Page 21 - U4SSC Case study: Re-use of consumer goods and tools loaning, June 2020

Results

The Library of Things has closed the gap between people’s willingness to share and the actual practice
of sharing. Based on several surveys, it has been found that existing sharing platforms are either
inconvenient for users or require too much effort from the users during the lending process. Moreover,
users were found to be reluctant to share their belongings with strangers as this requires another level
of trust, especially when operating through online platforms.

However, within the Library of Things, the sharing process is no longer dependent on users’ willingness
to donate their personal belongings as items are sourced from other means such as companies, so
enabling the Library of Things to provide the users with high-quality items.

The user-friendliness of this system has already attracted over 850 members who have already
borrowed more than 2 500 items throughout the course of the Library of Things’ short life span. With
more people using the same things, these things are being used more efficiently and fewer items
are being purchased needlessly. This will enable a significant decrease in the ecological impact as
products consume a great amount of energy and resources over their life span, i.e. during production,
distribution, use and disposal. The Library of Things’ business model helps to significantly decrease the
impact on the environment, especially for products with high-energy demand during the production
phase. Besides the positive environmental impacts, this project also has a strong social impact since
it acts as a social hub to the community by bringing people together through practical events such as
skill-sharing workshops or mending and repair classes.

Moreover, volunteering at the Library of Things or popping by to borrow something is also a great way
of meeting neighbours and expanding a contact network.

This sharing economy system also saves people of all social classes considerable amounts of money
by giving them access to high-quality items that they would perhaps not have been able to afford to
buy, or would have had to spend a ridiculous amount on money on, in order to own it and use it only
once or twice . (Perchard, 2017).

Even though the Library of Things seems to be a working business model, Rebecca Trevalyan has warned
that the infrastructure in place to make things easier and lower the operating costs is not sufficiently
developed. There are still numerous challenges to tackle, such as creating a feasible revenue model
or a good organizational structure. However, the founders of the Library of Things remain confident
about their project and are working on a franchise model to create a network of libraries and partners
to replicate the Library of Things across the UK.

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