The first item sold on EBay and lessons in resource efficiency

I don’t like useable stuff ending up in skips. So I set up www.warp-it.co.uk last year. We have saved clients £1000’s, 1000’s tonnes of CO₂, diverted tonnes and tonnes from landfill. 80% of Tyne and Wear Local Authorities use WARPit.

The secret to keeping nice stuff out of skips is being able to find new owners quickly and easily. To do this, a large network of interested subscribers is required.

The first item ever swapped on EBay demonstrates that if you have a large network you can almost always find a home for resources that are surplus or underused.

WARPit allows organisations to set up sharing/swapping circles for their staff to trade surplus or underused resources with other staff in the organisation, to stop unneeded purchases, save money and reduce environmental impact.

To maximise value to the primary organisation it is important to reuse items within the organisation where possible. Staff subscribers belonging to the primary organisation are known as Priority 1 subscribers. I tell clients to have as many staff as possible on their internal network.   

The more internal subscribers on an organisation’s WARPit system, the more chance that the items will be reused within the organisation and save money on purchasing new equipment.

In some circumstances there may not be the opportunity to reuse the equipment/items within the primary organisation due to time and space pressures- or lack of storage facilities. In this situation the items can be advertised to Priority 2 subscribers if required.  This is another benefit of having a large extended network- never incur disposal costs or risks again- because you can pass unwanted surplus resources to other’s.

Priority 2 subscribers are usually local partners, charities and businesses. Priority 2 subscribers help to set up town/city and region wide sharing networks. This is a network of organisations who are swapping and sharing surplus or underused resources with each other.

If you have a large enough network you can always find a home for your surplus or underused resources.