RTL Today

At the end of April, the Ministry of Economy launched a call for projects, seeking to boost the concept of a "sharing economy" in Luxembourg. Three projects were selected as winners.

While one of the winning projects aims to share kitchen equipment, another seeks to give tools a new lease of life.

The General Technic firm in Munsbach is active in the construction industry and rents out machinery and tools to companies within the sector. After a three year "operational lease", the machines are returned and reused. The "good tools for all" project launched by the company will aim to make the tools - which are often refurbished - available to more people.

Associate manager Tom Kieffer explains: "We are looking to improve our system this year so individual customers can make use of the offer. For example, they would have the opportunity to borrow garden tools, hedge trimmers, mowers and so on for a day, a week, or another short period of time."

The customer base could also be made up of institutions, municipalities or clubs. Rental costs for the machines will vary depending on the value of the tool in question, but are limited to manageable amounts, from €1 to €15 per day. In theory, Kieffer says, there is no time limit.

"The time limit speaks for itself. If you're paying a certain amount per day for a machine, but you're using it for six months, or a year, at that point it might be more profitable for the customer to buy a new machine. But that's not really the idea behind the project - we're really trying to reuse the machines as much as possible by making them available on a short term basis." Kieffer says the machines are often in surprisingly good condition when they are returned from professional customers, so it makes no sense to throw them away or replace them when they could serve another purpose.

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