On my block, 47 people own a lawnmower. They use it for about 30 minutes every two weeks. For the other 335 and a half hours of the fortnight, that lawnmower is sitting in the garage.
There are 22 power drills. There are 2 table saws. 14 pressure washers. And there are 18 trailers.
None of these tools are used for more than a short amount of time. But we all own them.
47 Lawnmowers is designed to bring the number of lawnmowers and other tools down to a sensible level by leveraging the sharing economy.
Participants will install the app, register their address, register their tools and be shown the tools around them available for sharing. The app lets people link up with each other to share tools. Registering or Sharing a tool earns you credit, and borrowing a tool will cost you. Borrowing a tool is free, but if you break it, you fix it.
In the future, the app could be expanded to allow for group purchasing of big ticket items like a new trailer. Or getting a rubbish skip in. Or even organising a working bee at someone’s house or a block barbie.