Use things instead of buying them

“Que faire de mes objets et déchets ?” is a free website of ADEME, the French agency for ecological transition: typing the name of an object or a type of waste shows how to repair, give away, resell…

Commown is a cooperative from Strasbourg that rents out electronics chosen to last: Fairphone smartphones, laptops from Why! and HP, desktop PCs, Repeat headphones and refurbished devices. The…

Envie is a French network of work-integration companies that collect used household appliances, repair them and sell them again with a two-year warranty valid in all its shops. The first opened in…

Citiz is a French network of car-sharing operators, most of them cooperatives. Members book a car by the hour or the day, pick it up from a fixed station near home and bring it back there, paying for…

Label Emmaüs is the online shop of the Emmaüs movement and other organisations of the social and solidarity economy. About 180 solidarity shops sell second-hand books, clothes, furniture, household…

Oxfam Shops are second-hand shops in Germany, run by Oxfam with about 4,000 volunteers, that sell donated clothes, books, music, films and household goods. Their surplus funds Oxfam Deutschland’s…

Ressourceries and recycleries are local second-hand shops, most often run by associations, that collect objects people no longer want, check, clean and repair them, then sell them at low prices or…

Reuse Network, called the Furniture Re-use Network until 2018, is the UK umbrella charity of local charities and social enterprises that collect donated furniture and appliances and pass them on at…

Adopte un bureau is a French company that buys used office furniture from businesses, refurbishes it in its workshops in Antony and Albi and resells it, with a 24-month warranty, at much lower prices…

Olio is a free British app for giving away food and household items to neighbours, and for collecting surplus food from shops such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s through volunteer “Food Waste Heroes”, who…

momox is a Berlin company that buys used books, CDs, DVDs, games and clothes from private people and resells them online, in Germany through its shop medimops and in France through momox shop. Buying…

nebenan.de is a German neighbourhood network where only verified residents of the same area see each other’s posts: they lend tools, give things away, ask for help, recommend tradespeople and…

Worn Wear is Patagonia’s programme for used and repaired clothing: the outdoor brand buys back its own garments, resells them second-hand and repairs them under its Ironclad Guarantee, so that a…

Selency is a French online marketplace for second-hand and vintage furniture and decoration, where antique dealers and private sellers list items that its team checks by hand before they go online.

Geev is an app and website for giving things away between neighbours: furniture, clothes, toys, appliances and food that would otherwise be thrown away. Givers post an ad with a photo, and the…

Vinted is a website and app for selling second-hand items between private people: mostly clothes, but also shoes, children’s things, books, homeware and electronics, usually at prices far below new…

Back Market is a French online marketplace for refurbished electronics: smartphones, laptops, tablets, game consoles and household appliances, restored and sold by professional refurbishers rather…

Donnons.org is a website and app for giving objects away between private people in France: you post an ad for something you no longer want, or pick up for free what someone nearby is giving. Its…