Freecycle

Online review, by Annette White

EVERYONE wants to declutter nowadays. There are different ways to get rid of your unwanted items: You can flog them on an internet auction site (you get the money), give them to a charity shop (charity gets the money), or you can offer them on Freecycle (nobody gets any money, but the planet profits by having fewer landfills filled, and the recipient gets something they want and you don’t). What you swap must be legal, so you can’t offer your relatives, no matter how annoying, nor can you, for example, offer the moonshine you distilled after you got barred from the Leopard. On the other hand, you can get rid of electrical goods, which the laws says you can’t bin and which charity shops can’t take either. Anything from baby clothes to CDs to furniture, plants, cars and computer parts can be freecycled. Usually the taker collects.

As a Freecycle virgin, I was asked by a neighbour to get rid of an unwanted spare bed. I found the local (Stoke and Newcastle) group on t’internet and joined on Sunday, offering the bed as my first post. By Tuesday a nice churchwarden had collected it for his drop-in centre. He came in a hatchback and I thought he would have problems fitting it in, but he assured me that he used to transport aircraft in the RAF and set to with ropes, securing the bed in the back of the car with only a bit sticking out. Off he went, and everyone was happy.

A “taken” notice was posted to let the group know, and that was that. Once you are established as a group member, you can also post “wanted” notices. So if there is anything your little heart desires, chances are someone in the group can supply it for free. Turnover is pretty quick, too. The only drawback is that you get lots of emails in your inbox, but you can avoid that by choosing different settings. Freecycling is heartily recommended for that environmentally smug feeling.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newcastleandstoke-on-trentfreecycle