Reduce, reuse, recycle. We’ve all heard this waste minimization mantra of the environmental movement, but most of the emphasis tends to go on recycling. Important as it is, recycling should in fact be the second-to-last resort (ahead of the landfill, of course). When seeking to minimize the amount of waste, it’s best to reduce consumption to begin with, and to reuse those items that you do acquire, recycling only that which is left.
Cars, travel tickets, boat oars and a pig are just some of the many items that have been given away through a club that aims to save items from the landfill.Carmarthenshire Freecycle Club celebrated its second birthday in July with more than 1,500 members.
…online communities are still largely about socializing and/or wasting time. Their potential as powerful tools for the greater good—beyond finding out where the party’s at—has been largely untapped, but we managed to find a few. The following are some of the latest and best sites where social networking meets social change…
These include sites like Freecycle.org…Combining social networking with the environmental movement, the four year-old site Freecycle creates a global gift economy in an nonprofit online community. If you’re looking for a bike, someone might be throwing one out on Freecycle. Reducing unnecessary waste, Freecycle is a “cyber curbside” that connects people and decreases our impact on the environment…
Some items such as electronics seem impossible to recycle, but look online and you will find a host of new initiatives doing just that.
Never before has there been so much pressure to go green. While the government dreams up new ways to encourage us – from the mooted fines for families who don’t recycle, to road tax based on carbon dioxide emissions – we also have pop stars, politicians and assorted publicity-seekers reminding us of our duty to do something.
Freecycle.org is one of the great sites available to Reduce & Reuse!
If your house is anything like mine, it contains at least a few items you really wouldn’t miss if you never saw them again. Maybe you’ve got exercise equipment you never use, too many clothes, more than one of the same appliance, toys everyone in the house has outgrown. Wouldn’t it be great if you could give these items to people who would use and appreciate them?
If you belong to a Freecycle group, it’s easy to do…
Inspired by this column and fellow readers’ tips, Teri Wiley of Elkhart, Ind., recently started recycling — and asked us for resources to learn about living ever more environmentally conscious.
…Visit FreeCycle.org. Don’t throw out perfectly good stuff just because you no longer use it. Arrange to give it away here. And while you’re at it, snag some SWAG for yourself.
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