Product Sharing

Product sharing, an in-between of public and private ownership, is one strategy of minimizing ecological impact. Rather than presuming that individual ownership (where each entity owns their “own,” according to their wants) is the best system of consumer acquisition and distribution, product sharing aims to make joint use a viable and desirable alternative.

[Page 363]Product sharing has five main benefits to people and the environment:

• Product sharing reduces the number of items produced:
• It may expand the number of users, and may provide access to those who could not otherwise afford use of the product.
• As costs are minimized, product sharing potentially gives people the possibility to select more efficient and durable products, rather than going with the cheapest option. (This can also influence the design of products to match up to these need standards.)
• With joint use, product users are no longer individually responsible for the storage, repair, or disposal of the item. This saves space, lends to recommended maintenance, lengthens durability, requires that chemicals be disposed of properly, and generally removes some of the burdens of ownership.
• Product sharing has some social benefits in its communal, club-joining aspect that can link sharers to other participants. Even in situations such as Zipcar (see below), where the marketplace has removed the requirement of interpersonal relationships, people are proud of their affiliation and claim new identities and allegiances.

Of course there are also several risks to product sharing. Organizationally, there is always the risk that you will be left without in a time of need. Sharing requires trust in the (informal) community of sharers or for (formal) market organized sharing, at minimum, trust in the company organizing joint use. Whether formal or informal, someone needs to be trusted to keep track of using, repairing, and making the item ready and available for another's use on a timely basis. Additionally, most sharing arrangements are temporary.

When a joint use organization dissolves, so does access to the product, as residents of downtown San Diego, California, learned when Zipcar bought out the company Flexcar, and ended a car-sharing program they had organized their lives around. Culturally, product sharing may violate an individual's sense of security of the “free market evac plan” or the ability to individually buy one's way out of problems. In addition, people have to get past their cultural concerns with worn, used, and personal attachment to their possessions, according to R. Belk. It may in fact be easier to share something not previously owned as opposed to sharing the reliable car you have had for years.

Finally, sharing is a social process. Socially, product sharing may require social interaction in situations where people have previously been able to avoid interaction and possible confrontation. Bad sharing experiences, or even a fear of them, could strain human relationships, lead to bad social reputations, or even foster retaliatory property damage.

Some goods are more easily shared than others. Product sharing is a limited strategy and only works for unique items, with particular uses, in certain contexts, and at specific scales. For example, researchers have noted that durable expensive products (like washing machines, lawnmowers, and cars) that are used at irregular intervals are prime products for sharing. Often, access to a central location or willing participants can be an deterrent to product sharing, and may lead to exclusivity or limited applicability of product sharing.

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