In ReTuna Återbruksgalleria everything you can buy has been recycled. Take for example this lamp, shaped a bit like a pine cone – round at the bottom and elongated at the top – with brown fronds that give it a look halfway between ethnic and Seventies kitsch that came from old leather jackets, cleaned and cut into pieces. The bottle being used as the base of the lamp is recycled too, and so is the vase sitting next to it on the shelves. And the other things nearby: the skates in the sports shop, the bedside tables in the furniture store, the toys in the window over there, behind the entrance with a big tree surrounded by a bench made from reclaimed materials. And the clothes in an area that leaves you in no doubt as to their origin: second hand. The mall’s name also describes its manifesto. The “Tuna” in it comes from Eskilstuna, the town of 65 thousand people where it is located, about an hour’s train ride west of Stockholm, Sweden, while the “Re” part needs no explanation: it’s the maker’s mark here for absolutely everything.
Perched between the lakes of the county of Södermanland and dating back to Viking times, Eskilstuna was until now only “famous” for two things: being the birthplace of a slightly obscure centre-forward, Kennet Anderson, who played for Bari and Bologna in the Nineties; and for being the childhood home of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the brunette from Abba, who was not even born here but lived in Eskilstuna with her grandmother until she was 13. But now Eskilstuna is attracting attention from newspapers all round the world, thanks to this mall with the red and green façade, which until four years ago was the depot for a haulage firm.