The idea in brief
Many household items are used rarely. A ladder, a carpet cleaner, a party tent or a pasta machine might be needed a few times in several years, yet each one takes up space and carries the environmental cost of being made. Local sharing schemes try to solve this by letting several households use the same item. This article looks at three common forms: libraries of things, swap events and freecycling groups.
Libraries of things
A library of things works like a book library, but the shelves hold objects. Members borrow items for a set period, return them and often pay a small fee or annual membership. Typical stock includes power tools, garden equipment, camping gear, kitchen appliances, sewing machines and board games. Some are called tool libraries, and some focus on a theme such as baby equipment.
They are usually run by volunteers or community organisations, sometimes with support from councils or libraries. Practical points vary from place to place:
- Membership and fees. These range from free to modest charges, and some ask for a deposit on higher-value items.
- Checks and training. Better-run libraries check that items work, and may offer short inductions for tools that can be dangerous.
- Insurance and liability. Organisers usually need to think about what happens if a borrowed item causes damage or injury. This is a main reason to be cautious about informal lending of risky equipment.
- Reservations. Popular items such as pressure washers can be booked out, so planning ahead helps.
For the borrower, the appeal is cost and space. For the community, it can reduce the number of items bought, though how much depends on whether people would have bought them otherwise. This sits comfortably within the wider sharing economy, alongside car clubs and rental services.
Swap events and clothing swaps
A swap is an event where people bring items they no longer need and take home things they do. Clothes, children’s clothes, books, plants, toys and kitchenware are common. Some events use a simple rule of one item in, one item out; others use tokens so you can take things without bringing anything that day.
Swaps work best when items are clean, in good condition and sorted into categories. They are less about avoiding all purchases and more about moving usable things to people who will use them. Compared with secondhand shopping in shops or online, they add a social element and cost nothing, but you only get what turns up on the day. It is worth planning what to do with leftovers, such as passing them to a charity shop, a textile bank or a repair project, so the event does not create its own waste.
Freecycling and local giving groups
Freecycling groups, often found on social media or dedicated websites, are communities where members give items away for free and others collect them. The model is simple: post a photo and description, someone asks, you arrange a pick-up.
They are good for bulky or awkward things that a charity shop may not take, from furniture to garden materials. They also keep working items out of the bin. Some cautions apply:
- Safety when meeting strangers. Arrange collection in daylight, consider leaving the item outside your door, and be careful about sharing your address too early.
- No-shows. Collection arrangements often fall through, so be ready to relist.
- Item suitability. Items such as car seats, cots, helmets and old electrical goods can be unsafe if worn, damaged or recalled. For electrical items and electronics, check they work safely, and think carefully before giving away anything you cannot test. When something has reached the end of its life, proper electronic waste routes matter more than passing it on.
- Group rules. Most groups ban selling and request that you be honest about condition.
Are they actually greener?
Reusing something usually avoids the impacts of making a new one, and sharing tools means fewer tools are made overall. These are real benefits. The strength of the benefit depends on the circumstances.
- If an item replaces a purchase you would otherwise have made, the gain is greatest. If you borrow something you would never have bought, the saving is smaller, though you may still have avoided a poor purchase.
- Travel can reduce the benefit. A long car journey to collect a small item may cancel out part of the gain.
- Heavy or long-lasting items shared widely give the best return; low-use gadgets that people hoard are a good fit for lending.
Overall, these schemes make most sense as one part of buying less and keeping things in use for longer, rather than as a way to justify taking in more stuff than you need.
Finding or starting one
To find a scheme, search for your town name with “library of things”, “tool library” or “swap group”. Local council pages, community centres, libraries and neighbourhood social media groups are common starting points. Many areas also have repair cafes that complement lending by keeping broken items working.
If nothing exists, a small start is realistic. A street or building group can simply keep a shared list of who owns what and is willing to lend. A one-off swap in a community hall needs little more than a venue, volunteers and some publicity. A full lending library takes longer, since it requires storage, insurance, a catalogue, a system for tracking loans and a team to maintain items. Talking to an existing scheme elsewhere, or a local voluntary-sector support body, can save a lot of trial and error.