Teva Ingrassia is a member of freecycle, an online network of some three-point-four million people in hometowns across America. They give and get stuff for free.
“I’ve been involved with freecycle for about two years and we’ve gotten everything from the smallest
It used to be true that nothing in life was for free. That is, until freecycle.org was born.
The idea is to exchange items you no longer want and need with others (and vice versa) - for free! You select a group of people in your area, sign up to be on their e-mail list, and then you post the things you have to give away, while simultaneously sifting through your e-mail for someone else’s junk that you view as treasure.
If you’re like me, every week you faithfully set out your recycling bin next to the garbage, trying to do your part in saving the earth. You put in the cans, bottles, newspapers, cardboard and scrap paper; maybe if you’re really ambitious, you have a green waste container and a motor oil receptacle, too.
But then you wonder: What in the world do I do with all this other stuff?
Thick, velvet curtains, in red or any other color, can cost from $20 to $200, or sometimes even less, if you scour garage sales and freecycle communities. If you have a teeny screen, it’s even cheaper. Just get a small amount of fabric from the fabric store. Rig up a simple pulley system and viola — you’ve got the classic, movie-going backdrop.
And sometimes you say it makes sense not to purchase anything at all.
The very first step is always to reuse what you have or reuse what somebody else has. There’s a long tradition in this country of having yard sales and swap meets, and now with the Internet, it’s actually becoming really easy to do that. There’s something called freecycle.org. Find it online; inevitably somebody else is going to want [what you have].
Come to the Santa Cruz Freecycle Free-For-All weekend hosted by Paula Revere for Santa Cruz Freecycle
The Motto: Bring something, get something for free.
Where: Aptos Academy - 1940 Bonita Drive Aptos,
Calif. 95003
Take the San Andreas exit off 1 and make a right
onto San Andreas -
toward the ocean and Seascape. It’s the first right after that.
When: January 26th and 27th, 2008
Time: 10am - 3pm
Hope to See You There!
Amber Wells discusses ways to green-up your life in the New Year.
Give reusable items away instead of trashing them - visit www.freecycle.org
Freecycle.org seems to me to be the biggest of all the grassroots movements on the Web that seeks the Earth’s sustainability through re-use. The idea? Instead of throwing something out (perhaps something that can’t be picked up by the local recycling truck), post it on the Web to other members of your local Freecycle group as being free for the taking. Looking to get something for free? You can publish wanted ads too.
A friend of mine recently turned me on to the existence of the Freecycle group in my area. I’m not sure if all groups work the same but the one I’m a member of uses Yahoo Groups as the place to which four different types of posts get posted: OFFER, WANTED, TAKEN, RECEIVED. As a member of the group, I elect whether to have new posts forwarded to my inbox as they are posted to the Yahoo Group, or aggregated in summary form twice per day.Click here to read the blog in full
Though TreeHugger prefers Buy Nothing Day to the sheer madness of Black Friday, that doesn’t mean you have to live with less or even that you can’t acquire stuff; a great way to do this is with something like The Freecycle Network (it really works!). The big day has passed, but the Network rolls on, and remains a good way to both find and get rid of stuff without having to involve any money.Click here to read this and other fantastic green & recycling related articles at Treehugger.com
ALBANY — Downtown will come alive with acrobats, BMX bicycles, pony rides and a giant bonfire during the city’s second annual WinterFestival, city officials said Tuesday.
Lodge street will be closed to traffic starting at 1 p.m., as riders from the FreeCycle Action Sports Team do jumps and tricks. Later, “Fetch!” will reach a new level when America’s Best Frisbee Dogs, veterans of several NFL half-time shows, take to the streets..Click here to read the article in full
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