Freecycling is a way of trading goods with people without the involvement of any money whatsoever. It’s a movement that is taking the world by storm!! There are freecycle groups all over the world and can be found on almost any classified website. The official freecycle groups are by yahoo groups and have chapters seemingly anywhere. Lately, I’ve just been looking on my local Kijiji and Craigs List sites to see if anyone needs anything I’ve got kicking around or if I need anything they’ve got kicking around. It’s a great way to not only cut down on the amount of materials in the landfill that could be used, it also saves money and declutters houses!!
Yesterday I found a want ad for tomato cages which I was coincidentally just trying to come up with a clever way of repurposing. I shot off an email offering them to my fellow gardener and the next day, voila! Someone else is using them. It’s a perfect way of taking a big step towards going green. Recycling is great but it also involves more energy to take the “trash” and turn it into something else. When you freecycle, all you have to do is find someone who wants what you’ve got. To me, it seems just about the best way to get “rid” of something. It’s not really out of the loop at all, the product is just continuing to be used over and over until eventually it does wear out and need to be recycled. I also sent off a couple of pots that I didn’t need and were going to be sent with my plastic recycling. Now if I could only figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff in the garage I don’t need, then maybe I’d even be able to park my car in there!!
From the opposite side of the freecycle experience, it works just as well. We were looking for some gravel or river rock to run along the side of our house to cut down on the amount of lawn, watering and mowing required. I was just going to order some from the local home improvement store, but decided to look around and see if anyone had anything they needed to get rid of. Turns out that someone did! A family living by the river had been digging all the rocks out of the garden and putting them in the alley for what looks like a really long time. Absolutely perfect for what we need and much better and more attractive than your standard gravel! Thanks freecycle!!!
