The beginning of The exchange of still operating appliances in the Library of things

In our company, we have set ourselves one of the goals of the current Life project. Together with the Library og Things, which is a non-profit lending company for a variety of leisure items and operates on the model of classic library lending, we have prepared a special Exchange office for still operating appliances. It will take place at the location of the Library of Things on Belokranjska ulica 6 in Ljubljana, from 22 April 2022 (World Earth Day) to 5 June 2022 (World Environment Day) - every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 16:00 and 19:00 .

Everyone is invited to bring any working appliance that you no longer need at home to the Library of Things and replace it with another appliance or just hand it in. You can also bring working appliances that run on electricity or batteries, such as household appliances, speakers, power tools, a projector, a sewing machine, electric toys, etc. The first 100 who will bring you a still working machine to the exchange will be additionally rewarded.

Among the collected e-waste, which is by the way the fastest growing waste in the world, there are as many as 2% of fully operational appliances that could otherwise find a new owner. Every item has a certain lifespan, and with appliances, many of their owners decide to replace them before their lifespan expires or simply don’t use them as often as they envisioned when buying them. Due to the lack of time to sell the still operating device, they prefer to take their still working appliance, which they no longer need, to the nearest recycling point or even throw it in a container for mixed municipal waste. One way to avoid this is to be able to find a new owner by exchanging them and thus not encourage the use of materials and energy to produce a new one. Therefore, we can say that exchange offices are environmentally friendly events. Appliances on exchange also cost nothing, we get rid of those we no longer need and perhaps from the current repertoire of appliances brought by others we find one that we would be happy to have at home.

Getting a product that has a story has become a new trend and not just a way to more easily survive a crisis. Such activities offer personal experiences that we have forgotten a bit in recent decades at the expense of globalization, but today we appreciate them more and more. Everyone is invited to visit the exchange office at the Library of things and become a part of the awakened community!

The exchange office started on World Earth Day, so in honor of our planet, we also organized an eco-sharing workshop in the Library of things for ninth-graders from the Bežigrad Primary School.