Factual“Overconsumption: the impasse” (4/5). In a society where everything is based on growth, and therefore on the frenzy of purchases, the road to questioning promises to be long.
Car seat, hot dog machine, yoga mat, food processor for babies, blower-vacuum cleaner-leaf shredder… In the former Savattero health center in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), on the edge of Paris, more than 400 objects began their second life in a new kind of library opened on April 6th.
Here, there are no books or video games like in a media library. But a “library of objects”, which will be fully operational in the fall, where you can already borrow a sander, raclette machine, waffle iron… So many items which, purchased new, very often clutter up the accommodation or end up be discarded, as they are only used occasionally. “Is it really worth it that in every house there is a drill for it to only be used for twelve minutes in its entire lifespan?” »wonders Sylvain Mustaki, at the origin of the project with his association, L’Observatoire du Partage.
The idea of this former producer of international variety shows: “Share everything that may have a rare or occasional use, which is left in the cupboards and which generates plastic and waste. » “It does not claim to meet all needs”but, for him, prioritizing use over ownership can “contribute to a change in consumption habits”.
From 5 to 50 euros per week, depending on the value of the object
In this building of 600 square meters, Mr. Mustaki hopes to bring together a thousand objects by the end of the year, mainly from donations, and 3,000 square meters, in the long term, that everyone can borrow for a fee. modest. From 5 to 50 euros per week, depending on the value of the object, « pour ensure a minimum of financial equilibrium”. He has studied the matter well. “There are 300 such structures around the world, many of them in South America. In the big cities, after three to five years, they operate with nearly 3,000 objects and a thousand loans per month”enthuses this sixty-year-old who was greatly inspired by the theories of sharing in the organization of society developed by the American association Shareable.
In this new place, there is also a machine for regenerating batteries, a room devoted to co-repair, workshops for schoolchildren and, soon, music rehearsal rooms. “My initial conviction is that at some point, if we do nothing, it will explode. »
Some figures from the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) bear witness to this: if the French think they own 34 electrical and electronic appliances per household, they in fact own 99 on average, including 6 never used. Between 54 million and 110 million smartphones sleep in drawers and an average of 2.5 tons of objects are accumulated in homes, or 45 tons of materials used to manufacture them.
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