision to streamline the growing and spreading process of the service, which needs to be as efficient and fast as possible. This approach does not invalidate the possibility for involvement of public stakeholders at any level, especially locally and regionally in the future. Oltreché is a model that can be used on any scale, from a local one to a global one.
Currently, no profit associations are involved in order to deeply connect Oltreché with the people in need to own some furniture. Also, the associations help the process for those needy people who do not have internet access or even a smartphone.
In conclusion, Oltreché, through a growing network, can be flexible and adaptable to any required scale.
Oltreché was born from an idea of two architects who had to deal with a necessity to free up an entire building. It started as a simple event where people could come to take any goods they wanted and now it aims to become a structured system. Thanks to several professional figures, Oltreché is improving more and more.
Through figures such as social workers and municipal councillors, we understood the difficulties that some families and people face every day and which possibilities these people have or haven’t. The dialogue with these personalities allowed us to understand the needs of a large part of our platform's users in order to transform it to accommodate certain issues. A market survey carried out by economists painted a picture of the existing situation in Italy and beyond, to understand costs to cut and areas to invest in. Furthermore, we conducted a thorough exchange with figures from the economic and administrative spheres, outlining possible developments, leading to continuous changes and refinements.
A study by a socio-environmental organization also helped to bring to light scientific data on the positive impact of re-use. This will contribute to the creation of a chart to calculate the positive impact that our service can generate.
In addition, thanks to the participation of designers, it will be possible to develop an accessible site to people of all ages and backgrounds.
Finally, even the people themselves have contributed to the concept of the platform by replying to the several surveys we still continue to hand out.
All these figures have been and will be key to the development of Oltreché.
Oltreché introduces several differences when compared to similar companies.
At first glance, its features can be attributed to clearance services or e-commerce of second-hand furniture. Comparing the approaches it is noticeable the different aspects that make Oltreché unique.
Standard clearing services in Italy are still not digitilized and require telephone or e-mail contact to be aware of how it works, the timing, and the costs. This makes the process longer and more cumbersome. Moreover, only a few companies provide a donation option, which is discouraged by the increase in service costs. There are also companies with very low costs as they make a profit through re-selling. This system implies a large workforce involved in dismantling, transporting, and reassembling the item and above all a warehouse where the articles are stocked.
Both types of businesses have to bear high costs related to landfill fees.
Oltreché doesn’t need a warehouse since the items to donate stay in the original owner's space until the clearance day.
The former represents the deadline in which each article ceases its permanence on the platform, leading to possible recycling or, in extreme cases, brought to the landfill.
On the other hand, comparing Oltreché with e-commerce of second-hand furniture, it is noticeable they differ in pricing and reliability.
Oltreché gives in fact items for free (except for the shipping cost) and has just reliable ads. Each ad is managed by Oltreché and so in this way scams are avoided. Lastly, thanks to the direct shipping to the new owner's house, it is possible to reduce the long negotiation time to collect the item.
Oltreché is a replicable and scalable service, which has no geographic or people boundaries. It is a digital technology that is based on user behaviour without having any dependence on the physical place where it is applied. Our service is designed to be accessible and understandable by everyone no matter their nationality, culture, or language. We believe that is a key element considering the times we live in where multiculturalism, heterogeneity, and globalisation are very much present. The adaptability and elasticity of the service make it accessible in any city or country. Oltreché is meant to be for and to people so it would rather work at its full potential in contexts where there is a substantial human presence.
Moreover, Oltreché's strength is that it has no limit on social status, wealth, age, or anything else regarding who can access the service. Everyone can access the service either receiving the furniture or giving it away. This feature makes Oltreché's scope of operation extremely diverse and broad.
The challenge beyond Oltreché is to make second-hand furniture perceived as an asset and not a burden. This view is widely shared in the Northern European Countries and it is now expanding like wildfire in Central and Southern European Countries too. We do believe that our concept is perfectly aligned with the trend of the Circular Economy that is spreading in Europe and around the world.
The problem related to waste is increasingly growing. Oltreché aims to reduce the items that end up in landfills in favour of donations to anyone in need. We are confident that this platform can represent a new step to improve people's lives, without affecting the lives of those who have already chosen to get rid of objects they no longer use. The service aims to be competitive in terms of price, timing, and logistics, in order to be the best choice for every stakeholder involved.
Finally, even if Oltreché will be used just in one city, each item removed from the landfill will represent a global environmental and social win.
