Don’t throw it away, give it away
Swap unwanted items instead of tossing them out
By Sharon Oosthoek
Have stuff you no longer use cluttering your closets? Is your basement brimming with cast-offs? Then it’s time to start reclaiming your space and, while you’re at it, do the environment a favour.
Freecycle is a worldwide online-based network of people who, as the web site points out, “are giving stuff away for free in their own hometowns.” The stuff includes everything from household items to children’s toys to computers. In other words, avoid adding to your local landfill by giving things away.
A new home for your stuff
When he started the first Freecycle group in his hometown of Tucson, Ariz., in May 2003, Deron Beal was working for a recycling company (he has since left to work full-time on Freecycle). While picking up items for recycling, Beal often found clients also wanted to get rid of usable “old things.”
“I’d take them and start to look for places to give them away,” says Beal. “But you call one charity and they don’t take computers. You call another and they don’t take desks. I thought, there’s got to be an easier way. Perhaps it would work as an e-mail group.” Today, there are close to 2,500 local Freecycle groups and more than a million members around the world. (Most are in North America.)
An environmentally friendly option
Angela Kabaroff, a mother in Abbotsford, B.C., was inspired to launch her Freecycle site after helping haul shopping carts, bikes and tires out of local streams. While Kabaroff wants to keep a lid on litter, she also likes to give and receive.
“It is like Christmas all year round, in the giving sense,” she explains. “It teaches my kids to keep things out of the landfill and also to appreciate what they have, and to give away what they don’t need.”
The good goods
Freecycle members are eager to give away a huge range of items. Recent postings on the Toronto site included scented candles, a French IBM keyboard, two casement windows and an air mattress.
The more uncommon items? Nose strips, Bald Cypress trees and an Ibanez 12-string guitar, says Rose Hill, a Freecycle moderator in Bakersfield, Calif. “There have even been a couple of houses given away in other groups.”
Fun and games
Briana Darbyshire, a mother in Red Deer, Alta., recently created what she calls a pass-along box. She got together a box of items she no longer needed and passed it on to others within her Freecycle network — just as she would individual items. “That person will take what he/she wants, add more items to the box and pass it on again,” she says.
How to use Freecycle
Getting set up on the Freecycle system is as easy as sending an e-mail request to your local site organizer, who can be found by clicking on your geographical area. Soon after, e-mail with offers of free things will start arriving in your inbox. Just don’t forget to set up a folder dedicated to receiving Freecycle messages to avoid overwhelming your regular inbox.
Members of each local Freecycle group post items they no longer want via e-mail and explore other postings for things they would like to find. When you claim an item, all you have to do is arrange to pick it up.
Local and legal
While there is no limit to how many groups you can join, the organization requests that members subscribe only to local sites to foster community and to pick up items. (Unlike eBay, Freecycle does not deliver.) If you can’t find a group in your area, consider setting one up. All the how-to information is on the site.
Each Freecycle group has its own rules, but what they all have in common is that items must be free. No buying, no bartering. And items must be legal and appropriate for all ages. Alcohol and guns are forbidden.
It’s about more than reusing
Hill says the intangible benefits are just as important as the environmental ones. “The point of Freecycle is primarily to keep usable items from the landfills, but it’s also to promote a new sense of community spirit we seem to have lost in the past 50 years,” she says.
As Beal points out, it was exactly this kind of community-building that people had in mind when they began musing about how the Internet might “democratize people.”
“It’s really people helping people,” he says. For example, one elderly couple had a fire and their local Freecycle group helped them refurnish their new home.
Other ways to give stuff away
Charities: Plenty of charitable organizations are happy to relieve you of selected items. Visit your favourite charity’s web site or call to see what is needed. Some charitable organizations will even arrange free curbside pickups.
If you live in Canada and have a computer you’re looking to get rid of, try reBOOT Canada, a non-profit organization that provides computer hardware and training to charities, non-profit organizations and people with limited access to technology. Also contact your local school board — a computer may be just the thing it’s waiting for.
Classifieds: Scan the buy-and-sell section of your local newspaper.
Hand-me-downs: Don’t forget family, friends and neighbours. You may have just the thing they’re looking for.
Before you give items away, it’s always wise to check that you’re not tossing something precious. If you suspect your item might valuable, ask an appraiser for an evaluation.
