TreeHugger Picks: Why Buy When You Can Rent?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 06.14.06
TreeHugger is a huge fan of the Product Service System (PSS). Though the name is easy to trip over, the concept is brilliant: that there are ways to rent products or services on-demand, and then just pass them on where you're done. Here are our picks for some great ways that show how renting is the new buying.
1) Car sharing: If you don't need one every day, it's a great way to go from here to there without worrying about gas, insurance or where to park it at the end of the day.
2) Bike sharing: Even better than cars, biking is a fantastic way to zip from place to place; when you share, there are no more worries about safely storing it or lugging it on the bus or train.
3) CD sharing: For just a buck, you can swap albums around the world, and there's enough left over to go to charities of the musician's choice.
4) Book sharing: Both in the UK and the US, books can be more than paperweights when you're done reading them.
5) Sun sharing: That's right; SunEdison has got a deal for you; they pay for, install, own and operate solar panels and systems. They even handle the insurances. They just want your roof space and your agreement to buy the generated electricity, at or below current grid pricing.
Book sharing?! its called a library! why buy, maintain and store when you can check it out for free? And then trained professionals maintain and file everything for you. I get almost all of my books, CDs, DVDs and even computer games from my library. Its brilliant.
If I had to purchase all of these things that I use I would have to get a second job. Long live the library!
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editor note: Absolutely right! though depending on where you live, public libraries can vary quite a bit in quality and scope.
As I understand the description of PSS by Paul Hawken (Natural Capitalism), it includes companies leasing products to you, thereby providing the service of that product, but maintaining responsibility for that product. Examples including Xerox machines and the oft touted Interface carpet. This provides an incentive to the company to make the product longer lasting, more easily repaired, and minimize the costs of disposal (i.e. towards recycling and re-manufacturing).
Pet Peeve: My municipalty has stringent parking regulations that add up to the near inevitability of getting a ticket any night you have a rented car. A $30 premium (the standard ticket) per day is a strong disincentive to use rentals instead of purchasing a car.
I approached the rental co about arranging a permit system for rentals - not interested, perhaps because unpaid parking tickets are a profit center for them (up to $100 in 'admin fees' per ticket).
We are actually providing a service doing just this, letting everyone share everything with anyone.
There are so many things, beyond the short list that is provided in this article, that it really makes no sense for everyone to buy. Why does every house in a neighborhood need its own lawnmower?
We have a massive problem of inefficiency in the world regarding personal possessions. We must buy everything regardless of how many times we will use them. This creates more trash, wastes money, and fills up our living spaces with unneeded items.
Check out my blog where I discuss this exact issue here. http://irent2u.com/blog/