Winning from waste

STAFFANSTORP Where others see junk, Christian Jansson and Patrik Zalewski see money. By providing waste with new areas of usage, they have succeeded in converting an environmental problem into a genuine catalyst for growth.

It all began with the idea of capitalising on all the faulty products that insurance companies receive from their customers. But Christian Jansson and Patrik Zalewski soon became aware that the insurance companies were, as a rule, paying out compensation without demanding that the products be sent in to them.

Armed with this insight, they launched Godsinlösen – a company that, two years later, would result in them being awarded Staffanstorp’s Entrepreneurs of the Year for 2015.
“It was relatively straightforward because, at heart, it is such an incredibly simple idea”, says Christian Jansson.

Today, Godsinlösen works together with all of Sweden’s insurance companies. Each day, they receive a huge number of products that have been returned by insurance customers, including around 150 mobile phones. The telephones are tested and, as far as is possible, repaired, and, instead of money, the customer receives a repaired mobile phone of an equivalent standard.

The idea behind Godsinlösen is to make as many items as possible suitable to be used again. In this way, they help to make the most use of those products already in existence while, at the same time, they both save money for the insurance companies and reduce unnecessary production.

“We see the value in what other companies regard as waste, and we then find customers who are willing to pay for it. A product that is seen as worthless by one person may be much sought-after by someone else”, says Christian Jansson.
In Returhuset, which is a large store by the head office in Staffanstorp, they sell fully-functioning products which would otherwise just have been thrown away.

The basic premise is that as many products as possible shall have a service life that is as long as possible, and in situations where it would not be profitable to resell the products, there is instead an attempt to create new areas of usage for them.

At the moment, the duo are working with the challenge of earning money from all the old TV sets that are now coming in.
“They are bulky and expensive to transport, and the only thing that is really of any value inside them is the motherboard. But we are trying to find a way of making that economical too”, says Patrik Zalewski.

Christian Jansson points to the outdated telephones from the 1990s as an example of a product that often lies around the home in forgotten drawers and cupboards but that is actually relatively simple to convert into a device that detects the sound of chainsaws – something that has proved to be invaluable in the fight to curb illegal deforestation.

This is an example of the kind of form the ideas can take. The company currently has around 40 employees, and turnover continues to increase.
“There is a huge market. Providing the link that turns waste into a resource has proved to be extremely profitable”, explains Christian Jansson.