I’m trying to take my part to fix the climate

Before starting to write this post, I just realized, that the upper part of the Chestnut tree, standing in the backyard of our building is almost dead because of the heatwaves in the past few months. I hope it’ll get better but by taking a look at the weather forecast, I can’t say I’m optimistic about it.

It’s still hard to believe when someone says, climate change doesn't exist or fake. I'm not an old man, still, I can remember that something was different when I was a kid.

I had discussions with my friends regarding this topic for a few years now, but I didn’t really know what could I do to make this better. Nothing I did felt enough. So I was really happy when I learned about Fixathon because it made me realize that the important thing is to act and don’t let the conversation go away. No matter how small the part you can take in the action, just do it!

So, I’m doing it. The way I can.

I’m working on a platform to help reduce the amount of trash we generate. And by trash I mean when we are throwing away “useless” or old tools we don’t like anymore to replace it with something new and shiny. Like a phone, a coffee maker, a microwave, shirts, books, etc.

In Hungary, we have a so-called “clearance” every year and it is just crazy how much stuff ends on a street in perfect conditions just because someone doesn’t use it anymore. I don’t know about you, but this makes me sad and angry at the same time.

I’m sure that there are people who would love to use or reuse those products and I want to make this easier.

The platform I’m building is a kind of open market where anyone can “sell” or “trade” the tools and products they don’t use anymore. I used quotes because the process doesn’t involve any money. With an example, this is how I think the process would work:

• You have an old smartphone that is a bit worn but works perfectly fine. You don’t know what to do with it, it’s just laying at the bottom of one of your drawers.
• You learn about the platform and you think this is a great way to get rid of your old stuff.
• You upload some basic information about the product you want to sell and give it a virtual price, eg. 10 Virtual Coins
• Someone saw your item, sends you a request that he wants to “buy” your stuff. You can accept or decline the request.
• Let’s say you accepted the request, now the buyer has to “pay” for your product and he will use his virtual coins to do that. You receive the coins, so now you have 10 Virtual Coins in your wallet and you can use those coins to “buy” stuff from someone else on the platform.

As a result of this, you get rid of a thing you don’t use anymore, someone on the other end is happy because he didn’t have to spend real money on buying a new tool and the most important thing is that your tool didn’t end up in the trash. It will eventually, but at least try to use it as long as possible.

This is the core idea. I think the time I have before the deadline is just enough to accomplish these functions but (as usual) I already have a lot of things in my mind on how to improve the platform. For example, I think it would be great to try to optimize the way these products will go from A to B as much as possible.

I want to add location attributes to the products and allow only requests from a specified distance. Or, anyone can earn extra virtual coins by becoming a volunteer courier. If you take someone's order from A to B, you’ll get 5 Virtual Coins.

I’m not sure that this is going to be something that a huge amount of people will use, but as I mentioned above, the most important thing is to act and keep the conversation going on.

So, what do you do to fix the climate?