Americans are addicted to stuff. We produce and consume too much of it — and we don’t share it very well. Pushed by our intense culture of consumerism, we routinely purchase household appliances, power tools, outdoor gear, exercise equipment and other expensive items that we barely ever use.
On Tuesday, the Berkeley City Council is poised to consider a transformative program — SHARE Berkeley — that leverages the mother of all sharing resources — libraries — to create a one-stop public hub for sharing, renting and reusing seldom-used items.
Long before tech-bros “invented” (and killed) the “share economy,” libraries, in business for more than four thousand years, perfected systems for obtaining, storing, lending and retrieving important but rarely used items. Harnessing that legacy and know-how, the Berkeley Public Library will soon embark on SHARE Berkeley, a paradigm-shifting expansion of the library’s lending mandate.
SHARE Berkeley is a first-in-kind effort to create a one-stop public “Share Hub” for the community. Building on its existing Tool Lending collection, the library will expand its own “library of things” and establish a one-stop clearinghouse for information about sharing, renting, and reusing items offered by other community vendors.
The production, transportation, packaging, and disposal of items used only a few times over their lifetime represent a massive investment of raw materials, energy, emissions, and landfill space. The waste is not only staggering but also unsustainable for our planet and for the people who spend hard-earned dollars on things they barely use.
Fifty-five percent of Americans own more than five or more power tools, yet the average drill is used 13 minutes over its lifetime. In fact, if the rest of the world consumed at U.S. rates, we would need more than three earths to satisfy global demand.
Berkeley’s Public Library was one of the first to establish a tool-lending department in 1979. The idea was to make tools available to households in formerly redlined – and underserved – neighborhoods of South and West Berkeley. This equity-focused model has been replicated and expanded on in libraries across the globe, but none to date has embraced a vision as broad and bold as SHARE Berkeley.
Start-ups have sought to capitalize on sharing with mixed results. However, sharing, an ancient tradition that fosters connections and strengthens communities, should be public. Public libraries, which have a strong legacy as free, accessible and trusted resources for the communities they serve, have the unique power and expertise to reshape consumer habits.
SHARE Berkeley will be a public resource, offering an expanded portfolio of items at no or very low cost and administering subsidies to help low-income community members access borrowed and rented items from other vendors — shaping Berkeley’s libraries into greener, more equitable and impactful community resources.
Please join us in revolutionizing sustainability through SHARE Berkeley. Let’s embrace a future where items have long and useful stories, not shelf lives.
Sophie Hahn is a Berkeley City Council member representing District 5.
