Global Garage Sale

I was having a conversation with my aunt the other day about The Circular Economy when she proposed a rather insightful hypothetical scenario. "Imagine that right now, there are no material resources left anywhere on Earth - that no minerals can be mined, no crude oil retrieved, and no trees can be cut down -- this is the kind of situation that will breed new ideas, because as they say, necessity is the mother of invention." I agree that Aunt Carolyn's "Necessity Thinking" does indeed engender rapid and expansive innovation. 

In fact, seconds after she mentioned the above scenario, I jumped in my seat, saying aloud, "that's it - if there were no more raw material resources on Earth, and all that we had to work with was preexisting product - we (consumers) could sell many/any of our things to processors and manufacturing companies on a online outlet - we could have a Global Garage Sale!" 

The name "Global Garage Sale" stuck with me - so much so that I was compelled to document the concept here on my blog, and even create a quick logo, as shown above. How does a Global Garage Sale happen you may ask? Here are some high-level nuggets: 

Global Garage Sale (GGS) establishes a kind of universal takeback program that allows consumers to "upload," or sell their goods on an online platform. On this GGS site they enter key product information that determines two things: Firstly, on the consumer side, the amount of money that will be paid out to the "uploaders". And secondly, the material streams to which the product will be entered on the "downloader" or industry side. Various processors and manufacturers "subscribe" to GGS, and have multiple high-value material streams to select from, for use in the manufacture of new products. GGS electric trucks are dispatched to collect all goods, and upon retrieval, "uploaders" are paid for their contribution. The fleet swiftly returns to GSS facilities around the Globe, where processing begins and bales of materials are created. Processors and manufacturers then purchase these bales of homogenous material. GGS can help everyone around the world benefit during the approaching transition to a circular economy.