The zero-waste marketplace for students, run by Manchester-based Harriet Noy, Hazaar, is set to launch at seven universities across the UK in early 2022 to expand their reach to more students and reduce unnecessary waste.

“Think of Depop, for universities, without the postage, that is Hazaar!”
– Harriet Noy, Founder, Hazaar

The Hazaar app, founded by young, Manchester-based entrepreneur Harriet Noy, allows students to buy and sell items such as clothing, shoes, costumes, textbooks, household bits and more. Hazaar encourages students to shop more sustainably by buying second-hand and sell their items rather than sending them to landfill. Students then meet up in person to hand over their items, eliminating the need for postage, making Hazaar a zero-waste student marketplace.

Although there are other marketplace apps out there that buy and sell used items, on Hazaar every university has their own localised marketplace where they can buy and sell from other students in their area. This ensures that the buyers and sellers on the app are only a short walk away to cut down on postage and make the exchanges quick, pain free and emissions-free.

Hazaar launched in November of this year at the University of Birmingham and with the great success of 2,000 downloads in their first week, Hazaar is now expanding throughout the country. Throughout February and March, they will be launching at universities in Leeds, Manchester, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool, and Nottingham, with hopes to extend their reach to more universities all over the UK.

Harriet Noy, CEO and founder of Hazaar, had the idea for the app when she was a student herself. She saw her friends and peers relying on Amazon to order their books for university, household items, and costumes for student nights. Not only was this a waste of packaging, but these items were becoming single use.

Harriet Noy, CEO and Founder of Hazaar: “Students are interested in sustainability, it is hugely important to us but due to the financial constraints involved with being a student, it is hard for many students to be sustainable. I hope that Hazaar will make being sustainable easy and cheap for students.”

Harriet took matters into her own hands, starting a Facebook marketplace group at her university which accumulated a community of 16,000 students. This is when Harriet realized that not only was there interest in her idea, but that she could make a difference in student sustainability.

Hazaar is also teaming up with vintage shops and vintage sellers as well as small sustainable businesses that are located within walking distance to the universities they are partnered with. These businesses will also be able to sell their products on the app!

You can download Hazaar & pre-register to be the first to access the app when it goes live at your university. Additionally, if you are a small business wanting to be featured on the app, or a university representative wanting to make your students shop more sustainably, contact Harriet at [email protected].