(Little Green Women, March 17, 2010)
Anyone who grew up in the 70s will
doubtless remember the car boot
sale of old – loading up on all that
gaudy household junk so you can
stand by your car in a field until
you’ve made some cash off it – only
to realise you’d bought almost as
much to bring home with you again.
With the advent of Ebay, there are
those who believe selling their used goods online is the way to cash
in car boot-style in the 21st century, but the market has long since
been flooded.
Enter the tenet behind the 2003 American set-up of Freecycle – ‘one
person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure’. The UK network works
under the assurance that it’s ‘changing the world one gift at a time’
and it’s certainly making waves amongst the online community.
So it goes that Freecycle is a grassroots, non-profit movement who
give and get stuff for free – in their own towns. It’s all about reuse
and keeping good stuff out of landfill. Local Freecycle groups are
moderated by a local volunteer, and the array of loot available may
astonish even the most cynical of users.
Local Freecyclers are proud of the service, and feel lucky to have
such a great system in place.
Freecycler Frances Roche can’t speak highly enough of it.
“Over the last three years I have received no end of things, and I
know they would have cost me a lot of money if I had gone out and
bought them,” she says. “Being a single mother, I know I wouldn’t
have been able to buy a lot of the things I have been kindly given.”
Freecycle works in much the same spirit as Ebay, in that trust is
implied in your compliance with the group, and anything from bags
of clothes and old Beanos to teapots and tumbledryers is fair game.
Another Freecycle member Stella told Little Green Women, “I have
recently had the sad job of clearing a relative’s house. It’s a
heartbreaking job because everything in the house has a history
which we may or may not know. However, it’s heartening to know
that what we didn’t need is going to be useful to others. I would
love to know whether the person who collected the wooden
wardrobe doors managed to turn them into a sideboard…!”
A story behind every handover has made for the best of times –
and even some lasting friendships.
Negatives are thin on the ground, although there is a general feeling
that there are those who may be labelled ‘timewasters’ in any transaction.
June says, “My experiences have been varied. I have found homes for
some unwanted items and received some very useful ones. I have had
polite transactions, and some people who never showed up when
collection was arranged.”
Joining Freecycle has doubtless given lots to the many and seems like
a one-stop shop for value, but for Little Green Women, the biggest boon
has to be finding new uses for waste. Sign up today!
How to beat the pack
There are numerous Freecycle updates every day – you can sign up for
those to be emailed directly to you or just log in and peruse what’s available
in your group at your leisure. Keen Freecyclers will probably subscribe
to updates, but the quicker the draw, the less disappointed you will be,
so keep an eye on your inbox!
Edinburgh Freecycle has 5383 members.
Go to www.freecycle.org to find out more
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