Tool Libraries Triple Across North America as the Sharing Economy Sheds its Tech-Bro Image and Goes Hyper-Local

📋 From Consumption to Access

The average power drill purchased by a North American household is used for exactly 13 minutes over its entire lifetime, according to a widely cited study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. Multiply that statistic across vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, pressure washers, ladders, and bread makers, and the embedded carbon and material waste from idle household equipment becomes staggering.

Tool libraries—physical lending libraries operating on the same principle as book libraries—provide a elegantly simple solution: buy one high-quality tool, let hundreds of households borrow it as needed, and eliminate the waste of individual ownership. Between 2020 and May 2026, the number of tool libraries in North America grew from approximately 170 to over 500, collectively serving an estimated 350,000 members.

"The economic case is unbeatable," says Ryan Dyment, co-founder of the Toronto Tool Library, which operates four branches and lends 14,000 items to 6,500 members. "Our members pay an annual fee of $55, and in return they access any tool they need—table saws, tile cutters, pressure washers, lawn aerators—equipment that would cost thousands to purchase. Members save an estimated $2.1 million annually in avoided purchase costs, and we've kept roughly 180 tonnes of equipment out of landfills." The Toronto Tool Library, founded in 2013, was one of the first of its kind and has become a template: each location occupies 2,000-4,000 square feet of donated or subsidized space, staffed by a combination of paid librarian-managers and volunteer members who earn credits for their hours.

The inventory management uses Koha, the same open-source library system used by thousands of public libraries, adapted to catalog physical items rather than books.

💰 Cities Embrace the Circular Economy

Municipal governments are increasingly recognizing tool libraries as public infrastructure. By May 2026, 18 North American cities—including Vancouver, Portland, Minneapolis, Austin, and Washington DC—were providing rent-free public space for tool libraries, categorizing them under waste reduction and climate action budgets. Seattle's NE Seattle Tool Library, opened in 2019 in a city-owned community center, reduced neighborhood tool purchases by an estimated 37% within its service area, according to a Seattle Public Utilities waste audit. "Every tool borrowed is a tool not manufactured, shipped, packaged, and eventually landfilled," says Sarah Curling, the library's director. "For a municipality trying to meet zero-waste targets, a tool library is one of the most cost-effective interventions available."

The model has expanded well beyond tools. "Libraries of Things" now lend kitchen appliances (Vitamix blenders, Instant Pots, pasta makers), camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, bear canisters), party supplies, board games, and sewing machines. The West Seattle Library of Things, founded in 2022, offers 800 items across 23 categories and has 2,100 active members. In the UK, the Share Oxford Library of Things has served 3,500 members since 2019, saving the community an estimated £420,000 in avoided purchases. "The sharing economy got a bad name from companies like Uber and Airbnb that turned out to be extractive platform monopolies," says Gene Homicki, co-founder of MyTurn, the inventory management software used by over 200 tool libraries worldwide. "But the original vision of the sharing economy—neighbors sharing durable goods, building relationships, reducing waste—is alive and well in the tool library movement.

These are the real sharing economy. They're community-owned, hyper-local, and they actually deliver on the sustainability promises that Silicon Valley platforms only claimed to."

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) recognized tool libraries as an emerging public library service in its 2025 Trend Report, noting that "libraries are redefining the scope of shared community resources from information to material goods, consistent with libraries' historic mission to democratize access." Public library systems in Helsinki (Finland), Utrecht (Netherlands), and Sacramento (California) have integrated tool lending directly into municipal library branches, recognizing that the infrastructure of public libraries—cataloging systems, branch networks, community trust—is ideally suited to managing shared physical resources.