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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Ten years ago, I brought Deron Beal’s Freecycle (freecycle.org) group’s method of giving and getting usable items to Vacaville. This year, I’ve created a group to share plants within Solano and Yolo counties.
How many times have we, as homeowners and renters, filled our green bins with plants that we’ve pulled from our garden just because we don’t know anyone who would want them?
How many seeds have we seen ready to harvest, only to ignore? After failing to give away my extra iris bulbs, it dawned on me. “There is a need here,” just as there had been for Freecycle.
With the ease of social networking, a seed-sharing movement is evolving. In fact, I recently read about a seed-sharing library in Vallejo. With further research, I discovered many towns around the world are holding seed-sharing events.
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One person is looking for a rocking chair for a newborn baby.
Another, a tote bag to carry a pet guinea pig. One person offers up a nearly new yoga mat; another, a “large-ish cardboard box” that is “not sturdy enough for shipping but great for summer fun with kids.”
Welcome to Freecycle, a grassroots “cyber curbside” where people can drop off unused items and others can pick them up — for free.
As an environmentally motivated, volunteer-based nonprofit, Freecycle sets itself apart from other similar websites, such as Craigslist, said the organization’s founder, Deron Beal.
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Monday, April 15: Consumption, trash and recycling
– No Impact Freecycle Extravaganza, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the atrium of the Havener Center. The freecycle is a no-money “yardsale.” The public is welcome to donate any household items they no longer use and take home any donated items they find interesting. No cash changes hands and leftover items will be donated to a local resale shop.
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Vince Cable, The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, visited Wedmore at the weekend with Burnham-On-Sea’s MP Tessa Munt.
Mr Cable picked up a few freebies at a Freecycle event in Wedmore alongside his parliamentary private secretary.
At the Freecycle event, organised by the village green group, he took away a set of bathroom scales for his London home.
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But there are many others, millions in fact, who have turned to sites like FreeSharing.org and Freecycle.org to get rid of their stuff, sites that use the theory that one person’s trash is another person’s new couch, TV or baby stroller.
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Websites like Swap.com, BarterQuest or The Freecycle Network each have millions of members listing everything, from old video games to Christian Louboutin pumps to electronic drum sets.
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