The estimated amount of e-waste last year was over 57 million tons, but only 17% of it was recycled. Why? Old gadgets might seem like a worthless piece of plastic, but they are actually full of precious metals the world needs to produce new electric devices in a more sustainable way. To activate people to recycle their e-waste, we tapped directly into the world’s largest community of miners and brought their favorite game – Minecraft - into the real world to create a new gaming experience. Be an Urban Miner. Your old gadgets are a goldmine.

Situation:

Elkjøp, the Nordics largest tech retailer, is a big believer in the circular economy where recycling of e-waste is of vital importance. Last year recycling at their stores was down by 6% and the world is running out of valuable metals from finite natural resources.

Brief:

Elkjøp wants to encourage more electronic recycling to create a more sustainable industry. How can a tech retailer play a part in giving technology a second life, and get the younger generation too recycle for the good of the planet?

Objectives:

Your old gadgets might seem like a worthless piece of plastic, but they are actually a goldmine. Producing electronic devices such as phones and computers involves the extraction of valuable minerals and metals from finite natural resources. Real mining harms the planet. Urban Mining helps to protect it. So how can a tech retailer help cultivate a better recycling habit?

Every company wants to be more sustainable; the challenge was to make the behavior change appealing and engaging.

Based on the insight that most of us have old or obsolete electronics in our homes, our solution was to team Elkjøp up with Microsoft (which owns the worlds biggest game Minecraft) to tap into the world’s largest community of miners and bring their favorite game into the real world for the very first time.

The strategy was to take a well-known game mechanic into the real world. Rather than admonish people for contributing to e-waste or hoarding old devices, our approach was to highlight the problem and offer an attractive solution with a built-in incentive. In the same way that the characters in Minecraft mine for materials to make something new, we got people to “mine” their old electronics. This approach engaged and harnessed the power of the entire Minecraft Community.

To cultivate a better recycling habit in the Nordics, we created a new e-waste recycling service based on the gameplay mechanics of the world’s most popular game, Minecraft, called Urban Miner.

In Minecraft you mine for resources to create the world you want. So we brought this gameplay behaviour into the real world and encouraged people to mine their old gadgets for Minecoins they can use back in the game.

The partnership between Elkjøp and Minecraft brought this idea to life like never before, for the first time bringing Minecraft characters out of the game and into the real world.

The idea demonstrated how valuable old electronics actually are. And we did it with a simple message: Become an Urban Miner. Your old gadgets are a goldmine. Recycle them at Elkjøp and get Minecoins in return.

The campaign stayed authentic to the Minecraft universe. While all other campaigns using Minecraft only exist in custom game servers nobody experiences, Urban Miner took the game into the real world. The campaign is centered around miners from the Minecraft universe hacking gadgets to pieces with their pickaxes as Minecoins spew out all over the place. Throughout the campaign we showcase a variety of old gadgets and how valuable they can be if recycled.

The campaign launch was coordinated to go live in-store and in media in 4 countries simultaneously. All Elkjøp stores was running the campaign material all over their screens and on posters. Each section in the stores showed old gadgets relevant to that section as an educational element. We also deployed influencers and gamers to show their fans how easy it was to deliver their old gadgets to Elkjøp and taught them about the importance of recycling.

Urban Miner is an ongoing recycling service that has engaged and harnessed the power of the entire Minecraft community. With Phil Spencer, Aaron Greenberg and other big names in the gaming world endorsing it, we have returned some impressive numbers. On Twitter the film has more than 4 millions of unpaid views. On TikTok, it’s getting five times the number of views that a regular Xbox video would get, and gamers are flocking to Elkjøp stores with their old gadgets to get Minecoins.

Urban Miner has created an e-waste mining boom. Elkjøp has so far experienced a massive 13,8 % increase in recycled e-waste, received over 17 tons of old gadgets and given out more than 9 million Minecoins.

Urban Miner is so successful we’ve been asked to look at rolling it out in the UK and USA.

Elkjøp is the largest consumer electronics retailer in the Nordic countries, with more than 400 stores in six countries.

In the Nordics we all grow up learning to recycle paper, plastic and metal cans. We’re so good at it that we recycle 99% of all plastic bottles in circulation. But this behavior is radically different when it comes to consumer electronics. In fact, only 12,5 of all e-waste is ever recycled. A Nordic household has on average 4 old smartphones and 1 old tablet lying around in their drawers or basements, collecting dust and becoming dangerous e-waste.

Urban Miner is not running for a limited time, it's an ongoing service for people to develop the habit of recycling e-waste. The campaign is aimed at gamers and Minecraft players, but the message is a universal truth: Your old gadgets are a goldmine. And that’s something everyone understands.