Draft:Sharing station
Self-service item rental locker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A sharing station is a self-service rental system where users can access a variety of goods for a short period of time (a few hours to a few days). Users can access these goods for free, through a pay per use scheme, or a monthly subscription.
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Common examples include self-service lockers in residential buildings, libraries or shopping centres that provide everyday items such as DIY tools, cooking or cleaning equipment, as well as outdoor sharing stations offering sports equipment, games, and picnic gear.
Sharing stations are part of an ecosystem of services that facilitate collaborative consumption, operationalising the principles of the sharing economy and access economy in everyday environments.[1]
History
The contemporary sharing station is a relatively recent form of city infrastructure, but its underlying practices have historical precedents. Early 20th-century initiatives, such as the toy lending libraries established in Los Angeles during the 1930s, represented some of the first institutionalised attempts to share goods through centralised public facilities.[2] Tool-lending also emerged during World War II; the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Michigan began lending tools in 1943, predating later and more widely known examples such as the Berkeley Tool Library.[3]
A renewed interest in collaborative consumption emerged in the 2010s, driven by community-based models such as the Toronto Tool Library and London’s Library of Things. These initiatives combined digital reservation systems with community governance, helping to popularise short-term access models in urban contexts.[4]
Types of sharing stations
Sharing stations vary widely in design, governance, and purpose. They can be categorised along several dimensions:
Purpose and use domain
- Single-purpose: Focused on one specific type of item, such as balls, SUPs or bicycles.
- Thematic: Providing different goods from the same category of equipment (e.g. sport, audiovisual, etc.). This segment of the market is dominated by companies focusing on sports and leisure equipment.
- Multi-purpose: Providing diverse items including household tools, gardening supplies, kitchen equipment, and camping gear.
Ownership and governance
- Community-led: Managed by local volunteer groups or cooperatives.
- Publicly-led: Funded and operated by the local government.
- Corporate-owned: Provided by private companies as standalone services.
- Public-private hybrids: Combining municipal oversight with private operation.
Business and funding models
Business models include non-profit and community-based approaches, for-profit rental or subscription services, social enterprises, and publicly contracted services integrated into municipal budgets.
Motivational orientation
Stations may be designed to advance social cohesion, environmental sustainability and waste reduction, affordability, and/or convenience as a local amenity.
Digital infrastructure
- Analogue: Manually operated systems.
- Digitally enabled: Bookings via apps or websites.
- Fully automated: Internet of Things based systems including smart lockers, usage tracking, and remote monitoring.
Current state of the sharing system landscape
As of March 2025, 1325 sharing stations had been deployed across Europe with an estimated user base of 350,000. 185 of these are multi-purpose sharing stations, 1140 are sport sharing stations.[5] The period from 2023 to 2024 saw a 70% increase in the number of sharing stations in Europe. The European cities with the highest number of sharing stations are London, Paris and Lausanne.[5]
Related research
Academic research on sharing stations as a specific category remains limited, but the concept intersects with broader discussions of collaborative consumption, public innovation, and shared urban infrastructure.
One line of research examines how to build sustainable ecosystems for shared goods, including partnerships among public, private, and community actors. A second area concerns the role of government in the sharing economy—whether as regulator, enabler, or service provider. Hofmann et al. (2019) identify these as distinct modes of state involvement, each carrying implications for funding, accountability, and public value creation.[6]
Regulatory considerations remain in flux. Issues such as liability, siting requirements, data governance, and accessibility policies continue to be negotiated as sharing stations scale from pilot projects to established services.
A third research area focuses on user participation: motivations for engaging with shared-use models, demographic and cultural influences on borrowing behavior, and the ways in which convenience, trust, and social norms shape usage patterns.
Collectively, these themes highlight the need for further study as sharing stations become more common components of urban service ecosystems.
Examples of sharing stations
- BoxUp sport sharing stations
- Circular Library Network sharing station providers
- Deelbib sharing stations inside Kringwinkel second-hand shops in Antwerp, Belgium
- Equip Sport sharing stations across Europe and Canada
- Les Biens en Commun object sharing stations in France[7]
- Library of Things branches in the United Kingdom
- SportBox sport sharing stations
These examples vary in governance, technology, and purpose but share the goal of reducing the need for private ownership of infrequently used items.