How to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle With Freecycle

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By Virginia DeBolt
eHow Contributing Writer

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(7 Ratings)

Freecycle is an online community dedicated to keeping useful goods out of the landfills.

Freecycle has over 4,000 groups and over 4,000,000 members who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reusing and recyling so that good stuff stays out of landfills. If you've ever felt a pang when throwing away something perfectly usable, freecycle is for you.

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Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A web browser
A Yahoo! account
A Freecycle membership

Step 1

Go to the freecycle.org homepage and type in your location.
Step 2

Select one (or more) of the freecycle groups near you. You will be directed to that group's Yahoo! Group page.
Step 3

If you don't have a Yahoo! account, click the sign up link at the top of the page.

Sign into your Yahoo! account. You won't be able to read or post messages of your own at the Yahoo! Group page for your local freecycle group, unless you sign in.
Step 4

After you're signed into your Yahoo! account, follow the instructions to join the particular Yahoo! Group for your local freecycle group.
Step 5

Etiquette on freecycle requires that you give away as much as you take, so start your participation by offering some of your unused or unwanted stuff to others.

Even broken items can have value to freecycle members. Bike parts, nonworking lawnmowers, or other items that can be repaired or used again as part of something else are often snapped up as eagerly as working items like old TVs.

Tips & Warnings

Read the freecycle post for things people want, as well as for things people are giving away. If you have something that another member is seeking, it's easy to let them know and set up a pickup point for the item.

Resources

Freecycle

Comments

Veesites said

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on 11/14/2008 @prism, it's amazing all right. Just today my local freecycle email contained offers for everything from beds to bags of fall leaves.

prism said

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on 11/14/2008 I just found Freecycle about a month ago. It's great! I can't believe the types of items people are giving and getting that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. Great article!