Monday, December 31, 2007

Where Free Reigns Supremely


Do you have an item you need to get rid of that’s still usable but you hesitate to throw in the trash? The Freecycle Network is a nonprofit organization that can help you find a non-landfill home for it. I call Freecycle an Internet “trash to treasure” bonanza since everything is entirely FREE.

If you go to the Freecycle Web site, you can enter where you live and see if there’s a local group nearby. You will receive instructions from the local moderator about the particulars of joining. This grassroots organization was founded in 2003 in Arizona and is now international in scope. There are over 4,000 local groups and if there’s not one near you, you can start your own.

To recycle a Martha Stewart quote, “It’s a good thing.”

9 comments:

Diane J Standiford said...

This is absolutely WONDERFUL! I worked for city of Seattle utilities(includes recycling) and never heard of ths! AWESOME!! Thank you so much, will pass this around. Diane-
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Lorelei said...

I saw this somewhere else yesterday and told myself to remember it but I didn't -- so thank you for the reminder!!! I definitely want to check it out. I wish I had known about it before our move!

Rick Rockhill said...

hey there Sheila- HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and husband.

We had the homeless resale shop come by today to pickup all sorts of clutter. It was good to clear out stuff AND to help others...

good post....didn't know about these folks tho

Naomi said...

We have a similar site over here in England. This is a great idea Sheila. One of our biggest issues at the moment over here is how to reduce landfill. Happy New Year to you and your family!

Marion said...

Wow. I entered my new home, and discovered there were 14 members there. Thank you so much for this, Sheila, it is an entry to new friendships for me!

Sheila said...

Welcome Diane! I have some items that I'm holding onto but if the one organization I'm thinking of doesn't want them, I'll try Freecycle which has an active chapter here in southwest Missouri. In fact, they were just featured on local media.

Like you Lorelei I didn't find out about Freecycle until AFTER I moved.

Rick, that's another great place for our unwanteds. I have given to the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other nonprofit groups aiding the disadvantaged, but they will not always take very usable items and Goodwill just threw the books I gave them willy-nilly into a big box. I didn't ask if they were throwing them away.

Naomi, I noticed that Freecycle has many sites in the U.K.

Marion, that's great that your new home has a group. If you get in touch with the moderator you will have a start on getting to know folks who care about what you do hopefully.

Jackie said...

Wishing you and your family a wonderful 2008.

I am so pleased to see people here become more used to recycling their plastic, paper, glass and metal as apart from recycling it keeps the streets so much cleaner and germ free.

Anonymous said...

Naomi, in England you've got Oxfam. The articles they sell are so shabby, it's a joke. We don't have anything like Oxfam here, as far as I know.

Sheila said...

Thanks Jackie. I like to see groups "adopt" certain segments of highways to clean up. But in my old home state of Alabama the jail inmates used to walk the sides of the highways in their black and white uniforms picking up discarded trash.