What do kittens, clothes, toys and basketballs have in common?

All are items offered for free on the Orangeburg Freecycle Network. And by the time you read this, they’ll be gone, replaced with new items someone no longer wants but that someone else can put to use.

The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,553 communities with 5,505,720 members across the world. There are 51 groups in South Carolina. The Orangeburg group, founded in 2005, has nearly 350 members.

“Freecycle is a network of groups that are dedicated to giving away items that we no longer need to prevent them from going to landfills,” said Karen Fairey, Orangeburg Freecycle’s moderator.

Click here to read in full

Whether Burleson and Crowley residents are looking for fiberglass goat shelters or twin-sized box-spring mattresses, one online site provides them with the goods, for free.
Freecycle’s Burleson-Crowley Internet community has expanded since it’s inception in 2004 and is now home to about 1,800 recycling fans.
The concept of Freecycle is simple: When individuals find themselves with items they either don’t want or don’t need, they e-mail fellow Freecycle members in their area, wait for replies, then give away their wares to chosen respondents. Commonly the recipient will pick up the free items from the giver’s porch and no face-to-face interaction is made, according to www.freecycle.org.

Click here to read the article in full

Need a couch, or tennis racket or tea kettle? Rather than buying a new one, check the free listings on Craigslist or Freecycle. Often, people who are moving or spring cleaning put gently used belongings on the site, free to anyone willing to trek to their place and pick it up. It’s far better than the environmental effects of the manufacturing, packaging, and transport that go into a new tea kettle, and if it breaks after two months, you never paid a dime for it, so who cares? Just search the site for another one. Be wary of searching Google for offers of free stuff, though—they might come with strings attached, like making you sign up for a credit card or other promotion. It’s best to stick to local sites.

Click here to read the blog in full

The Freecycle community and other similar websites enable you to find new owners for your unwanted items - and also pick up items for yourself from other members.

The giveaway schemes are a brilliant way of making the most of items which you no longer want or need but are simply too good to go in the bin.

Click here to read in full

IN the south-east we consume more materials than anywhere else in the country. On average we throw away about half a tonne — or seven times our own body weight — of rubbish each year.

But much of what we throw away — last year’s must-have toys, obsolete computers and out-of-date furniture — is still valuable to some.

The choice seems a no-brainer: bury what we throw away in expensive and environmentally-damaging landfill sites or pass it on to someone who might have a use for it.

The News and Mail looked at two schemes in Woking that are finding new homes for unwanted products and saving them from landfill.

Click here to read in full

Would you care for a free case of soda — minus one can? The person who bought it tried it and didn’t like it.

How about a nice 36-inch television? Its owner went high-def and won’t watch it anymore.

Or maybe you could use baby clothes, horse manure, a mobile home, a set of 29 Dragonlance paperbacks, empty cat litter buckets and shingles. Virtually everything — including the kitchen sink — has been offered for free at Free Market and Freecycle, two online organizations that help people find things they want and get rid of things they don’t. This is the “reuse” part of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra.

Across the Twin Cities, this no-strings-attached arrangement appeals to the green, the generous, the strapped and the cheap.

Click here to read in full

Imagine asking the universe for something, and then watching it immediately appear before you.

“End tables.”

“Rabbit-ear antenna.”

“Bird cage”

“Dresden Voyager hatch door.”

Now, imagine it could actually work that way. Fifty percent of the time, maybe. Or depending on what you ask for, even 99.

“I went on and said I wanted or needed a fish tank setup and someone, within a couple of weeks, ended up getting it to me,” said Aericka Darling, 25, of Lewiston. She’s one of nearly 2,600 locals who belong to the L-A chapter of The Freecycle Network. The non-profit group uses simple message-board software to connect stuff that one person has and doesn’t want with people who want it.

All for free.

Click here to read in full

Freecycle groups are also helping Fifers recycle unwanted items. Freecycle groups are established in East, West and Central Fife to let people get rid of items they don’t want and pick up those they do for free.

Click here to read in full

Hunt for Furniture Online

Buying or finding used furniture saves big on budget. Two of the best places online to check are Craigslist.org and Freecycle.org. These communities offer free, local classified ads for everything from sofas to dining tables. While items listed on Craigslist often have a price attached, furniture listed on Freecycle has one requirement: It must be given away free.

Click here to read in full

Better still, you can receive an array of free “gifts” from others in your community who no longer desire them, or let go of your own discards, through The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org). The point of this community-based organization is to keep useable items in circulation and out of landfills. Through e-mail, members share items and arrange pickups.

Click here to read in full