Freecycle Network

The Freecycle Network

Freecycling , also known as Free Recycling , is the act of giving away usable unwanted items to others instead of disposing of them in landfills . This term is most often associated with online groups who run mailing lists which offer items to members at no cost .

The Freecycle Network is non-profit organization registered in the state of Arizona , USA, which organizes a worldwide network of " gifting " groups , aiming to divert reusable goods from landfill . It provides a worldwide online registry , and coordinates the creation of local groups and forums for individuals and non-profits to offer and receive free items for reuse or recycling , promoting gift economics as a motivating cultural outlook . The official tag line of the Network is " Changing the world one gift at a time " . It helps in keeping our neighbourhood clean and away from wastages too.

The Orgin of Freecycle Network

The orgin of Freecycle Network was on May 1 , 2003 when Deron Beal sent out the first e-mail announcing The Freecycle Network to about 30 or 40 friends and a handful of nonprofits in Tucson , Arizona . At the time Deron founded The Freecycle Network , he worked with a small nonprofit organization , RISE , which provides recycling services to downtown businesses and transitional employment to Tucsonans in need .

As the team recycled, rather than watching perfectly good items being thrown away, they found themselves calling or driving around to see if various local nonprofits could use them. Thinking there had to be an easier way to contact more , Beal set up that first Freecycle e-mail group in a way that permitted everyone in Tucson to give and to get . The concept has since spread to over 85 countries, with thousands of local groups and millions of members . Each local group currently exists as a Yahoo! Group mailing list run by volunteer moderators .

Each local group currently exists as a Yahoo! Groups mailing list run by volunteer moderators. TFN encourages the formation of new groups, subject to approval by regional New Group Approvers . Groups approved by TFN - The Freecycle Network , are listed at the official website and they can use the name and logo, and are subject to rules enforced by a structure of global and regional GOAs (Group Outreach Assistance).

TFN originally planned to move a custom designed, centralized site in 2004, but the project moved slowly, largely because of a shortage of skilled volunteer labor. In 2008, Freecycle went live with a beta version of a centralized, custom site. As of March 2009, all new groups must be started on www.Freecycle.org's new group system, giving TFN even more control over the individual groups. Moderators of existing Yahoogroups have the choice of remaining on Yahoogroups or moving their groups to the freecycle.org site. Freecycle was off and running in gud manner around the World .

Tags:- Freecycle , Free recycling , Freecycle groups , Freecycle Network

More About Freecycle Concept

Freecycle is an online community where eco-friendly citizens recycle their unwanted items by giving them away to others - FREE .

The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,841 groups with 7,546,508 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free in their own towns and thus keeping good stuff out of landfills.

In addition to keeping things from landfills, a large part of Freecycle's goal is to build local communities of neighbors helping neighbours.

All groups are run by volunteer moderators who help keep offers organized and members informed in addition to previewing posts of new members and generally keeping chaos at bay.

Freecycle groups don't allow any trades, and no money can change hands. Even offers of non-consumables like coupons or g-mail are "no nos". Instead the group is actively just outright engaged in everyday "gifting". They don't emphasize themselves as a "place to get free stuff" but have a vital membership that is busily making "offers". There are some rules to keep everything clean and easy to use .

People have offered everything from unused waffles irons and a daybed outgrown by a teen aged daughter to a push mower and bird bath for a small townhouse yard.

Some examples or say items that have passed on via Freecycle Groups are as follows :

Paper and other office supplies , clothing no longer usable because of weight gains and losses , discarded boots & bowling ball now set aside for an artist to use for creation of mixed media art , booties, bottles and bibs from that last family baby , empty jars and bottles.

Refrigerators, microwaves and washers are replaced and thanks to freecycle the used one is no longer sent to the landfill, but is freecycled to another loving home.

It's not so much about the quality or value of the items , but is about the value to the person who is the recipient.

Good candidates to freecycle are ; Empty nesters the Environmentally conscious

Parents of growing kids , Amateur athletes , Techno-whizzes who are constantly replacing their hardware , Business owners , Office Managers , Newly single folks , Crafters , Realtors , New folks in town , Students , Adults combining households , Collectors , Apartment and Condo managers , People preparing to retire , Decorators & designers , Teachers , Grandparents And in essence everyone !

The Advantage of Freecycle

The advantage of Freecycle is that we get to help the enviroment by reducing the stuff that factories burn which is trash.

There are green organizations like FreeCycle.org that encourage people to re-use discarded items that still have 'life' in them, like washing machines, tumble dryers, refrigerators, etc. discarded before their time is up ! For example, they are replaced because they look old , a bit like older workers in high-tech companies lol.

FreeCycle and similar organizations want to save rural landscapes from being taken over by landfills. So an advantage is that we dont need to pay to have it taken away.

