Business & Policy Economics Freecycle.org: It Really Works. By Lloyd Alter Design Editor University of Toronto Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. our editorial process Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Lloyd Alter Updated October 11, 2018 Migrated Image Share Twitter Pinterest Email Business & Policy Corporate Responsibility Environmental Policy Economics Food Issues 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