There’s a book coming out that you’re going to want to read. 

Described as ‘hilarious and brilliantly topical’, it’s written by Eleanor Tucker, a former features writer for newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian and Red, who is now the expert on the sharing economy. 

And exactly what is the sharing economy and why should I care? 

Well if, like me, you started using thelittleloop because the hand-me-downs dried up, then you’re already part way there. But this is the question we started with, and she talks about this and much much more in her new book  Thanks for Sharing: How I Gave Up Buying and Embraced Borrowing, Swapping and Renting.

Hi Eleanor, let’s start with the basics - what is the sharing economy for those who either don’t know the term or feel overwhelmed by it?

Good question… but first, a disclaimer. There are several definitions out there: this is mine, and it’s one I’ve put together based on working with companies in this space over the past few years. So, the sharing economy means using technology – in the form of an app or an online platform – to connect with other people (rather than businesses) to borrow, rent or swap instead of buying.

In other words, it’s anything which could be described as ‘the Airbnb of…’, like listing your clothes on a website for others to borrow, or renting a car from your neighbour via an app. It’s also easily confused with similar terms, like the circular economy, which the sharing economy can be part of, but is more generally about keeping materials in use for as long as possible by reuse and recycling.

That’s WHAT – and this is WHY: the sharing economy allows us to get more use from things that we don’t use much, or don’t use at all. The fact is, the world has too many things in it, so when people transact with one another rather than a business, and share use of the same ‘thing’, it slows down the production of more of them. Another benefit is that it can make, or save you money, which is most welcome these days.

So by your definition thelittleloop is part of the circular economy but not the sharing economy. Why did you decide to feature us?

I’m not being a total purist in Thanks for Sharing: a few areas of the sharing economy have traditional renting mixed in, and I’ve included them too. For example, thanks to technology, clothes rental has gone online, and seen a surge in popularity. Just like ‘peer to peer’ or ‘person to person’ rental, it’s in the laudable spirit of ‘access over ownership’: as a renter, you don’t own the item, so one item is worn more often by more people, which the planet no doubt prefers.

At thelittleloop we noticed that for many, sharing seems like an entirely natural thing to do, but to others, it feels very wrong. We get comments about how we convince parents to reuse clothes for example. Thinking about the UK specifically, why do you think that is and how have you seen it changing?

I think attitudes have changed a lot in the last decade, which is so inspiring to see. When my children were babies, (they’re now a teen and a pre-teen), there was a huge stigma attached to renting, or buying second-hand, almost as though you were letting your child down. That’s changing rapidly now – the stigma is starting to be attached to buying everything new. How good is that?!

Through my research into the sharing economy, I’ve learned that many early platforms and apps fell by the wayside. Some people – like the commenter on your blog perhaps – just didn’t like the thought of sharing things with others. Maybe they thought – or think – that it’s unhygienic, or not ‘exclusive’ enough. Which doesn’t really make sense: hotel beds, even in the most expensive suites, were slept in by someone else the night before you checked in, so are ‘shared’ in that sense – just like cinema or restaurant seats.

So why has it caught on now? A few reasons I think. The first is that technology is now allowing us to share at scale, and making the user experience easy. The second is that there’s a need for it: financially (the cost of living crisis) and from a sustainability perspective (the climate crisis). And the third is that it’s not really new at all, so I think on the whole, it comes quite naturally to us. Sharing (the sort without the technology) is something we have always done – in fact it has proved in the past to be not only desirable to collaborate when it comes to consumption, but essential, and even actually part of our evolution. Which is pretty powerful stuff.

We’re a circular business model so we come up against the challenge of trying to change behaviour. We know radical steps are needed to shift the dial, but the models that are succeeding tend to be the less innovative ones. What are your thoughts on this?

 I think low risk and not hugely innovative is a perfect way to start. We want people to turn the way they’ve always consumed on its head – that’s a big ask. I always use the example of the California roll (yes, I'm talking about sushi here, but bear with me). When sushi arrived stateside in the early 1970s, nobody was familiar with eating raw fish or seaweed and it was too much of a change. 

The California roll concealed the raw fish inside rice and customers loved it. The lesson here is, people like change – but not too much change, and not at all once. The raw fish could be our radical steps in this analogy, so if we can hide them in low risk rice for a while, people will get used to the idea – and that’s when sharing will become as mainstream as sushi, with any luck…

Thanks for Sharing is out April 6 2023 - you can pre-order now and Eleanor has kindly given us a few copies for a little giveaway so follow us on socials for a chance to win!