Upcycle shop at Rotterdam Central Station gives second life to NS material

This week is the week of the circular economy in the Netherlands, and NS chose to celebrate that by opening an Upcycle shop at Rotterdam Central Station. There, people can buy products ranging from pencil cases to sneakers or Bluetooth speakers made from NS materials no longer in use.

Upcycle specialist VertwistedGoed made service sheets and coasters from old yellow station information signs. Creative entrepreneur OML used train fabrics to make espadrilles. The shoes are produced in the Netherlands and made by hand. There are also NS sneakers, backpacks, laptop bags, travel bags, toiletry bags, meditation cushions, and pencil cases made from old train fabrics and NS overalls. And a 45-year-old train broadcast speaker turned into a Bluetooth home speaker.

“There is no such thing as waste. We believe in that at NS,” the railway company said. When modernizing a train, NS says it uses 99 percent of materials circularly - 86 percent go back into the train, and 13 percent get a second life outside the train. “We work together with various sustainable entrepreneurs to turn these old train parts into new products.”

The NS Upcycle shop at Rotterdam Central Station is open Monday from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. You can also shop online here.

This is not the first time NS opened an Upcycle shop. “The NS Upcycle shop has been a hit for years.” A few years ago, such a shop at Amsterdam Central Station sold products like birdhouses made from hard plastic timetable boards and maps.