Freecycle: the big green giveaway

From baby gear to bedlinen, meet the people who have found treasure in other people's trash

Anna Shepard, The Times 27 Sep 08;

If you haven't already come across Freecycle, the online recycling network - one of the biggest green initiatives of the past decade - it is a global network of message boards, with more than 450 groups in the UK. The beauty of it is that it transforms one person's trash into another's treasure.

You sign up to your local group, where you can post messages to say what you're offering, or looking for. No money changes hands and it's up to the person who wants an item to collect it, so you don't have to stress about how you're going to heave an unwanted futon out of your home.

In these financially worrying times, it makes sense to trade household items with neighbours rather than buying them new. Freecycle has become a valuable way of acquiring things you want (without spending any money) and getting rid of those you don't (without sending them to landfill).

Set up five years ago by Deron Beal, an American eco-activist who wanted to reduce the number of abandoned white goods in his home state of Arizona, the site has six million members across the world, and attracts 2,000 new ones every day. In the past year, membership in the UK has more than doubled to 1.2 million. Mostly, it is furniture, clothing and household appliances that are up for grabs, but you also find the odd peculiarity. Giant African Land Snails found their way on to my forum - offered because their owner didn't have space for them. As with any community there are questions of etiquette, and not all groups are the same, as John Naish discovers (see below), but fans of Freecycle never fail to mention the feelgood factor. When I ask for feedback from members, it surprises me that so many people get in touch to point out that giving something away for nothing makes them feel great.

“People are so pleased with their acquisition that they often write a thankyou note or even drop off a present,” says one. With so many of us feeling that we are missing out on a community in the traditional sense, it appears that this online forum serves just as well.

It's heaven for that dying breed - people who fix things”

- Anna Shepard, Eco-worrier

Until I gathered up and counted the loot that I've obtained over the past few years of Freecycling, I always assumed that I used the network to give away belongings rather than to acquire new ones. That's the line I've stuck to with my minimalist boyfriend. But it's not true. Pot plants, a drum and an astonishing number of cushions (pictured above) have all been collected and absorbed into our small flat. Unlike some people, I've never felt the need to tell a sob story to be sure that the person offering them chooses me as the recipient. Perhaps I'm lucky to go after bits and pieces that no else wants - an ornamental cat with a po-faced expression, for example. But I always offer to pick up the goods promptly and try to be friendly in the e-mail, without being creepy. That said, the most useful experience I've had was getting rid of a dozen heavy patio slabs languishing in our garden. A woman popped round with a beefy builder friend and he cleared them, two at a time, in ten minutes. Plus, I've passed off a broken Hoover and a set of fairy lights that had given up the ghost, amazed that anyone would want them. But Freecycle is heaven for that dying breed, people who fix things.

“It's down to trust”

- Catherine Dean, new mum

The 31-year-old lives in East London with her husband James and three-month-old daughter, Lauren (pictured). She joined her local Freecycle network three years ago, but it wasn't until she was pregnant that she realised how useful it could be. “Going round John Lewis I was amazed how much money you can spend on baby stuff that you use for only a short time.” According to Amex, parents in the UK spend on average £3,000 in the first year on their first baby.

Dean put up a message on her local forum asking if anyone had anything going spare. “One woman loaded us with stuff,” she says. “She said she had some baby clothes, but she kept finding more things to give us. We ended up leaving with a high chair, a bouncy chair and a pram, as well as bags full of clothes.” From others, she picked up a baby bath, a Baby Bjorn sling, a Moses basket and a carry cot, saving her more than £500.

“When I explain to other people why Freecycle works so well, I'm not sure they get it ... There's no money involved; it's all on goodwill and trust. It restores your faith in humanity,” she says. Dean recently encouraged her mum, who lives in Bradford, to sign up. “She didn't believe she'd be able to get rid of her broken printer, but someone took it. That's the thing about Freecycle, no matter what you post up, there's usually someone who wants it.”

“Doesn't anyone want my unused microwave?”

- John Naish, Body&Soul writer

Brighton, being hippy Brighton, has more than 9,000 Freecyclers. Joining the group unleashed a thrice-daily torrent of offers and wants into my inbox. So I thought it would be a doddle to give away three excellent-condition but entirely surplus consumer items: “Microwave oven, hardly used; bedlinen sets for single bed: clean, as-new and some still in packaging, and a pair of garden-recliner cushions.”

