Freecycle.org: It Really Works.

We do occasionally try to practice what we preach, and had a basement full of stuff that did not move at our garage sale. Having learned about Freecycle on TreeHugger, and watched Mark in action, we signed up and put up a listing, saying "lots of stuff available, come and get it" . We soon got an email saying, no, that is not how it works. Name each item so that people are not running around for nothing, and negotiate a time with the person responding to each item so that people are not just showing up and finding it has gone to someone else. I do as I am told, and suddenly emails are flying, people are taking old books, printers, stereos and snowboards, arriving on time and thankful to be getting them. (although some don't show- I am still waiting for Theresa) I have found happy good homes for my excess baggage and a lot of stuff has been kept out of the dump. Pictured is Mark, a happy customer using an old 486 laptop for a robotics project, picking up a modem. The system works.

Alex Steffen said "there is no such thing as garbage, only useful stuff in the wrong place." I now monitor what is coming and going, and there are some bizarre things offered, from scrap metal to old bathtubs, and invariably a few days later we see that it is taken. There is clearly someone out there for almost anything, just waiting for a simple system for getting useful stuff into the right place. ::Freecycle.org