Do you “Freecycle?”
The nearly decade-old network of discussion groups where people announce unwanted items they’re willing to give away to anyone who wants them has almost nine million members around the world. It’s become a convenient outlet for people looking to empty a spare room (or just avoid the pricey rent on a self-storage unit) and also for bargain hunters.
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Freecycle launched in Tucson, Arizona, back in 2003 as a local email list with the simple premise of helping people unload junk they no longer wanted – furniture, clothing, office supplies, you name it – onto nearby people who did. The system came with one rule: Whatever you’re giving up, you can ask for nothing in return. Everything must be free.
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Your fashion fix: Find people who love to reuse and recycle like you on The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org). The network is a worldwide group of people who give (and get) gadgets for free in their own towns. If you have true junk or e-waste, give it off to an e-waste recycling plant. To check if your city has an e-waste recycling plant, visit WEEE Recycle (www.weeerecycle.in).
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Two-year North Reading resident Bruce McArdle started a nonprofit Freecycle group to keep useful items out of landfills. The group has about 400 members in North Reading and surrounding towns.
McArdle, formerly an electrical engineer, now stays at home to care for his four-year-old twins, Jake and Jessica. He was previously a member of a freecycle group in Billerica, and once he made the move to North Reading, he decided to start his own group.
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5) Do you make use of grassroots recycling programs such as Freecycle to give away items that still have use or value but are unwanted by your family?
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If you want to donate instead, visit Westchester Freecycle.org, Freesharing.org, Goodwill, National Cristina Foundation, Recycling for Charities, Sharing is Giving, or that old standby, The Salvation Army.
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Using websites like Freecycle, endless garage sale listings and even swapping stuff with those that we know, it’s easy to recycle usable pet-related items like dog crates, collars and leashes, baby gates, kitty carriers and other useful things.
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First came the Eco-Fair. Then came the single-stream recycling and the weekly pickup days. And then the freecycle days, and the public service announcement by a group of local students.
THINKSTOCK
Yet after all that, the borough claims, about a third of Glen Ridge’s households still do not recycle on a regular basis.
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9. Recycle the old
Whether it’s appliances, furniture or clothes that you need to ditch, be sure to recycle when possible. Consider joining an online community called Freecycle, which has localized chapters of members who let each other know what stuff they have hanging around that they would like to give away — anything from kitchen appliances to bicycles, furniture to magazines, and clothing to diapers (unused, of course).
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Some New Yorkers completely avoid the retail industrial complex – often while building a sense of community – by dumpster diving, swapping, borrowing and freecycling. Or, they reduce outlays by comparison shopping, penny pinching and reselling what they have.
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