Reuse and resell instead of producing from scratch. Not just clothes, but also objects and furniture: a trend that continues to grow and that after companies like Decathlon now sees Ikea come to the forefront, a giant that has just launched its Preowned project (which will start first in Spain and Norway, then also in Italy) to sell used furniture or products that we no longer need.
In addition to business, what environmental impact can the choice of large companies that invest in the second-hand market have? The answer is complex because there is still a lack of data in the field of objects or furniture, for example, while for clothes there are already important indications. As is known, for years several online platforms, but also companies, have been offering the possibility of increasing second-hand purchases especially in the world of fashion. A world, that of fashion, which as virgin production of garments could impact in 2050 for almost a fifth of climate-altering emissions.
Also for this reason, a 2023 Oxfam study recalled, it is important to start realizing how much reusing can be good for the environment: if for example all adults in the United Kingdom bought half of their clothes in second-hand circuits, as much as 12.5 billion kilos of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere would be avoided. It is practically the equivalent of doing without a plane that goes around the world over 17 thousand times. A nice saving, less easy to identify – also due to the impacts of transport and related to the sale – for other products, perhaps bulkier. In 2022 Subito, however, had the Swedish Environmental Research Institute carry out a study, called “Second Hand Effect”, precisely to obtain some figures and ultimately estimated that for approximately 20 million used products resold, 2.7 million tons of CO2 were saved.
Subito – with an indication that could also be valid for the new Preowned launched by Ikea – hypothesized that for example buying and using a used bed could save 36 kg of CO2, while a wardrobe around 58 kilograms. Other analyses, such as the one carried out on one of the first platforms for the sale of used objects, already in the late nineties, namely Craigslist, maintain that the impact of second-hand products leads to a reduction in the daily production of waste by approximately one third.
Always observing the large quantity of products that, thanks to a second life, avoid ending up in landfill, and therefore in a negative circle for the environment, one of the main giants in the sale of used objects – eBay – in 2021 had calculated that in a single year it had saved almost 87 million items, in practice 18 thousand tons less of objects destined for landfills or incinerators. Furthermore, even if it should be calculated case by case, in the majority of transactions of buying and selling second-hand objects – which are increasingly popular with both customers and companies – there is a reduction in waste, pollution and energy related to production, impact on the territory with the extraction of raw materials, as well as a smaller footprint on water resources.
Again according to the Second Hand Economy Observatory in Italy, the second-hand market is now consolidated and growing, given that almost 60% of Italians last year chose used products, an increase of over 16% compared to ten years ago and the overall turnover is estimated at around 26 billion euros. At this point, when Ikea also opens Preowned in Italy, it will be interesting to understand the volumes of a revolution, also in environmental terms. So far the Swedish company certifies, for example in the experimental reuse stores opened in Sweden, to have “avoided up to 90% of CO2e emissions compared to the purchase of a new product”, as well as to have resold almost 32 million products in its circular hubs.
This article is originally published on .repubblica.it
