Sharing Economy Rebound- The Case of Peer-2-Peer Sharing of Food Waste

Abstract

The Sharing Economy is commonly assumed to promote sustainable consumption and improve material efficiency through better utilization of existing product stocks. Yet the cost-savings and convenience of using sharing economy platforms can ultimately stimulate additional demand for products and services. As a result, some or even all of the expected environmental benefits attributed to sharing could be negated, a phenomenon known as Rebound Effect. Relying on a unique dataset covering close to 1.1 million exchanges on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P), food sharing platform, we use a combination of Environmentally Extended Input Output analysis (EEIO), geo-spatial network analysis, and econometric modeling to quantify how much of the expected environmental benefits attributed to sharing are negated via rebound effects. We find that over the 3 years examined, sharing edible yet unwanted food with other peers was associated with nearly 1,800 tons of avoided CO2-eq. However, our results suggest that over 80% of these avoided emissions were negated as platform users re-spent the money saved by sharing on other goods and services. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering the potential implications rebound effects might have on the efficacy of leveraging the sharing economy to elevate environmental burdens.

Theory-Based Roadmap for Assessing Sustainability in the Collaborative Economy

“…Driven by different consumption motivations, the consumption behavior of users in CE may promote environmental sustainability by reducing the demand for new products and their corresponding production while improving the effective use of existing products. However, as mentioned before, collaborative behaviors may also lead to negative rebound effects whether directly (i.e., increase in product or service usage intensity) (Leismann et al, 2013;Harris et al, 2021;Pouri, 2021) or indirectly (i.e., shifting the gains and savings obtained from the CE to other potentially less sustainable consumption activities) (Meshulam et al, 2021;Pouri, 2021). Consumers' initial intentions and motivations are therefore crucial in this regard since those primarily motivated by sustainable objectives will also seek to curb adverse rebound effects, while consumers motivated by other criteria such as lower prices/financial gains, better commodity or social prestige, might be less conscious about adverse effects (e.g., rebound effects) or less prone to act in line with sustainable motives.…”

“…For example, affordable sharing services (e.g., car-sharing, ride-hailing, accommodation sharing, talent sharing, and niche services) provided by the platform enable consumers to use more of the platform's services (Leismann et al, 2013;Harris et al, 2021;Pouri, 2021). Indirect rebound effect refers to the situation where the rebound effect occurs outside the same resource or service system (Meshulam et al, 2021;Pouri, 2021). The expenses saved and the earnings generated by participating in the CE may also stimulate a new round of consumption in other areas or sectors.…”

“…The expenses saved and the earnings generated by participating in the CE may also stimulate a new round of consumption in other areas or sectors. For example, the money savings from the renting or reselling of old goods, affordable accommodation sharing and coworking services, or the earnings from talent sharing or niche services may be re-spent on other goods and services such as new electronic products, fashionable clothes, and air travel (Harris et al, 2021;Meshulam et al, 2021;Pouri, 2021).…”

Policy for material efficiency in homes and cars: Enabling new climate change mitigation strategies

“…10 The 2021 update to the NDCs showed an increase in attention to material efficiency in homes and cars in the form of qualitative commitments. Table 4 shows the number of G20 countries that reference either energy and/or material c Research suggests that ride-hailing does not currently improve material efficiency and was not modeled (i.e., Diao et al, 2021;Meshulam, Goldberg, & Makov, 2023;Schaller, 2021;Ward et al, 2021). d Sometimes called car-pooling, ride-sharing refers to driving arrangements where people with same or similar driving destinations share a ride.…”

Sharing economy rebound: The case of peer‐to‐peer sharing of food waste

“…For instance, several studies show that car sharing displaces not only single passenger rides, but also more sustainable transport modes such as public transport and walking (Clewlow & Mishra, 2017; Diao et al., 2021; Gehrke et al., 2019; Jung & Koo, 2018; Lee et al., 2019). For a more extensive review of empirically driven assessments of sharing economy environmental performance, see Meshulam et al.’s (2022) working paper.…”