Read this before you buy anything

Treehugger has a piece about the environmental reasons of renting instead of owning. They call it "rentalism" but the notion has been around longer known as "access over ownership." They focus on short term goods, like baby items, saying that
"wouldn’t it make sense to ‘servicesize’ a lot of these goods ie, to pay for use not ownership of some of these things and then when you are done with them they get taken back, refurbished and utilized again or shared between a chain of people "

Part of the reason that renting isn't more popular is that it costs nothing to dispose of goods. What if the bottle deposit model was applied to all goods? An owner would have to pay the entire deposit, while a renter would not. Would this be enough of an incentive to rent?

To consumers: Let's get over the negative stigma of renting. Renting is just using something that you never have to throw away.

To Entrepreneurs: The access-over-ownership model is a powerful one. What service can you provide? Whatever you decide, there are some hurdles to overcome.

Some clever marketing has to happen to get people used to the idea of renting. For example, the baby items Treehugger mentioned, may not be the best place to start. Renting feels 'dirty' to many people (other people's germs, eww) and baby items need to feel sterile.

You also need to provide proper life cycle management. Your goods have to be as good as buying new, and your service will have to be better.

And if this model catches on, maybe that predator Rent-A-Center will have to adapt or die.