The Not-So-Straight Path Towards Sustainability: A Circular Economy
By Vidya Bindal, Eco-Ambassador
If you could wish for any item, what would it be? An ukulele? A telescope? A 3D Doodle Pen? What if I told you you could get what you wanted…and then some too? No, this isn’t some magic genie I found washed up in a mysterious looking lamp, this is the Library of Things! Yes, it is not a ‘marketplace’ for things, it is not a shop where you pay to ‘buy’- this is simply The Library of Things. It is a library with an opportunity for a patron to borrow any of the several material things for a certain duration (similar to how a traditional library of books works)!
I have the privilege of being in a town where a library like this exists. The Millburn Free Public Library runs a Library of Things that is accessible to all patrons 14 years or older. Items are listed in a catalogue under 13 categories, ranging from technology, to arts and crafts, to kitchen equipment. Like any other library, there are a certain set of guidelines that one must follow when checking out an item. You can reserve an item up to 90 days in advance with a specific return date, but can only have 6 reservations at once. On the said date, you can pick up your item at the library, by showing your library card, just like you would withdraw a book. You get the item for the duration mentioned, and if you are late, there is a late fee-approx $1 a day. Just like any borrowing service requires, each item should be treated with care and respect. In case of a damage, or worse, loss, or even theft, the patron would be responsible for covering any and all costs, so the borrower should be aware of the responsibility they take on when checking out items (especially the pricier ones!)
Should the potential penalty for damaging or losing an item deter a person from using the service in the first place? Of course not! On the contrary, the person should take pride in adopting the concept of reuse. By now we all know that ‘recycle’ is almost a myth, since the US is recycling no more than 5-6% of its plastic waste each year. That then leaves us with two of the three sacred R’s of Recycle, Reuse and Reduce! The library of things enables us to reuse and reduce, and touches on a very important aspect of sustainability: a circular economy. The European Parliament explains that in a circular economy, the life of a product is extended, and it has further value because it can be used repeatedly - the projector collecting dust under your bed would now be put to work by many people. By ‘owning’ different items for only the amount one needs, we help slow down the production of new items, which in turn helps reduce the exploitation of natural resources.
This simple concept makes us the vessels of change that could slow down forests getting cut down, habitats getting burned, and animals getting forced out of their rightfully owned homes. An average American generates roughly 1,800 pounds of materials every year, about the same as 10-12 dishwashers! Imagine that, isn’t it absurd to think that while an average family uses one dishwasher for approximately 10 years, it actually ‘consumes’ 10-12 dishwashers per person per year?
In fact, our habit of overconsuming and falling victim to ever changing trends extends especially to everyday items, such as clothes. Curbing our excessive purchasing desires would be a huge step towards personal sustainability growth. Did you know that the average person wears clothing around 7-10 times before throwing it out, and that for the past 15 years, that number has been on the decline? Additionally, that easy discarding of clothing has resulted in the United States averaging 34 billion pounds of textile waste each year - which means approximately 100 pounds of clothing waste per person! Most people can’t even lift 100 pounds! Of course, the Library of Things does not lend clothes-but a concept in the same line as this library is ‘thrifting’. Many thrift stores now offer good quality gently used clothes at low prices. Once again, by embracing thrifting, we redirect used clothing away from landfills to legitimate use, and we disincentivize production of new clothing.
When we think of waste reduction, another glaring offender is single use cutlery and dishware rampantly used for all kinds of food consumption. NYC passed the ‘skip the stuff’ law prohibiting food vendors, including restaurants, from automatically providing single-use cutlery and condiments in ‘take-out’ food. Many NJ towns, including mine, are working to get similar laws passed for them too. In this same league, in my town, we co-run a community ‘bank’ for reusable dishes. Called the Bartan Bank (bartan being the hindi word for dish), we pooled in resources to buy reusable ‘corelle’ quality plates, bowls and cups and silverware, made available to community members for their hosting needs.
The point of the Library of Things or the Bartan Bank or the Thrift Store is that from the spoons at your next gathering to the Amazon Fire Tablet for watching the next Hulu show to the denim jacket you fancy for the concert you are attending, you may want to look around to borrow or buy a pre-used item. Spending money on shiny new goods might briefly empower the buyer, but it truly weakens the Earth in many ways for many years to come! So, let us buy less, and borrow (and lend) more!
Last but not the least, while not every town has many reuse facilities close by, the good news is that over 100 Libraries of Things are now recorded in the United States, including an impressively big one in the Ann Arbor Library in Michigan. The even better news? If your library doesn’t have such an extension, you could surely request for one to be set up, and if you think your community can benefit from a Bartan Bank- who is stopping you from setting up one!
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Vidya Bindal is a senior at Newark Academy, NJ, where she is on her school’s student Sustainability Council. She is also a member of the Strategic Planning Committee (of administrators, faculty and parents) operationalizing a 7-year plan for the school being assessed on Key Performance Indicators. She has been an Eco-Ambassador with Columbia University’s Climate School since 2019 and was an invited Youth Environmental Leader to COP28 in Dubai, 2023. She is an all-varsity soccer and track athlete and contributes actively to her community’s environmental efforts through Millburn for Climate Action. As a science, data and philosophy student, she wholeheartedly believes in the science of climate change, but also in the concept of positive changes beginning on a small level; no effort is ever a waste.