Jed Aitchison of Buy Nowt LS6 writes about the huge benefits of peer to peer lending on both individual expenses and on the environment:
The Library of things in Headingley, Buy Nowt LS6 - Library of things, has saved people over £250,000 and 250 tonnes of C02. But it's just one Library in one part of city and has limited items and limited opening times. What if there was a way to lend and borrow all across the city without the need for expensive rents and business rates for locations across the city.
There is also another problem that all of society faces which is having things you use infrequently, not doing anything or looking to borrow something briefly. It's a real shame when we have stuff doing nothing sitting on our shelves in our home and it's also a shame when we need something for a small project or event or trip but know we won't use it again and so can't justify buying or storing it.
Well now there's a solution to all of these problems! Peer to peer lending. You may have heard of the Library of Things in Headingley and that's a different method where everything is held in one business location and lent out to people from it but peer to peer lending is different. You, the individual, decide what you want to lend out and then post it to a website like https://fatllama.com/. If you are looking to borrow just search for what you're looking for and hopefully someone nearby will have one you can borrow. You can also request items if you can't find them through search.
The most borrowed items from the Library of Things in Headingley are:
Foldable Ladder
pizza oven
4 person tent
carpet cleaner
hedge trimmer
Folding table
30cm Disco Ball
High Pressure Washerpower drill
projector
Almost none of these items are on Fat Llama, if you have them and listed them you are almost guaranteed to find someone who wants to borrow them. Like wise if you are looking to borrow this kind of stuff please look on Fat Llama.
Imagine if everyone in Leeds lent out stuff they had and knew what there was to borrow in their neighbourhood! The Leeds community could do more exciting stuff like film nights with projectors or DIY, or go camping or holiday more easily or do some retrofit insulation more easily by borrowing tools. The possibilities are endless when we all share the resources we have in our city and all while saving carbon and keeping money circulating within Leeds and benefiting the economy. Win Win Win.
Please think about making an account and sharing this article so we can all save money and save carbon.
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