Globally, we produce over 57 million tons of e-waste per year, in each Nordic home there are on average 4 old smartphones and 1 tablet laying around. Old electronic gadgets are full of precious metals that could be recycled – that should be mined. As the largest retailer of consumer electronics in the Nordics, Elkøp has a big part to play in this. And that involves making it easier for people to mine their e-waste. We set out to educate a new generation of gamers about the value of old generation tech.

In order to shift the attitude towards e-waste and create real behavioral change, we knew we needed an entertaining idea that broke new ground. Something that made the boring topic of e-waste into something exciting and engaging. And it wouldn’t be enough just to talk to heavy consumer electronic users. We needed to galvanize audiences that could carry and spread our message further.

Within behavioral science it has long been known that gamification can be an impactful strategy to motivate people to adopt new behaviors. It’s just as much about reducing complexity as it is about creating positive behavioral nudges. With gamification as our strategic starting point our creative solution almost came naturally: with a clear focus on Gamers, we wanted to use the world’s most popular mining game, Minecraft, and turn players into real miners of e-waste. The idea didn’t just require a gamification element, but also a system that actively incentivized recycling in the physical world.

We tapped into the world’s largest community of miners, and rewarded them for mining e-waste in the real world.

In collaboration with Microsoft, Urban Miner was born: a real value exchange between the physical and digital world. Minecraft players were rewarded with Minecoins when they brought their e-waste to Elkjøp. Just as the characters in Minecraft mine materials and minerals in the game, Elkjøp got players to "mine" their old consumer electronic products in return for Minecoins. Everything under the message “Your old gadgets are a goldmine”. This was an impactful idea that not only got people realizing what they had lying around at home. It was also an effective tool that really got people into the stores with their e-waste.