Buy fewer products (re-use and repair)

See below the Buy fewer products (re-use and repair) Sub-Actions. Click or tap the sections further below to reveal a summary of the benefits of buying fewer products, future-gazing to help visualise how this would work for you, thought-provoking videos, a step-by-step guide outlining how to achieve this Top Action, expert tips, and useful links and references.

It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and complete them all at once. Visit our Approach page for other tips on how to set yourself up to minimise your environmental impact and get to net zero carbon.

Want to progress this Top Action? Start by making your commitment using the button below, which will help to motivate you to keep progressing.

Have you completed this Top Action already? Select the appropriate button below to update your progress. You would need to complete:

• all the Halfway (0.5) Sub-Actions to complete half of the Top Action.
• all the Halfway (0.5) and Full (1.0) Sub-Actions to fully complete the Top Action.

This Top Action is all about living a leaner lifestyle in which we can cast aside some of those possessions and expectations that don’t really matter, embrace “sufficiency” and focus on the things that truly bring us happiness and joy. It doesn’t cost you any money to take this approach and complete this Top Action but it can save you a lot of money!

The consumer lifestyle does not bring us any lasting happiness as outlined on Psychology Today, and managing our many possessions can actually get very stressful. Our possessions take up space and we have to find time to clean and maintain them.

Our consumer habits for regularly buying new things we don’t need have a large environmental impact, for instance, requiring much land and water and generating pollution. If we decide what we truly get pleasure from, focus on those things and cut back the rest to what is necessary, we can both save money and improve our happiness and wellbeing.

Many of us have too many possessions that we don’t use, which could be cleared out, sold or donated – it feels good to know the unused possessions will have another life and be useful to someone, and we may make some money too!

The bigger the item that is unused or underused, the more you have to gain by selling it. Many families have multiple cars which relatively rarely all get used at the same time; they have a large ongoing cost and possibly a significant sales value. By selling surplus cars, there is a huge amount of money to be saved as well as reduced environmental impact.

When considering buying something new, why not buy it second hand or borrow or rent it instead, avoiding the need to buy new products with all of that embedded environmental and monetary cost.

By learning to repair our possessions we can learn a useful new skill such as sewing or woodwork or electronics. By getting creative we can even “up-cycle” our old possessions into something unique and attractive.

Try and imagine how your life will be and how you will feel when you complete this EcoTracker Top Action. This may feel like a big change or a small change, but really focus on how the benefits of the change could impact and improve your life and the lives of others.

For instance try and imagine how you will feel about:

• your reduced environmental impact which will help avoid the worst effects of climate change and ecological breakdown within your lifetime, helping to ensure you and others can live a long and full life.
• improved long term prospects for your children and future generations, who will have a much greater opportunity to avoid climate change and ecological breakdown during their lives. They will be much safer than in the alternative future of extreme climate change and ecological breakdown and many lives will be saved. Will you be able to look your child in the eye in years to come and say that you have done everything you can to protect their future?
• improved opportunities and social justice (climate justice) for those around the world who are currently struggling with the early impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown, with many lives and livelihoods saved.
• being able to focus on the things that truly bring you happiness and joy, such as spending time with your loved ones, rather than on collecting and managing your many possessions.
• having a less cluttered home.
• having only the possessions that matter to you.
• saving a lot of money.
• learning useful new skills.
• by upcycling older possessions or buying second hand, you can gain some really high quality and unique possessions and add your personal touch.
• by renting possessions you rarely use, you will not have to store or maintain them. When you need to rent them you can get the most up to date model and one that meets your exact needs at the time.
• some of the above may be really life-changing for you and your overall standard of living.

An effective way of developing a commitment and ongoing motivation to progressing this EcoTracker Top Action is to work out which of the themes above generate the most powerful emotional responses for you personally. Then try to capture this in some way and store it for when you might need motivation later.

You might be able to create a strong image in your memory, or a link to existing memories. You might want to write down how you feel say on a post-it note or in a diary as a reminder; perhaps somewhere that you will regularly see the message or somewhere you can come back to when you want to. You might even want to share this on your ‘progress thread’ on social media. If you are feeling creative, perhaps even draw an image to represent your future. Also, consider whether you might already have an object which could trigger your motivation e.g. a picture of your children.

These steps are generic because this is your unique personal journey and you will need to explore the details for yourself, using this process and the Expert Tips below as a guide and support.

The time required to complete steps may vary quite a lot depending on your resources or skill level, or whether or not you do the work yourself or pay a professional to do it. It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and do them all at once, and so you may go through steps multiple times for the different Sub-Actions before you have completed the Top Action.

1. Build motivation from within to complete this EcoTracker Top Action, assisted by reading the Benefits and Future-gazing to imagine how your life will improve (10 minutes)
2. Make a personal commitment and share this to social media (5 minutes)
3. Book a time in your diary for progressing your EcoTracker actions – you may wish to set up a regular slot for taking actions (5 minutes)
4. Research – read the guidance on this EcoTracker Top Action page such as the Expert Tips and you may wish to visit the community for support (30 minutes +)
5. Discuss with others in your household and agree broadly what you will do (15-30 minutes)
6. Get the resources lined up e.g. find what you need online, locate or borrow/rent/buy the materials and tools (2-3 hours)
7. Make a final decision on exactly what you will do and book in a date (15 minutes)
8. Complete all Sub-Actions to enable you to complete the Full Top Action (5 + hours)
9. Visit our Tracker page, and share your progress to social media (5 minutes). You may want to share your progress as you go through the steps for each Sub-Action.
10. Once you’ve mastered this Top Action, why not also help others in the community complete their’s, with tips and support (1 minute, periodically)

Don’t blame yourself for your past habits, but choose to focus on what you can improve. Similarly, choose not to blame others in your household or elsewhere for their current or past habits, but to point out to them the damaging impacts of unnecessary purchases and the benefits of buying less. Encourage and support others to make changes (e.g. by using EcoTracker). You may need to focus on and persist with some of these changes for weeks or months before they become new habits that you don’t need to think about. See the Approach page for further suggestions on developing habits.

