I can’t remember when I first heard of Freecycle but it was some time ago. The concept is beautifully simple – rather than throwing out what you don’t want, post it on the Internet because it may be just what someone else is looking for. As they say, “one person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure”. It’s recycling at it’s purest as no industrial reprocessing is required to break it down into raw materials. It’s also, as the name suggests, free – the stipulation is that you give away rather than sell, which marks it out from the eBays and Craig’s Lists of the world.

For some reason, I finally got round to signing up to the London group on Thursday afternoon only to return home and find that Jane was in the process of tidying up the bedroom and wanting to get rid of the empty DVD cases we’ve had sitting round for a year or two (legacy of past subscriptions to several computer magazines – the disks are long gone but we kept the cases as they might have been useful). Recognising the serendipity of the moment, I suggested giving them a stay of execution and dipping our toes in the world of Freecycling.

On Friday morning, I posted a short advert explaining what was for offer. Within minutes, I’d been contacted by someone who was interested in them. I’d expected to hear something back during the day but even before I’d had the chance to go to work, I was able to post a follow up message saying they’d been taken (and the actual handover happened smoothly yesterday evening). There’s an element of luck in offering what somebody else was looking for at the right time but it certainly proved a very positive introduction to the concept.

I think it’s a great idea and I’m glad to have got off to a good start. Why not check to see if there’s a group near you or at least chew over some food for thought?

Tags: freecycle, recycling, local networks