Reduce Reuse Recycle Repair Redistribute.
I recently listened to an interesting lecture from Rachel Botsman about her theory of Collaborative Consumption. She espouses the view that our society needs to create a more sustainable system that will better serve the innate needs of both our community and individual identity, while caring more responsibly for our environment. She dubs this system “The Collaborative Consumption”.
In a nutshell, the system values the collective good over wasteful individual consumption, usage trumping paraphernalia. The individual doesn’t really want to own the possessions, he wants the usage or experience that the possessions provide. For example, you don’t want the drill, you want the hole that the drill provides. You don’t want the DVD, you want to watch the movie the DVD provides.
Ms. Botsman points to the growing connectivity of our communities, via online social networks. It is this networking that has given rise to the opportunities to barter and trade more efficiently and safely than ever before. With peer-to-peer redistribution systems in play based on models like eBay, Paypal, and Freecycle, the newer barter/trade sites offer guaranteed success.
This is a fascinating social ideal. Please check back next week for more discussion and links to barter/trade sites.
