Eco Lesbo Vego

Reuse: Freecycle

January 14, 2009 at 12:49 am 5 comments

The whole point of reusing things is to prevent wasting unnecessary energy on recycling or to prevent things from entering landfill and becoming waste for all eternity… yeah, more like a couple of generations, but let’s not be picky. There’ll be toxic soup left for a long time, so you get my point. But seriously, landfill is nasty. Even biodegradable stuff doesn’t degrade in the anaerobic environment that is landfill. And what a way to use our earth – as a dump!

That’s why I’m like a broken record about reusing anything and everything.

So to further this end, Freecycle was invented, going on six years ago. The Freecycle slogan is ‘Changing the world one gift at a time’, and essentially, that’s just what Freecycle does. Freecycle is a place to offer up stuff you no longer want, even items you may consider junk, for other people to come and take away for free. You can also place posts asking if people have certain items that you may be looking for. You might not use the stuff for it’s original purpose (for example, Yankee Elv has plans to make jewellery out of old computer chips), but who cares, as long as it’s being used again and again, right? (See my previous argument about the festy landfill).

Freecycle Logo

This communal re-use has several positive effects:

• Items that are no longer wanted don’t end up in landfill
• Unwanted objects go to new homes where these things will continue to be used
• Recipients save money as they don’t have to buy new stuff
• Givers save time and money as they don’t have to get rid of their unwanted stuff (which is especially cool when the items that are being given away are bulky and require a trailer or truck to move, like a bed, or a car – and yes, I’ve seen both of these items on my local group).

There are rules, too, but not many:

• You can’t sell anything, you can only give it away for free
• You can’t give away people or inappropriate materials
• You can’t post a Wanted post until you’ve posted an Offer post
• You can’t blither on in your posts – you have to stay severely on topic.

Freecyclers connect using Yahoo! Groups. As of today, there are 4,629 communities (Yahoo! Groups) serving as contact points for 6,098,000 Freecyclers worldwide. That’s a lot of re-use right there!

Basically, all you do is go to the Freecycle website, find your local community, sign up (make sure you go for daily digest format in your emails or your inbox will be inundated), and start Freecycling!

We have gotten rid of lots of excess stuff we didn’t want (mostly books and electrical items), and we’ve received quite a few useful things too:

• TV stand
• Spice rack (quite sizable)
• Old coffee jars we use to store our tea
• Books coming out the wazoo – so many!
• Candles
• Craft materials
• Plates
• Clothes and cloth
• Toys
• DVDs (including a favourite, What the Bleep Do We Know?, which we found at a Freecycle Giveaway, like a free garage sale. It is true that I mostly watch this movie/doco for Marlee Matlin, but it also discusses some interesting points).

Freecycle has some drawbacks though. I am still disappointed that the above ground pool we saw listed was too big for our courtyard.

Don’t think Freecycle are the only ones getting in on the re-use act though. There are alternatives to Freecycle. A good example is Freebootr, a pirate-themed site which aims to improve upon Freecycle by not depending on Yahoo! Groups (which is nice cos I’m a bit over Yahoo!) and having just the one site for everyone, rather than separate local groups. I haven’t tried them yet as they are only new and don’t have a community in Australia so far. I like them cos they seem more personable than Freecycle – I follow them on Twitter and they have a blog.

But did I mention they’re pirate-themed? They claim they “practically invented The Three Arrrs.”

Arrrrrrr!

Entry filed under: Reuse. Tags: alternative usage, freecycle, land use, low impact.