ROMUstories: where it all began

In autumn 2019 we started a journey, none of us had planned or could have foreseen. ROMU, the idea of plastic recycling in public spaces, had its beginnings in 4UNI, a solution competition organized by Helsinki Think Company. We were three girls who did not know each other, had different academic backgrounds, different reasons why we ended up in 4UNI, even different mother tongues. But someone proved a lucky hand by putting us on a team. We had the same vision, the same values and the same will to throw ourselves into this new experience.

Our hard work during 4UNI was rewarded with winning the competition, today six months ago, and with a huge amount of motivation for our following steps. On our way we have had the opportunity to meet inspiring personalities, and we have experienced a great willingness to help and solidarity which has brought us to our present stage.

We have gone through an enormous process of learning, we had to rethink our concept over and over, and find solutions we did not know were possible.

But with our vision in mind, we did not lose track and made a huge effort to get closer to implementing our concept.

We want to give value to people's small actions and make them think a moment longer about the resource they hold in hands. We are surrounded by plastic, and ROMU makes this amount visible and intelligible. We not only make plastic recycling in urban spaces possible, easy and fun; we also want to spread knowledge about plastic recycling, motivate people to do so and contribute to closing the recycling loop. Together with all stakeholders we make waste a valuable resource, while at the same time preserving our natural resources and our precious environment.

We are thankful for the support that has gotten us so far and are looking forward to seeing our idea develop and accelerate. But for now, we enjoy celebrating by looking back, see where we started off and what we have experienced and achieved so far.

But do not think we are resting on our laurels. Stay tuned for what is coming up this fall, we are very excited to be able to show you ROMU´s first version.