“Ge-reutilise” promotes second-hand and rental goods in Geneva

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With the aim of encouraging the population to adopt a sustainable approach to consumption, a new online directory provides the public with the addresses of shops, companies, associations and regular markets active in the field of second-hand goods or rental services located within the territory of the eight partner municipalities.

Clothes, furniture, tools, bicycles and computers can thus be found on the ge-reutilise.ch website.

Reducing the environmental impact of consumption

Household consumption accounts for approximately 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions of a Swiss city, which are responsible for climate change. At least 10% of these emissions comes from consumer goods (clothes, shoes, electronic devices and household appliances, furniture).

Manufacturing an article uses a large quantity of resources and energy (mining and processing raw materials, transport, etc.) and generates numerous forms of pollution, including CO2 emissions. For example, production of a computer weighing 2kg requires 600kg of different raw materials.

By enhancing the visibility of local operators on the second hand and rental markets, www.ge-reutilise.ch is a handy tool enabling each individual to reduce their environmental impact.

It is preferable for an object to be rented successively by several people than for a new article to sit gathering dust in a cupboard.

It is also about making “second hand” second nature when we need to by something. 

Promoting and strengthening the circular economy 

The partner municipalities aim to promote sustainable methods of consumption while strengthening the local circular economy which makes it possible to keep articles and materials in circulation as long as possible while driving the territory forwards.

"Ge-reutilise" complements its sister website "Ge-repare", which has encouraged people to have objects repaired since 2014, recording almost 40,000 searches per year.

A directory designed to grow

The Geneva section of the FRC is responsible for selecting addresses according to criteria defined in collaboration with the partner municipalities. Currently, almost 80 addresses have been listed on the website. The list is not exhaustive and is designed to evolve with the help of consumers, who suggest new sites.

The fruit of a partnership

Coordinated by the City of Geneva and the FRC Geneva, this project is implemented in collaboration with Bernex, Carouge, Grand-Saconnex, Lancy, Meyrin, Onex and Plan-les-Ouates.