Earth Day highlight: the shift to making the most of unused items

Fact: Did you know that Americans sit on 23.6 billion unused items? That’s 184 items per household — a total value of $4,517 per home!¹

And, Americans spend billions of dollars disposing of unused items, from junk removal companies to dumpster rentals. In fact, 1.6 billion products that could have been resold were thrown away in 2020.²

At Mercari, we believe that unused items still have value. And the great news is we’re not alone. Reuse is becoming a conventional way of life – more people than ever are embracing secondhand. 165 million Americans³ now sell secondhand items, and with 350,000 new listings every day, there’s always something new to discover here in our marketplace.

Whether you’re shopping, selling, or a little of both, you’re helping items find new life in a new home, and that can help keep them from landfills and reduce waste. 

And we think that’s a pretty big deal.

So today, as we celebrate our planet, we wanted to say thank you for helping us make it easy for unused items to find new life, every day. Because while we celebrate the earth today, we know every day is Earth Day.

Interested in more reuse stats and facts? Check out the Mercari 2021 Reuse Report.

Happy Earth Day,

Team Mercari

^{1. GlobalData 2021 Market Analysis and Forecasts  2. Mercari 2021 Reuse Report   3. Mercari 2021 Reuse Report}