Project affirmation! While reading the assigned chapter from
Roseland’s “Toward Sustainable Communities” I stumbled upon this little gem: “People
who rethink their priorities and habits often realize they just don’t need so
much stuff! For most of us, this is likely the most effective means of not only
waste reduction but higher personal satisfaction.” Woo! I think I'm on the right track.
This week’s chapter on waste reduction and recycling emphasizes
thinking outside the box, so I’ll try to take you down the wormhole I fell into
tonight. Seeking inspiration, I visited the Story of Stuff site once again,
only to discover I had been missing out on “The Story of Solutions!”
The video makes quick reference to the idea of COLLABORATIVE
CONSUMPTION, which is really just a fancy word for sharing. I Googled for more
info, and found this TEDx talk (below) delivered in Sydney by the author of a book
called “What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.”
The part that made her message most clear to me came near
the end - “I don’t want the DVD, I want the movie it carries. I don’t want a
clunky answering machine, I want the message it saves. I don’t want a CD, I
want the music it plays. In other words…I don’t want stuff, I want the needs or
experiences it fulfills.” -- Now, you will hear in later blog posts why most of my
CDs will survive the “Less But Better” clean out, but the message still
resonates. -- These words summarize why sharing resources that accomplish tasks
could be one of the simplest things we as individuals can do to reduce our consumption
without decreasing our quality of life.
After watching this, my question was - where does sharing
fit in to the waste hierarchy (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover)? I
suppose it’s a form of reuse, but the benefits and barriers to sharing are much
different than those for reusing. Benefits include community ties, cost savings,
and resource conservation, while the barriers seem mostly tied to availability
of suitable sharing programs. Rachel Botsman goes on to explain that, lucky for
us, four factors are actually leading to a HUGE growth in suitable sharing
programs these days. Those factors are:
She also delineates three types of sharing systems that are
on the rise:
- Redistribution Markets (think Goodwill, eBay, Craigslist, sites like Freecycle and Swap.com, or even just trading goods/services between neighbors)
- Collaborative Lifestyles (think local examples like Bloomington Co-Operative Living and COWORK BTown)
- Product Service Systems (think community libraries, ZipCar, Netflix, tool lending libraries, Air BnB, and more)
I really like this post. The topic you bring up "collaborative consumption" is something most of us participate in on a daily basis, I just did not know it had a formal name! To answer your question about whether humans can adjust their habits to fit this model? I think the answer is an astounding yes. We just have to look at the rise of what some might call the sharing economy over the past 15 years. Websites and business models like Airbnb have exploded. Ebay, Craigslist, Rideshare websites, all of them have grown exponentially in recent years. I think this not only speaks to the potential growth of the sector, but also to the adaptability of human society. Fifteen years ago, no such opportunities existed to rent peoples spare bedrooms or use their spare cars. Yet today, millions of people use these types of services and the new ideas keep popping up. People have been sharing resources for hundreds of years. Thats what neighbors are for. It has just become alot easier in recent years with the internet. Based off my experiences, I am really hopeful for the future of collaborative consumption. It makes economic sense and additionally is environmentally friendly. Combined, those are a winning combination.
ReplyDeleteYay Dana I love this topic! Collaborative consumption is a great re-invention of an old practice (sharing!) that I do believe has the potential for meeting the needs of our human, environmental, and economic systems. I read a book this summer called “The Zero Marginal Cost Society” which talked a lot about this topic. His basic argument was the integration of the internet of things, renewable energy, and 3d printing would bring about a new economic order in which most things are nearly free. I believe that collaborative consumption is a step in this direction because it often uses the internet or smartphones to connect people with resources to others who would like to share it with them at a lower cost than if they would have individually bought it. The financial crisis of 2008 sent shocks throughout our economic system that are still being felt. Unemployment across the world remains high and consumer debt has skyrocketed. The future of our economic system is uncertain, but in my opinion the recovery (or lack there of) from the crisis signals a fundamental change in the functioning of the economy. People have none the less continued to meet their needs by turning to these new collaborative systems due to a tightened financial belt and environmental awareness. I am very confident and hopeful that collaborative consumption is here to stay and will reduce our endless hunger for consumption and replace it with sharing! Link to the book and an article by the author:
ReplyDeleteHTTP://WWW.THEZEROMARGINALCOSTSOCIETY.COM/
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2014/03/16/OPINION/SUNDAY/THE-RISE-OF-ANTI-CAPITALISM.HTML
Have you heard of a book called "The Mesh"? Last year, Professor Attari hosted a speaker who recommended it. It gives very practical thought to the ways of implementing these sharing business with lots of real life examples. It's a quick read & I really enjoyed it! It had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, and while I'm not very entrepreneurial, I still liked reading about these sorts of ventures.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to refusing items we don’t really need, I think another important point is not wasting the products we actually buy. There are several figures on this, but the most common one I’ve found is the US wastes about 40% of food produced each year (http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/22/40-of-u-s-food-wasted-report-says/). That’s simply a staggering statistic. It’s difficult to imagine the incredible impact we would have if such waste didn’t exist.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you wrote this blog, as I can definitely attest to taking “free” things or buying new products when “I don’t really need a new one of these but this one is kinda old and that one is way cooler”. It’s certainly difficult getting people to recognize this and then to actually change their behavior.
Dana, thanks for writing about this! I have to agree with Andrew. I definitely didn't know there was a name for these markets. I think that the "Collaborative Lifestyles" category bests promotes a renewed sense of community. On another note, I agree that a torrent of peer to peer social networks promote suitable sharing. However, it seems to me that that category (in an e-sense) is a juxtaposition to the renewed belief in community importance. I'm not on quite on board with the shift of our communities from in "real life" to online communities, which I think the peer to peer social networks promotes.
ReplyDelete