While I’m sure ex-Lehman bankers (some of which are my former bosses) aren’t scrounging through trash cans for perfectly good hot dogs, like the poster boy for Freecycling in this BusinessWeek article, I love the factoid near the end of the piece: “since Wall Street imploded [Freecycle] has been registering 50,000 more each week, up from 25,000 previously.” I have to wonder: are investment bankers now using Freecycle to get rid of their stuff or is it just that people whose credit cards are limited are looking elsewhere for their material goods?

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I’ve also discovered less radical ways of taking part in sustainability. Through freecycle.org., I’ve found a way to give stuff and get stuff absolutely free. Freecycle is an organization created in order to keep unwanted belongings, such as clothes, from ending up in landfills. Instead, unwanted items can be posted on the Web site for whomever is interested to claim. So if you have a pair of jeans or a sweater you don’t wear anymore, put it on freecycle.org.

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Freecycle.org is organized like Craigs list. People post whatever it is they are willing to hand off, and others can log on to search the site. The website has been around for years, and has sections for Champaign-Urbana, Danville, Decatur and Springfield. And word seems to be spreading. More people are logging on every day to find things they can take off other’s hands for free!

“I’ve seen cars go through there, big screen TVs,” says local website moderator Paul Grindley. “Fertilizers, lawn and garden equipment, computers, lots of computers.”

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The Sherborn Swap Shop will be closed from Nov. 1 until about April 1, 2009. All remaining items at the Swap Shop will be donated to local charities. If you have items you were thinking of bringing to the Swap Shop, we encourage you to take them to a charity instead, rather than put them in the trash.

For information on charities that accept donations, contact Andrea Brennan at 508-647-1510. Or sign up for Framingham Freecycle, an online way to find people to take your stuff at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FraminghamMAfreecycle/ .

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Find alternatives to major expenditures. Can you put a little time and money into that old car and hang on to it for another year? Maybe you can find a bed for the guest room through Freecycle or Craigslist instead of buying new. There’s no shame in buying used — I’ll bet the most financially secure folks in your neighborhood are already doing it, and nobody need ever know.

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Need toys, clothes or musical instruments? Check out freecycle.org, newspaper classifieds or craigslist.com.

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And if you’re all out of cash, check out freecycle.org.
It’s a site where thousands of people give and get stuff for free.
You just type in your city, sign up and you’re ready to go.
But you’ll have to post things to give away free before you can start receiving.

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2. Buy used costumes or clothing. Visit thrift stores, consignment shops and even antique stores to look for old costumes or clothing that can be transformed into a cool Halloween creation. Online sites like eBay, Craigslist and your local Freecycle chapter may also have potential.

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As Tobias points out in his blog post, there are a variety of web sites out there that help sell and swap used goods online. Craiglist, Freecycle, less well known sites like SwapThing and several Facebook applications come to mind. But it does still take a large amount of time and effort to get your stuff swapped or sold — perhaps Tobias has a better way.

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Traffic to Freecycle, the website where people can pass on their unwanted goods to others increased 35% in the last year. Gumtree is by far and away the most popular classified site in the UK with a 14.32% share of the market, it’s nearest comptitors are Vivastreet (5.66%) and Ad Trader (4.18%). 9th most popular classified site in the UK is Edinburgh Gumtree (2.53%) which is incredible as it’s just a part of the Gumtree site.

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