SWAP HUB - From Summer School Idea to Hands-on Circularity A Student Initiative for Circular Living at BTU and beyond!
The Swap Hub is a student-led project that emerged from the Fit4Future Summer School 2025. Inspired by their learning experience and exchange with local actors, BTU students Nejla Cosgun and Abnet Mengesha Bekele (proudly a TUS team member!) identified a concrete challenge: newcomer students to Cottbus have to purchase necessary basic household items for their typically-short stay only to discard them -while they are perfectly usable- when they move away. At the same time, residents across the city — including fellow students and BTU employees— regularly throw away items that still have value.
Ideally, a sharing economy could connect these flows, contributing to closing material loops, reducing waste and avoiding overconsumption, while also fostering community building. In practice, however, this requires both social and physical infrastructure - something most cities still lack. To bridge this gap, the two (M.A) Transformation Studies students, rolled up their sleeves and developed an initiatiative as part of their Study Project. With the support ot the Student Council and the TUS Chair, they organised a physical space as a first step towards a Library of Goods for the university and wider Cottbus community.
The Swap Hub is the place where donations of reusable items are collected and made freely available to others, fostering resource sharing, waste reduction, and more mindful consumption. The project welcomes donations and voluntary engagement to continue growing as a community-driven circular infrastructure.
More than a student project, the Swap Hub is a tangible testimony of the Summer School’s hands-on approach to transformational change. Similar to Abnet and Nejla, more participant students got inspired by Fit4Future, and are already working on acitonable ideas for their Study Projects or Master's Thesis. This shows how systems thinking can translate into concrete, place-based solutions — and how academic learning can trigger tangible impact beyond the classroom.
For information and how to take part, contact:
Abnet Mengesha Bekele
Nejla Cosgun