ondon-based food waste app Olio has launched a new marketplace in a bid to encourage neighbours to share instead of buy everyday household items.
The Borrow feature, launched ahead of COP26 opening, is aimed at getting people to share things like drills and pasta makers (the classic lockdown impulse buy) with their local community. The app wants to help families both save money and avoid long-term waste.
The idea is: Why does everyone need to buy a drill or roomba in a block of flats, when many of these will end up in landfill eventually? Every purchase also fuels demand for more consumption. Why not share a couple between the building?
“Waste isn’t just what ends up in landfill. Waste is also all the stuff gathering dust in our homes – whilst our neighbours are busy buying yet more of the very same stuff,” writes co-founder Tessa Clarke .
She cites research showing the average American home has 300,000 items inside, many of which are hardly ever used.
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