Matt Biddulph, “celebrity programmer”, Dopplr CTO, office-sharing mate, and all round good egg recently told me about Freecycle. He had used the service to “get rid off” a bunch and Sight and Sound magazines, a DVD player, and Sky+ settop box. All of these objects went to good homes, which is the goal of the service.
Welcome! The Freecycle Networkâ„¢ is made up of 4,138 groups with 3,994,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them’s good people). Membership is free.
This is like eBay without the filthy lucre. It’s an implementation of what is being called the Gift Culture of Economy. Don’t throw things away – give them to somebody. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Freecycling already happens in in first life in Hackney. People just put stuff outside their front doors, and its clearly there for freecycling. I recently “got rid’ of a DVD that way (I included a note saying it jumped occasionally). But a social network now allows for recycling serendipity.
Freecycle is bloody good. My daughter got a desk there last week. I’m really too lazy for the social network thing though – it all goes out on the street as you say….
My near neighbour’s daughter grabbed a telly I put out, rigged it up in her garden with a power cable through the window and sold it for £15…. Bloody entrepreneurs….