The response was instant. Ten people rushed to baggsy the garden-recliner cushions. Some of them larded their requests with sad tales of hard-recliner woe. But no one wanted the microwave. Nor did anyone desire the bedlinen. For days they sat unwanted while happy throngs of Freecyclers collected tagines, beanbags and part-used candles from each other. Perhaps the linen and microwave weren't lifestyle enough. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that the linen had a floral pattern. But I'd felt compelled to be honest.

Finally, Clara got in touch and requested the sheets and cases. She was renting rooms for students in the summer and thought they might come in handy. I don't think she wanted them that much, though. It took eight days, and several reminders, for her to collect them. That was after she e-mailed me an incorrect home phone number that belonged to a remarkably short-tempered pensioner. The microwave went only after a fortnight's continued offering. Jo, who picked it up, said she had a barn that she sometimes rents to artist friends and she

thought that they might just like to heat up drinks and soups. Around the same time, a frustrated Freecycler called Myfanwy let out a wrenching cri de coeur on the swap-site: “Does no one want my computer monitor?” she asked. “I've posted it twice on Freecycle; the YMCA don't want it and the recyclers charge for it to be taken. Am I right in thinking it's impossible to get rid of a non-flatscreen computer monitor these days, except at the tip?” The conundrum put Myfanwy into a philosophical mood: “Times have changed, eh?” she sighed. “It seems to me that ten years ago Freecycle wouldn't have worked because people wouldn't have given stuff away for nothing. Now it's on the brink of not working again because everyone's overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of their belongings, and if they want something new they can usually go out and buy it, which is not necessarily the ideal we might have thought it was a decade ago.”

“I discovered how friendly the neighbours are”

- Erica Wagner, Times literary editor

Think Londoners are surly? I sometimes had that idea - but that was before I joined up with Freecycle. All right, I suppose I can speak only of the good folks of Hackney (my local group), but it's fair to say that a huge side benefit of de-junking my life has been discovering just how friendly my neighbours are.

Living in a not-so-spacious house, I am keen on getting rid of things (as my husband - often cross because I've put the newspapers in the recycling bin before he's read them - would tell you). Charity shops are inconvenient (far away, open only when I'm at work) and also somehow impersonal: where's your stuff (which you once, after all, loved) really going? Plus, they won't take the things that really take up space, such as strollers or bedframes or paving stones.

Answer? Freecycle! Log on to your local group and you will see, almost immediately, that one chap's junk is another's blessed discovery. Like the time I gave away the rucksack we'd carried my son in when he was 2 or 3 (he's 8 now), I was ever so pleased to learn that the fellow I handed it over to would be taking his little daughter up Welsh mountains with it - just as we'd done with Theo. You don't get that with a charity shop. Yes, the charities are deserving, but there are other ways to contribute. And I like to know that people have decided to make their own clothes (WANTED: sewing machine) or take up cycling (WANTED: bicycle helmets and locks) and believe - quite rightly, it turns out - that strangers are willing to help them achieve their goals. It makes the world seem a better place.

Sometimes, looking at the items offered, I've wondered if there could really be any takers for that (a stack of Time Outs from three years ago?), but with more than 10,000 users in my local group, you never know. I was startled to discover, just as my asthma started playing up again, that someone was offering a brand-new spacer and peak-flow meter; I'd lost mine. Now my breathing's back on track thanks to my doctor, but thanks to Freecycle, too.

How to get the most from Freecycle:

I'm struggling to register

Just google Freecycle and type in your local area (Anna Shepard writes). You then have to sign up to Yahoo for an e-mail address. This is done on the same website. Having chosen your address, you search for your area again. Before you join you are asked how many e-mails a day you would like to receive from the group. New members are vetted by volunteers (called moderators). If they think you're only after free loot, you might get turned down, so mention how much you want to give things away.

Help! I'm receiving hundreds of e-mails a day

Change your settings. Once you've registered, every time you log on, you'll go to a page where you can edit your membership, which includes a section called message delivery. You can receive “individual e-mails”; “daily digests”; or there's a “web-only” setting, which means you won't be sent any e-mails at all, although you can check the forum on the web whenever you want.

Who should I give my stuff to?

If hundreds of people reply to say they want your ancient microwave, you'll have to find your own way of choosing the lucky new owner. Most worthy? Speediest to collect? Or first-come-first-serve.

What if someone resells my stuff?

It's tempting to feel furious because they are making money when you couldn't be bothered, but in green terms, at least the stuff is not going to landfill.

What if I end up with something I don't want?

I make sure that I always have an excuse up my sleeve, along the lines of “What a shame! It's too small for my living room”.

Is it safe?

If you're worried, take a friend or make sure someone is with you at home if a member is coming to collect something.