Louise King runs the Freecycling Perth website, which has more than 8000 members who give away goods they no longer want, no strings attached. “My whole yard is paved with pavers from Freecycle,” Mrs King said.
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Post by Category : Australia
The Age.com: Online recycling the gift that keeps on giving
The last time you peered into your shed or spare room, did you look at all the unused items and wonder: why do I have so much stuff? If the answer is ”yes”, you’re not alone. A 2008 report by the Australia Institute states that 88 per cent of Australian homes have at least one cluttered room and that ”four in 10 Australians say they feel anxious, guilty or depressed about the clutter in their homes”.
Little wonder then that Australia is part of a worldwide backlash against consumerism. One of the big ideas is so-called ”collaborative consumption” – the notion that we can share resources, rather than having to own them individually. And this is where Freecycle comes in.
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NEWS.com.au: Join the feel-good recycling drive
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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Newcastle Herald: Freecycle: Getting stuff for nothing
PEOPLE are giving stuff away for free as part of a movement that has bloomed in the Hunter.
Groups have sprung up in Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Maitland, Port Stephens, Singleton and Muswellbrook linking with freecycle.org
They are part of the Freecycle Network, which began in 2003 in Arizona in the US.
It has spread to 85 countries, with thousands of groups and millions of members.
Nicole Chin, of Morisset Park, started the Lake Macquarie group when she moved from Sydney.
‘‘I had a lot of stuff I wanted to get rid of, but it was too good to go into a skip bin,’’ Ms Chin said.
Ms Chin said the site was free to join. Items were given away for free and could not be bought or sold.
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Sydney Morning Herald:Going greenbusters: environmental savings rejuvenate community
Websites such as freecycle.org and friendswiththings.com.au also help connect people who want to give items away with people who really want them.
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G-Online (blog): Recycling difficult items
As usual at G, any unwanted items that still worked were gifted to friends, or given away on Freecycle. Then, I used Planet Ark’s helpful and easy to use Recycling Near You website, where you can search by product or postcode for recycling facilities near you. Here’s our list of our random items, and how we recycled them:
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LifeHacker Australia: Top 10 Things To Remember When Moving House
1. Start chucking out unwanted stuff early
If you don’t start packing until the day before you move, you’ll end up panicking and just throwing everything into boxes without consideration. As soon as you know a move is on the cards, start the spring cleaning process. It’s much easier to throw stuff away than shift it, but if you’re trying to get rid of a lot of stuff, you’ll want time — whether that’s to sell it, freecycle it, give it away, or (in the worst case scenario) dump it.
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Sydney Morning Herald: Give as good as you get
Websites such as Gumtree.com and Freecycle.org are attracting a growing number of environmentally conscious shoppers.
Anne Seccombe, of Belrose, started using Freecycle three years ago. The website asks members to ”gift” their items rather than toss them in the bin.
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The Age.Com: A sense of belongings
Now, stashers can get their fix around the clock thanks to online freebie communities such as Freecycle, which puts you a click away from an old sofa, a baby’s high chair or a pile of dirt.
This is but one of many thousands of new communities that have sprung from a simple idea and a location on the web.
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Melbourne Weekly: No Strings Attached
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Or so Melbourne mother of two Michelle Power reasoned a couple of years ago, as her husband dumped unwanted stuff into a skip during their home renovation. “There really needs to be a forum where we can give away these goods, instead of throwing them into landfill or waiting until hard rubbish collection,” she thought. Her subsequent research led to the recent launch of ziilch.com.au, a website dedicated to giving away stuff to be re-used by someone else. More than 300 items were listed on the website during its first four weeks, including an ironing board, a wedding dress, even a car (albeit with a seized engine). Turns out Power wasn’t the only one eager to get rid of superfluous stuff, without binning it forever.
While there’s long been a slew of organisations geared towards swapping, selling and bartering unwanted goods, now the virtual and local communities are embracing a more feel-good, sustainable and no-strings approach to decluttering. It doesn’t involve dumping pre-loved goods on the nature strip or in a charity bin, either.
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