Celebrate Earth Day with Freecycle!

By Lynn Muller

I’ve always had the feeling that somewhere there was someone who needs exactly what I have sitting in my house (or attic, or barn) gathering dust, and somehow I would find them and pass on the item.  Over the years I have given a lot of stuff to charity, donated things to our church “attic treasures” sale, and handed down my kids clothes to younger cousins, but these efforts have only scratched the surface.  This is because neither my husband nor I ever want to get rid of anything that might come in handy some day…  Our kids are following in our footsteps - at least their rooms appear to hold everything they have ever owned (but maybe that’s just because they don’t like to clean).  That’s why I am so glad I found out about Freecycle.  If you haven’t heard about it, keep reading – and maybe you can celebrate Earth Day on April 22^nd by passing on something that you might otherwise have thrown away.

Freecycle is a network of Yahoo groups that matches people who have unwanted stuff with people who want that same stuff – all for free.  The mode of communication is the Internet and email, and the members of each group live in the same geographic area (often within 10 or 15 miles of one another).  By going to www.Freecycle.org you can find a local group to join – there are numerous ones covering areas of Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties.  The whole thing is governed by a fairly simple set of rules - keep everything free, legal and appropriate for all ages to see.  According to the main website, Freecycle was started in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills.  The network has since expanded and now has groups in almost 4000 communities worldwide.  The members are not only concerned about keeping stuff out of the landfills, but also about burning unnecessary gas – that’s why the groups cover a specific local area. 

I joined the Pottstown area Freecycle group about a year ago, and I have seen OFFER posts that range from bags of packing peanuts to left over building supplies - and everything in between.  By monitoring the Wanted posts, I have found a new home for many of the things that I could not donate to charity, such as a 20 year old box spring (it wouldn’t fit up the stairs of our farmhouse when we moved in 12 years ago), for wood that had been torn down from a collapsed section of our barn, for a bag full of cardboard paper towel and toilet paper tubes I’d saved for some future craft project, and even for a 29-year-old dishwasher that we had recently replaced.  It really feels good to know that I can help fulfill a specific need for someone else and that the stuff isn’t going to end up in a landfill (or in our barn).

Each Freecycle group is run by a volunteer moderator who reviews each post before it is put up to make sure that folks are following the rules and aren’t giving out too much personal information.  Members sign up for a method of communication that can either be individual emails when a posting is made to the group, a daily digest containing all of each day’s postings, or no email other than important notices from the moderator – members choosing that option log into Yahoo groups to view the postings on the site.  When someone posts an offer, any group member can reply to that person directly via email to express interest in the item (an email address must be supplied when signing up for Yahoo).  The person who posts an offer gets to decide who will receive the item based on the replies received by email.  Members are asked to post a message when an item is taken as well.  Posters arrange for pickup directly with the person receiving the item.  Usually, this is done by leaving it in a designated spot during a specific timeframe (usually a front porch or somewhere else that makes sense to the poster).  This may sound dangerous, and certainly can be if each person doesn’t use common sense, but so far I have met nothing but nice people as a result of my involvement with Freecycle, and I am betting that there are lots more out there like them.

Lynn is a devoted Freecycler who lives in the Pottstown area.