Did you know that almost 18 million kg of waste was avoided through customers buying pre-loved and Refurbished items on eBay? Ready to be even more shocked? That’s equivalent to the weight of about 8,000 black cabs! Also, almost 370,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were reduced, equating to taking about 265,000 cars off the road for a year.
Thanks to our pre-loved fashion buyers, nearly 1.4 million kg of waste was reduced which is equivalent to the weight of 3.5 million shirts. We also avoided 40,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to over 40,000 return flights between New York to London.
With the help of eBay’s Refurbished and used tech, over 250,000 tonnes of GHG emissions were avoided—equivalent to saving over 4 million new phones being made. Additionally, nearly 2.9 million kg of waste was spared, saving 24 million phones from landfill.
Not only do vintage items add character to a space, they're also good for the planet. By buying Refurbished, used or vintage, nearly 5.5 million kg of waste was avoided—equivalent to over 450 double-decker buses, along with around 25,000 tonnes of emissions saved.
Recycled, Refurbished and used finds saved over 3.4 million kg of waste which is equivalent to around 4,300 Formula 1 cars! The impact didn't stop there—over 20,000 tonnes of emissions were cut, equivalent to more than 11,500 flights from London to Sydney.
Before you make your next buy, consider trying pre-loved or Refurbished first. You'll be surprised how many finds you can get for less on eBay!
Play around with keywords and experiment with search filters like price, brands, conditions and more.
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The full report can be found in our Methodology to Calculate the Environmental and Financial Benefits of Recommerce.
eBay took the next steps to further understand the environmental and financial savings associated with selling recommerce (used and refurbished) on the eBay marketplace.
By mapping the weights and impacts of products for five different product categories (Electronics, Fashion, Lifestyle, and Parts & Accessories), we are able to calculate the avoided carbon emissions, avoided waste and financial savings for recommerce items sold on the marketplace.
There is an environmental benefit from the reuse of a product because the extraction of raw materials, production, processing and upstream transport of the equivalent new product are no longer required.
By using this data, eBay calculates the avoided carbon emissions, avoided waste and financial benefits of the sale of used and refurbished products on an annual basis and publishes the results in our Impact Report.