If you’ve been buying or selling pre-loved items on Carousell, those transactions may be having a bigger environmental impact than you think.
Ahead of World Environment Day on Friday (5 June), Carousell launched its first Circular Economy Impact Microsite, which includes a live Neighbourhood Leaderboard ranking Singapore communities by the estimated climate impact of their secondhand transactions.
Image courtesy of Carousell
As of 10am on Friday, City Hall ranked first in Singapore, with an estimated 680,835kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) potentially avoided through completed transactions.
According to Carousell’s leaderboard, the top five neighbourhoods at the time were City Hall, Tampines East, Sengkang Town Centre, Geylang East, and Jurong West Central.
Singapore
While City Hall took the top spot, the rankings suggest that residents in areas such as Tampines East, Sengkang Town Centre, Geylang East, and Jurong West Central are also actively taking part in Singapore’s secondhand economy.
Four of the top five neighbourhoods recorded their highest estimated climate impact from transactions in the Hobbies & Toys category.
City Hall was the only neighbourhood in the top five where Women’s Fashion emerged as the leading category.
In a press release on Thursday (4 June), Carousell said the microsite aims to make carbon impact data more accessible to everyday users by showing how buying and selling pre-loved items can add up to a larger collective impact.
“For too long, climate metrics have been delivered as abstract, top-down numbers,” said Carousell co-founder Marcus Tan. “With this interactive experience, we are turning data into a tool for community visibility.”
Mr Tan added that the platform allows different areas to see the estimated climate value of their completed transactions, with the aim of encouraging more people to take part in circular trade.
Apart from the neighbourhood rankings, the microsite also features a Carbon Calculator, where users can select common household item categories to see the estimated CO2e potentially avoided from a secondhand purchase.
Image courtesy of Carousell
According to Carousell, one secondhand transaction across its marketplace ecosystem avoids an average of 15.6kg of CO2e.
The company said this is equivalent to skipping about 31 hours of continuous air-conditioning use.
Users can also browse estimated climate impact by product category, allowing them to see how different types of secondhand purchases contribute to potential carbon savings.
Carousell said its avoided emissions calculations were developed alongside climate technology firm Vaayu, using a lifecycle assessment methodology.
The framework looks at the footprint of products from raw material extraction to delivery, while also factoring in user behaviour data from more than 15,000 survey responses.
Across the wider Carousell Group regional ecosystem, the company estimates that about 262 million kilograms of CO2e were potentially avoided in a single reporting year through secondhand transactions.
According to Carousell, that is comparable to the carbon footprint of 507,484 passengers taking a one-way flight from Singapore to London.
However, the company noted that the figures are estimates based on completed used transactions compared with buying similar new items, and should not be read as exact figures for individual transactions.
The leaderboard is updated daily, allowing Singaporeans to check how their neighbourhood ranks and how secondhand buying and selling may contribute to a more circular future.
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Featured image adapted from Wikimedia Commons, for illustration purposes only.