I’m Adam, an Australian who’s pretty new in Sweden.
Being the new guy in town is a great chance to see a new society as an outsider.
It’s a really fun place to be and I really do love it here. It’s certainly weird. But all countries are weird in their own way. It’s what makes the world interesting.
Right! Among the empty rhetoric, virtue signalling, and lazy consensus that environmental issues seem to generate, some really interesting things are happening.
Something else that’s interesting here is an indoor farming initiatives like Odlande stadsbasarer. It seems pretty smart to turn urban space into places that grow food in really controlled conditions so you reduce the time and transport impact on food. Another reason why self-driving cars are a great idea – we can start using carparks to grow food. Right now it’s just hipster chic but hopefully it scales to a meaningful size.
Swedes sure seem to love to stand in the snow to separate their recycling! Personally, it drives me crazy. Of course we should recycle our stuff (duh). But there are machines that do this automatically. The cynic in me thinks it’s actually the IKEA effect in action, that people feel more connected to things they engage actively in – and it seems to work. But it makes my hands cold and we need to make it easier to be good.
Is Nudie still cool? Who knows! But you should be proud to call them Swedish. Everyone talks a big game (I’ve worked for some big denim brands) but they seem generally interested in moving to 100% organic cotton, selling second hand jeans, and fixing their jeans for free. And as a cyclist who’s always blowing their ass out of their jeans, I’m super into that!
And if you think about it, Systembolaget is also essentially pretty green. By closing their doors on Saturday at 3pm, I’m sure they reduce the amount of glass and aluminium packaging we’d otherwise consume. And that’s gotta be a good thing for Mother Earth, our credit cards, and our livers. Just kidding. Systembolaget should be sued by the EU for being anti-competitive.
Now who needs a drink? Tweet me at @adamhorne if you do 🙂
This first appeared in Junos Recycled Links in an edited form.