We live in a throwaway society, where product manufacturers make cheap new disposable products for short-term use by people. This has unfortunately become the expectation for how we live. It may help to try and develop a mindset in which you take responsibility for your purchases and your possessions and try to do your best to make sure the products you buy are needed and robust, and that the possessions that you no longer want are maintained and passed on to someone else. Even if your products and possessions no longer have value for you, consider the energy that has gone into producing them and the environmental impact caused; you could consider yourself to be their steward, making sure they retain their value and get to the next suitable place on their journey, in line with the waste hierarchy as illustrated by DEFRA:

Try embracing the idea of “sufficiency” in which you decide on which possessions, materials and activities you really need to live a good and happy life and focus on these whilst avoiding buying those things that are unnecessary.

The first step to halving your spend on new products is to work out how much you buy. Try tracking your purchases over a typical period or look at your bank statement. Identify which purchases were important for you to live a sufficient and happy life and which were unnecessary or impulse buys. Try and fight any urges to make impulse buys and give yourself time to think whether these are really necessary. You may already have reduced your spend in the past or may never been a big spender; if you are struggling to halve your spend for these reasons, move onto focusing on the other sub-actions. It is also important to consider how much we have stored at home and how much we need.

If you have too many possessions that you don’t use, choose to have a clear out and sell them via a car boot sale or eBay or Gumtree, donate them to a charity shop, or give them away via Freecycle. Someone else may be able to use them and they may not need to buy a new product as a result. Only put them in your rubbish or take them to the local waste facility after you have already tried the alternative options. Moving house is a good time to review your possessions and a good time to build new habits.

The EU and UK has brought in a legal right to repair various home electrical items, which, as described by the BBC, requires manufacturers to make spare parts available to consumers for at least 10 years. However, according to Which?, there is still room for improvement, such as expanding the law to cover more equipment and a longer time period.

This is part of a drive in some parts of the world to promote a ‘circular economy’ where products are designed to eliminate waste and materials and products remain in use for as long as possible at each level of the waste hierarchy before moving down to the next level; this is the opposite to the throwaway society where a material is used once and then thrown away. Read more on the circular economy, which can also involve minimising pollution and regenerating natural systems, from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. 

Buying second hand is a great way to support the circular economy. To get second hand items generally, try eBay or Gumtree or Freecycle.

To buy second hand clothes whilst supporting a good cause, try a charity shop. To buy or sell clothes try Vinted.

For babies and children, the products that you will use will only be needed for a short period (e.g. prams, cots, clothes, toys etc), so choose to get these second hand when possible and ensure they go to a good home when they are no longer needed. You may need to buy some new things, particularly for a new baby – for tips see the Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste) EcoTracker Top Action.

When you do buy new items, choose something you will use for a significant amount of time, that they will have a long product lifespan, that they are designed to be repaired and disassembled and that they are are eco-friendly (see the Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste) EcoTracker Top Action).

Avoid single-use items wherever possible, and choose to get into the habit of taking re-usable items with you such as drinks bottles and shopping bags whenever you might need them. Often single-use items are associated with plastic – see the Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste) EcoTracker Top Action.

For furniture and fittings If you want to buy new but and at the same time sell back your old furniture, try IKEA who are promoting the circular economy with their buy-back policy.

You can pay a professional to repair your possessions, or you can do so yourself in many cases. There are guides for many repairs online, for instance at iFixit, which also has spare parts for sale. Alternatively, there are many repair videos available online, for instance on Youtube, which can give you excellent advice as well as inspirational videos with ideas for upcycling. Learn basic sewing skills in order to significantly prolong the life of your clothes. There may be local community groups or events that can provide you with support to complete repair jobs, for instance, those organised by The Restart Project.

If you are really keen you may be able to find an appropriate repair course. If you choose to repair things yourself, make sure this does not take up too much of your precious time and frustrate and wear you down; if it does definitely consider getting a professional to do the hard work for you.

Research whether there are any specialist local facilities that could help you e.g. repair workshops / upcycling centres / circular economy hubs etc.

Rather than having an under-used car sitting on the drive, try and combine your household car journeys so you can get by with fewer cars. Preferably use other modes of transport where possible, such as walking, cycling and using public transport – see the Walk, cycle, use public transport and reduce driving EcoTracker Top Action

Consider hiring or leasing an electric car, to get a car when you need it.  Try Enterprise Car Club or Zipcar which allows you to hire cars regularly when you need them. Consider Hiyacar, which does peer to peer car rental, and if you have an underused car, consider listing your car there too.

Also, consider car sharing either with someone you know or with a stranger using Liftshare or other similar services, so that there are less cars on the road and you share the emissions from one car. See the Low impact driving EcoTracker Top Action.

Defra (The waste hierarchy): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69403/pb13530-waste-hierarchy-guidance.pdf

BBC (Right to repair): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56340077

Which? (Right to repair): https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/06/new-right-to-repair-laws-introduced-what-do-they-actually-mean-for-you/

Ellen Macarthur Foundation (Circular economy): https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept

Psychology Today (happiness and consumption): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/buddhist-economics/201803/why-over-consumption-is-making-us-unhappy

Repair:

iFixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide

The Restart Project: https://therestartproject.org/

Buy and sell second hand items:

eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/

Gumtree: https://www.gumtree.com/

Freecycle: https://www.freecycle.org/

Vinted (clothes): https://www.vinted.co.uk/

Buying furniture:

IKEA: https://www.ikea.com/