Check websites such as uk.freecycle.org, where you can often get free second-hand products. If you’re in need of a big appliance, a lawn mower or carpet cleaner, for example, try to borrow one by looking on local community forums or by asking your neighbours.
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IT’S so easy to toss out things we no longer have use for. Everything from toasters to bed linen and outgrown children’s toys hits the footpath faster than a fashion trend hits the back of the wardrobe.
Council clean-ups are a hub of activity, with the scrap metal merchants doing a roaring trade and residents touring the streets to find unwanted treasures before the council trucks snake their way through the suburbs.
Savvy owners can make a dollar or two buying and selling on eBay or Gumtree, but the vast majority of us are consigned to binning what we no longer like or need.
Still, in a world cluttered with waste, there is a nagging sense of contributing to the problem of landfill. So what other options are there?
In fact, there are plenty.
FEEL-GOOD FREECYCLING
One of the most innovative solutions is freecycle.org.
Now in Australia, this US-based organisation, which began as a recycling drive in Arizona and is operating in 110 countries, recently celebrated its 10th birthday.
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A valuable sharing resource local to thousands of communities, is freecycle.org, which is moderated locally by volunteers. I have enjoyed this service as both a giver and receiver. ”Freecycle performs many wonderful functions: building bonds and community, keeping material items from the landfills, and redeeming the clutter that consumes by moving it forward to a new, productive life.” I’ve been amazed by the specific items posted and gratefully taken – the old one person’s trash is another’s treasure thing. But items of value are also offered, maybe because the transaction feels better, cleaner, than attaching a price and posting it on Craigslist. It’s generosity among neighbors in the larger sense.
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