One person’s trash really is another’s treasure – and helps save the planet. Carol Davis meets Deron Beal, the man behind Freecycle, who has made the three Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – his mission.
Freecycle is a ‘win-win-win’ solution for givers, takers and the environment.
The stone lion that graced our patio for years had done its work. Faded in the sun, it had lain there for almost a decade after the previous owners left it behind when they moved, and our children and their friends had climbed on to its back while playing. Now we wanted the space back.
But before we heaved it off to the local tip, we tried something different – a simple email to our local Freecycle group. Within hours a smartly dressed couple in a new car turned up to collect it, and then emailed to thank us – “Leo the lion is very happy in his new home.”
One woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure it seems, and that’s where Freecycle comes in.
As the brainwave of Deron Beal, then working in a non-profit recycling centre in Tucson, Arizona, this global movement began almost a decade ago with a simple unwanted bed.
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