Library of Things Impact
For 12 months between March 2019 and March 2020 (when we went in to lockdown) SHARE:Frome managed to achieve the following as a result of getting people to share items instead of owning their own:
- Avoided 199 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Avoided 254 tonnes in raw material use.
- Avoided: 22 tonnes in manufacturing waste.
This was achieved by having:
- 950 Items available to borrow.
- 2,297 borrows processed.
- £8,927 spent on borrowing.
That money spent on borrowing saved our customers:
- £144,956 – which is what would have been spent if the items had been bought instead.
Another massive benefit created by SHARE:Frome but less easy to quantify was the sense of community it created. Our users helped us cultivate a happier and more resilient community. People got a huge buzz from being able to contribute positively and be part of the solution to our collective problems. The fact it saved them money was an added bonus!
Sharing Libraries (Libraries of Things) have environmental, economical and social impacts. By shifting from an economy founded on individual consumption & ownership to one based on community sharing & use we reduce waste, reduce pollution, save money and cultivate community.
With almost 950 items available to borrow it’s impossible to give you an idea of the huge range of things we had available, but I’ll list the 10 categories we had in order to give you an idea:
- Arts & Crafts
- Baby & Children
- DIY
- Events
- Gardening Tools
- Household items
- Kitchen Equipment
- Leisure & Camping
- Music, Media & Audio Visual
- Sports & Games
Pretty much anything you can think that might fall in to one of those categories we probably had. Some of our most popular items were tents, projectors, wallpaper strippers, carpet cleaners, hedge trimmers, pressure washers and all of the DIY power tools.
Going Back to That Drill…
Back to that example of the average drill being used for just 13 minutes of its life time, just think what a waste of manufacturing and material usage that is.
Imagine how many drills are produced for us all to own one compared to how few we could share between us.
Not only that, but how many of those drills end up discarded and go to landfill?
The impact on the planet of our existing consumer habits is totally unsustainable.
By borrowing and sharing instead of buying and owning we are reducing our impact on the planet’s resources and ensuring the amount of our waste that it houses is kept to an absolute minimum.
Manufacturing processes along with disposal and recycling processes are all carbon emitting problems that we need to address if we’re to tackle the climate crisis.
Using a Library of Things ensures these processes are kept to a minimum.