Good Lord! I didn't realize today is the 15th and I almost failed to meet my Blog Action Day obligation! Props to Jeff and Amy for knowing today's date.
I've had this post about the Freecycle group tumbling about in the bingo cage that is my brain for months. When I read about Blog Action Day I knew I had finally found its outlet. This group is "a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& gettin) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills."
It basically involves giving away what you would normally throw away. Say you've got an old desk. It's not shiny and pretty, but it's still functional. Rather than putting it out for the trash collector, and eventually a landfill, you can post it on the Freecycle group's website where the odds are darn good that another member is looking for a desk. This person replies to your email offer and makes arrangements to come by your house and take it off your hands.
They call it a "worldwide gift economy", a term that I adore. Think about it - you got rid of the desk without having to haul it away, you kept it out of a landfill, AND you gave it to someone in need. Their mission statement sums it up nicely:
"Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."Now, the Freecyle group is NOT just a place to score free stuff. It's a place to give what you have and don't need or to receive what you need and don't have. When I bought my house there was a toilet in the garage. The man who came to pick it up explained that his children had broken several already by putting toys in them. I'm not sure how this happens, but he was extremely grateful that he didn't have to BUY another one. I recall wishing I also had a kennel to give him.
Warning! You will get hundreds of emails a day. While this is an awesome display of the power of this grassroots organization, it can also be unwieldy. The best solution I've found is to create a separate email folder and manipulate your email settings to have the Freecycle group emails sent into it.
So click here and join the other 3,963,000 members today!
Oh! And their website has a really cool "Did You Know?" page that has all kinds of information about what can be recycled where. I have a crush on the Freecycle group.
1 comments:
Maybe they'll come and get the THREE toilets I have in my backyard.
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