Doing Business on Craigslist Is Good for the Environment

Whenever the online exchange service Craigslist makes it into the headlines, it is usually because the site served as a means for luring an unsuspecting victim to their demise with the promise of a low-cost, second-hand couch.

Often appearing in stories concerning illicit advertisements, robberies and, on occasion, murder, Craigslist is finally attracting attention for some good news: its impact on the environment.

Unloading unwanted items for the last few years has become a simple matter of placing a digital advertisement on an online forum like Craigslist and waiting for the calls to pour in with people salivating over your old silverware or coffee table. A win-win for consumers everywhere! Now, recent research from Penn State is suggesting that there are even greater benefits to be had from this exchange. It seems, according to the findings of Suvrat S. Dhanorkar, assistant professor of supply chain management at Penn State, that doing business on Craigslist may be good for the environment.

Looking at data about the online exchange site, Dhanorkar found that whenever Craigslist entered into a specific geographic market, a 2 to 6 percent drop in that market’s annual municipal solid waste occurred.

“Consumerism has grown exponentially — I don't want to take a side whether that's good or bad — but that's a fact and it's going to grow," said Dhanorkar. "As more and more countries become wealthier, the people there are going to consume more, but while consumerism is here to stay, the waste need not be. We may be able to let consumerism grow while, at the same time, we can also cut back on the surplus or waste that is being generated in the system by reusing more products."

Consequently, the author predicts that sites similar to Craigslist could eliminate millions of tons of landfill waste, thereby saving billions of dollars in waste management costs.

"In the case of New York City, the city spends about $2.3 billion annually on managing the 7.8 million tons of municipal solid waste, which is generated by 8.5 million people," said Dhanorkar. "According to the estimates, a 2 to 6 percent reduction in municipal solid waste, owing to Craigslist entry, would lead to approximate annual savings worth millions of dollars for large cities. That's millions of taxpayer dollars that could be diverted from managing waste to other needs."

Likewise, Dhanorkar believes that in large cities, the estimated 2 to 6 percent decrease in municipal solid waste brought about by sites like Craigslist could also spur a corresponding reduction (an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 tons) in greenhouse gases.

So go ahead and feel good about doing business on the site. Just mind the serial killers doing business there as well.