Good practice:

Alargascencia - Achieving a sustainable society

Alargascencia is an initiative of the "Friends of the Earth” NGO, which works to promote local and global change to achieve a more sustainable society. It is a website with a directory of organizations and businesses that offer circular services, such as repairing, renting, bartering objects, or buying and selling second-hand products. Furthermore, the initiative facilitates the search for small local businesses, cooperatives and other initiatives located near the user, allowing searches to be filtered according to location, services offered and type of product (sports, leisure, textiles, electronic equipment, furniture, or tools).
This collaborative tool was created to help reverse the "planned obsolescence" which is a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the product will become out of date or useless within a known time period. Thus, seeking a solution to produce less and minimize waste. As well as promoting reuse, repair and sharing of goods within the community.
Organizations and businesses apply for admission to the directory through an online form, the NGO validates the accuracy of the data (through the website and a telephone call). Once accepted, the organization appears in the directory. The number of participating organizations grows thanks to suggestions from users and NGO workers. To attract new organizations and users, frequent dissemination activities are carried out through videos, social networks, TV and radio programs.

Personnel costs: approx. 5,000€/year for 3 people spending 5% of their working hours a day, (2 from the NGO, and 1 from the Zaragoza office).
Development and maintenance of the website: through a free program, and its maintenance is carried out as a task of the NGO's IT specialist.

Alargascencia involves citizens in repair and reuse with more than 1,500 organizational members throughout Spain. In Aragón, there are more than 100 associated organizations.Thus, reducing consumption and the demand for materials needed to create new products.The initiative reduces environmental and social impacts on a global scale. Furthermore, the practice encourages local and responsible consumption by citizens, with a strong presence in the media (radio interviews and articles in the press).

Difficulty in keeping the website updated with changes in the organization; data is updated through periodic calls and/or e-mails, being a time-consuming effort. A key lesson is a need for constant dissemination of the practice to reach the maximum number of users and thus promote repair and reuse.

The good practice contributes to solve the problem of overconsumption by providing citizens with access to sustainable consumption initiatives based on reduction, repair, and reuse. The online tool can be easily created and adapted to the different contexts and consumption patterns of each country/region, helping to connect consumers with initiatives that might otherwise be unknown.