What is the true spirit of "Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle"? One way I can think of going green is to share our household items, thereby reducing the demand, and hence the necessity of their production. The target items are those that we bought for a one-time/occasional use, and would be useful to our neighbors (again, with similar frequency).
I was initially planning to have a website with lots of features for easy sharing, but, in the interest of time, thought of publishing this first.
Due to concerns about privacy and trust, the group among which an individual would share his stuff would be a small subset of all the users. This subset would typically be close acquaintances of the individual (neighbors, colleagues, friends and relatives). The suggestion is that members list out the items that they are willing to share and optionally specify with whom and for how long. For example, I am willing to share the following stuff:
* 4 plastic chairs: everybody, 1 evening (say, for a party at home)
* digital camera: close friends, 1 week (say, for a trip)
* bicycle: everybody (as and when necessary)
* screwdriver: everybody (as and when necessary)
* a weighing scale: acquaintances, 1 evening
When others reciprocate, I would like to get some things myself for a short period:
* a handy cam: close friends (Since this is an expensive item, I find it awkward to approach people I don't know well)
* cycle pump: anybody
* a wooden stool: anybody (as and when necessary)
* plastic chairs
The idea here is to not buy things ourselves, when they are easily available in the community, and we can use it with little loss to the original owner. For example, the convenience that a cycle pump provides at home is great, but then it will be left idle at my home except for about 10 mins in a fortnight. Of course, this little loss incurred by the owner of the cycle pump will be offset by the great value that he/she gets on borrowing my screwdriver. Imagine the savings -- it's not just the money needed for buying this item, but also the time and effort needed for obtaining it. In addition, there might be fuel costs involved in procuring it. Well, one might buy the item when purchasing other items, so there might not be additional fuel consumption at our end, but notice that the demand we create unnecessarily led to its production and transport.
Of course, advertisers would try their best to convince us all that we need to *own* the item *ourselves*. So, the first step in turning greener is to train ourselves to turn a blind eye to advertisements. :)
This suggestion is weaker than free-cycling, where you give away your items forever. In this case, you are still the owner of the item, and may choose if and when you want to lend your items.
Obviously, there are a few issues to watch out for. What if somebody "borrows" an item permanently? What if it gets damaged/stolen before it is returned? In case of a dispute, who will be the judge? This is the situation where a big organization sitting at the center (and preferably having a website through which all these users interact) helps. They can impose membership fees (or refundable deposits) to ensure that in case the borrowed item is not returned, the owner doesn't lose out. Such an organization would also remove the direct personal contact between members which may get irritating at times. For example, Mr. X may presume that he is a very close friend of Mr. Y, and hence can borrow that cool new handycam, and out of politeness, Mr. Y would either have to lend it, or come up with excuses like "oh, somebody else has already borrowed it" (the difficulty with the latter being facing more questions from Mr. X such as "oh, who is it?" or "so, when can I expect to have it?".
A mediator sitting at the center eliminates the transparency that exists, and provides more privacy and comfort to the members. Mr. X would not know who owns a handycam. Mr. Y need not be bothered about who is going to use it as the mediator guarantees its return in good condition. In an ideal world, we shouldn't be owning any of the stuff -- the mediator would. Individuals would just rent it out whenever needed. The laundromat in the western world is a good example of this. Imagine the economies of scale if applied to everything that we need!
