Freecycle is about more than getting and giving stuff for free; it’s about reducing the landfill burden

Date published: 5/26/2006

By LAURA MOYER

By 9:30 on a recent Saturday morning, the Combs family of Spotsylvania County had loaded a minor mountain of treasure into the back of their pickup.

Mom Carrie, a nursing student, got a pile of reference books. Dad Stephen hit the paperback jackpot with titles from Stephen King and Louis L’Amour. Nine-year-old Michael got brand-new jigsaw puzzles still in shrink wrap and a bagful of cool toys.

And then there were a new waffle iron, a pastel-patterned quilt, a nearly new winter jacket, a Kenny G CD and a dress for church.

“Honey, I made out!” Carrie Combs said as she tucked the last of her windfall into the pickup and shut the tailgate.

It didn’t cost them a penny.

They and dozens of other area residents were in Lynda Greene’s Spotsylvania farm field for a yard sale that wasn’t really a yard sale. It was a giveaway run by and for participants in the Spotsylvania group of the Freecycle Network.

Freecycle is a simple idea that caught fire thanks to the Internet and people’s innate fascination with acquiring and getting rid of stuff.

Instead of cluttering landfills with usable but no longer wanted items, participants post offers online, on mailing lists run by and for people in their communities. Each offer is accompanied by a description of the item and its condition, and a contact e–mail address.

Most items are claimed the day they’re offered, and sometimes within minutes. It’s up to the recipient to pick up an item at an appointed spot.

The catch is that everything-from the lowliest box of knickknacks to computers and cars must be given and received without charge.

The Freecycle yard giveaway on a May weekend was just a visible, one-stop example of what goes on in this area and elsewhere every day.

The Combses heard about Freecycle from a parent of one of Michael’s fellow Cub Scouts. Within days, they were unburdening their Chancellor-area house and their consciences.

The neglected home gym was snapped right up. Same with the 30-odd cans of half-used paint. And little stuff, too, stuff the family had moved from state to state and never quite managed to get rid of. Carrie Combs found it suddenly liberating to go through drawers and closets, “decluttering my life.”

Of course, Freecycle works the other way, as well.

Stephen once claimed $400 worth of drywall for a basement refinishing project. Carrie got a solid oak bookcase for Stephen’s big collection of paperbacks, many of which he received through Freecycle.

To Carrie Combs, Freecycle is one solution for the guilt of a disposable society. With the availability of cheap, new products, people buy more than they need.

“People are so wasteful now,” she said, “they don’t know what to do with their stuff.”

Date published: 5/26/2006

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