Freecycle

From Peachtree Corners

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Freecycling is a common term for a grassroots movement resulting from a renewed awareness to make better use of common resources. Different from recycling, where manufactured materials like bottles, cans and paper are reprocessed into new products, freecycling is a method for offering usable, but unneeded, items to individuals who can make use them.

The Freecycle network (http://www.freecycle.org/) is a web-based community, started in May of 2003 in Tucson, Arizona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucson), and is among the best known promoters of this movement. Facing a shortage of landfill space, Tucson residents started this network as a way to promote reuse of usable items. Using Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/) as the primary communication method, members of the chapter could post items they were offering or looking for.

The idea spread and other chapters started, each based around a relatively small geographic area. Since its inception in 2003, the membership of the Freecycle network has grown to nearly 3 million people, spread over approximately 4000 chapters worldwide.

Membership is free to all who participate, and membership in multiple chapters is allowed. There are significant guidelines (http://www.freecycle.org/manual/files_etiquette.htm) that are strictly enforced by forum moderators. For example, everything offered must be free and without obligation, appropriate for all age levels and legal. Most chapters do not allow pets to be advertised, though pet equipment can be listed, and there are published sets of rules on each local site. There are some local variations, such as sites encouraging users to defer to people in needy situations or to charitable groups, but the general operation for all local chapters is similar.

In addition to offering individual items on the Freecycling websites, many participants also use them to announce Freesales. An typical example of a Freesale is to announce, when a family is holding a yard sale, that after a certain time and date all remaining items will be free for the taking. This relieves the garage sale host from having to store and/or dispose of the remaining items. At first glance, this appears contrary to making money by holding the garage sale, but items of any real value typically sell before the cutoff time, or are removed from the general collection. In addition, many individuals who host yard sales are motivated more by a desire (http://www.fredericksburg.com/StarDirectory/HomeImprovement/SpringHomeGuide/166840) to clear space in their house than making money from the sale of the items.

The Norcross Freecycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freecycle_NorcrossGA/) site was started in December, 2006 by a local Peachtree Corners resident who recognized the same thing as the people in Tucson, that too many usable items were going into the local landfill. At the time of this article was written, there were over 150 members.

Freecycling Resources in the Peachtree Corners area

Norcross Freecycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freecycle_NorcrossGA/) Free Yahoo ID required.
North Atlanta FreeShare (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/North_Atlanta_FreeShare/) very similar organization to Freecycle, but guidelines are slightly different. Free Yahoo ID required
Freecycle Atlanta (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycle-ATL/) Free Yahoo ID required.
Craigslist Free Stuff (http://atlanta.craigslist.org/zip/) not moderated
Gwinnett-Clean-and-Beautiful (http://www.gwinnettcb.org/)