Freecycle Adds Additional Resource for Recyclers

You have put the papers and cans to the curb and they are waiting to be picked up. Food scraps are mixed into the mulch pile and you have gently turned over the decaying waste. You have spread the mower clippings around your shrubs. This keeps nutrients flowing back into the earth and also helps unwanted weeds from popping up.

These are the some of the things that American recyclers like yourself do to keep some of their waste from filling the landfills. But now you have an old couch you want to get rid of and what are you to do with that? The usual options is to either burn it or throw it in the garbage and into a landfill, only to undo what you have been working so hard to accomplish by recycling.

The same problem faced many cities across the United States. But Tucson, Arizona officials and residents decided to something about it in May of 2003. They wanted to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save the beautiful desert landscape from being taken over by landfills. The outcome was a program called Freecycle.

Freecycle is a program that has caught on fire and allows people to recycle unwanted items over the Internet and reinforces the old adage that "one person's trash is another's treasure". With 4021 communities and 3,441,918 members, you are bound to find a local chapter in your area and help fulfill the groups' motto of "Changing the world one gift at a time". If not, then you can start your own.

Freecycle is free to join, of course, and all items offered on Freecycle are to be for free of charge. Freecycle uses Yahoo's Group pages as a way to communicate the items available and for people to ask questions and claim items.

The types of items that are usually available in the groups range from baby clothes and furniture, egg cartons, building supplies, electronic, mowers and computer equipment. Most users give a decent description of the items, but it is good idea to ask as many questions as you need to make sure that is the item you want.

As an avid user of Freecycle, I mostly list items for people to pick up. I have never had a problem of no shows and I usually trust the person that is coming to pick up an item. As far as getting items that I need off of Freecycle, I am generally to late responding to an item or I am not available to pick the item up as directed by the listing user. You have to be fast and your time flexible as everyone in your area is looking for that great deal.

Now that you know about Freecycle, you can use it as an additional resource to drastically reduce the amount of waste that is put into landfills and make you and your family more efficient recyclers. So join Freecycle today and make sure you tell your neighbors, too!