“Hooray, Hooray, I’ve survived the holidays!” You don’t have to be the Grinch who stole Christmas to be having this thought in these days. Christmas is gone and so are the ludicrously huge dinners and the beloved but often too noisy relatives. And now what? What’s left of these holidays? Maybe a hangover and some turkey leftovers in the fridge but overall a huge amount of stuff. Stuff that we bought to make our home look a bit more Christmassy and that we’re not going to use for another year, or stuff that we’ve received as a gift from someone in the family who doesn’t really know your habits or your taste in clothing. What are you going to do with that fishing rod your uncle got you without knowing that over the past few months you’ve become a vegetarian? And what about the tie you received from your great-aunt that you know you’re never going to wear?
A good solution comes from Ecomodo, an online marketplace which lets you lend and borrow your stuff with confidence. All you have to do is to logon to ecomodo.com and choose the kind of items you would like to lend. You can then set a price and a lending duration for your items and if, after all, that tie was somehow dear to you and you’re worried about lending it to strangers, Ecomodo allows you to create trusted lending circles or take out insurance cover against loss or damage and hold a security deposit.
Ecomodo is a social enterprise which has made borrowing profitable. Besides, its creative approach to recycling has an important green side effect. The embodied carbon associated with the total lifecycle for a product is huge and seldom reflected in the contribution it makes to its owner’s life. Sharing items can actually help reduce consumption.
Who would have ever guessed that your great-aunt’s gift could help you save the environment?
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