One search on Rumage searches 30 different second hand stores, all in one go. That’s all second hand, all in one place.

Rumage is led by Jo Spolton, one time professional sailor who was horrified by the plastic waste polluting our oceans. In some of the most remote places – like the middle of the Atlantic, huge islands of plastic exist. Jo made it her mission to reduce waste and to do something to develop the circular economy. Always a big fan of second hand, she knew the huge barrier to buying second hand is the time it takes. There are lots of second hand stores, who’s got the time to search each of them? And why search each individually yourself, when technology could search them all and deliver all the results, all in one go, directly to your phone, and do all the hard work for you? That’s when Rumage was born.

In the last 25 years the consumption use of world resources increased by 25%. (World economic forum 2022) that’s 60 Billion tonnes of natural resources consumed every year (Friends of the Earth) according to the UN environment program, by 2060 that will have risen to 190 Billion tonnes. We are consuming at a tremendous rate. Every year 1.4 billion new mobile phones are made. It involves 60 plus different metals. And only a small proportion of the old ones are ever recycled. Technology and fashion are huge polluters. Everything we use, everything we buy has an impact. Which is why we need to wean ourselves of always buying new.

Buying second hand is the most sustainable thing we can each do. It can make a huge difference. If we can keep old computers, phones, tablets out of landfill that’s one more that doesn’t need to be made. If we can pass on clothes we don’t wear any more, that’s saving not just resources – fashion contributes 10% of global emissions – but so much more. All this stuff needs to be shipped around the world, it gets made in factories that consume power, and worker’s rights in fashion aren’t top of the agenda.

Rumage wants to make second hand not just first choice, but a viable first choice. That’s why they search all the second hand marketplaces – currently 30 and they are always adding more – and deliver all the filtered results direct to your phone, and you can then click through and purchase direct from any of the sites. Simple. By making buying second hand this easy, Rumage is making it no brainer. They were the first in the market with this proposition, and they are constantly investing to make the technology the best and increase the number of people who choose second hand first.

To help with that they’ve introduced buyers guides. What to look for, what to look out for when buying second hand. These are really useful, especially if you're looking to get things you would ordinarily not think to go second hand for – like tools or electrical goods. Full of handy tips, and how to make sure what you buy is actually safe. They’re brilliant.

It looks like they’ve got tech pretty much sewn up. There are 17 specialist tech partners plus the usual suspects like Ebay and Shpock and Gumtree. What’s great is they have second hand stores that might be quite niche – like the official DELL refurb store, or one that only deals in refurbished apple macs. They have lots of options on refurbished mobile phones and game consoles, tablets, you name it. And there are real bargains to be had - previous models at knockdown prices - If you don’t always want new, go to rumage.com for good as new - one search searches everywhere. What's not to like?