Another advantage is Lower demand for primary resources, ie. less mining / forestry & lower demand for landfill space . With lower demand, the supply lasts longer, and is more equitable to future generations.

How to Report Misuse to Freecycle

Problems with people abusing or misusing Freecycle are few and far between. Most people who belong to the group respect the rules established without the need for any feedback or control. From time to time, though, it's possible to come across individuals who have crossed the line and should be reported in order to preserve the peace in the group.

Establish whether the problem is misuse of Freecycle due to lack of knowledge of the group's rules and etiquette or if it constitutes a malicious attack. A person who posts a giveaway of over the counter medicine is breaking the rules but may not be aware of it, which is why Freecycle operates on a two-strike rule .

Contact your moderator If you feel personally attacked or received some kind of personal communication you did not authorize or approve of, let your moderator know so he can take charge of the situation.

Report misuse of Freecycle even if the problem occurred outside the group itself.

For example: if a person posts a couch for giveaway, but when you arrive to pick it up he asks for money or puts certain conditions before releasing the item. This is against Freecycle rules and merits a report.

Inform the person directly that he is in violation of Freecycle rules before you report him. Certain rules vary from group to group and a person moving from a different group may not be aware of the difference. Remember to be polite rather than accusatory.

Let the moderator handle it the problems created by fellow members or say mis use of Freecycle network . As tempted as you may be to go against a person breaking the rules or misusing the group for their own benefit, just make a report and then step back. Battling it out with other group members can do more harm than good and will usually not resolve anything.

Tags :- Freecycle , Freecycle Groups , Freecycle Network , Freecycle rules , Freecycle advantages , Freecycle websites

The Freecycle Future

The Freecycle Future

Like most good ideas that become good business models, the Freecycle Network is not the grassroots movement it once was. As it gets more media attention and more members, the founder is making some decisions that many early members aren't happy about.

First, Deron Beal is taking flak for what his volunteer moderators see as micromanaging. Moderators used to have exclusive "ownership" of their local group, but in 2004, Beal decided that every local group should add him as an owner with moderator privileges.

According to Beal, it was necessary because some moderators had simply stopped moderating and there had to be a way to pick up the slack. Many members want Freecycle to remain a loose, grassroots network with no centralized control, but Beal seems to have other plans. His fight to defend the trademarked "Freecycle" has alienated part of his anti-consumerism, anti-big-business base.

A visit to the Freecycle Web site lets everybody know that "Freecycle" is an adjective and only an adjective. Media representatives are not supposed to use the word "Freecycle" as a noun, a verb or any other form of speech. We can't say "Freecycling," "Freecycler" or "Freecycle it," lest the word become generic.

The other point of contention has to do with the Freecycle Network's sudden corporate sponsorship. In 2005, Beal accepted $130,000 in grant money from the Waste Management (WM) garbage-collection company. Many members of the Network are happy to receive the gift from WM. The problem is that WM has a very poor environmental record, raising questions as to whether the partnership is really a good fit. And in any case, some members of the Freecycle Network were unhappy to learn that their grassroots movement had received a lot of money from the largest waste-collection business in the United States.

Several local Freecycle groups left the network and started their own gifting group, abandoning the Freecycle name. One such spinoff is FreeSharing.org, which states on its homepage, "The sites featured on FreeSharing.org are 100% locally owned, grassroots sites, working to help their neighbors and the environment." FreeSharing.org uses the term "Free-Recycling" to describe its activities.

Regardless of the apparent strife within the Freecycle ranks, the movement is still going strong. It plans to expand its operation until it has a presence in every town in every country in the world. Future plans include local education programs to teach people about recycling and waste reduction, and part of the WM grant money will be used to leave Yahoo! Groups and set up independent Web sites that allow for new organization techniques and search tools. The goal is to ease the burden on local moderators and allow for more automation and organization in the gifting process.

The concept behind freecycling is finding new use for old things rather than throwing them out. Sometimes household items and appliances are replaced even though there’s plenty of use left in them. The ability to find someone else to take old, useable items has several benefits, but finding someone to take used items can be difficult. When the Freecycle network was established in 2003, it became possible for people to use the power of the Internet to further this concept. People from all over the globe can join the Freecycle network and post their requests to give or take a specific item.

Items that are freecycled include swing sets, lumber, furniture, glass, and computer components. Anything that a person has to give away that might be useable to another person is fair game. The primary rule of freecycling is that the item has to be given away, not sold.

The Freecycle network is primarily sponsored by Waste Management and the Recycle America Alliance and has groups around the world including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and many other countries. There are hundreds of thousands of members around the world, many trying to make a difference. By creating a central place for people to check for freecycle items in their area, it is easier for people to find free, used stuff and the number of items going into landfills is also reduced.

The main mission statement of the Freecycle network is “to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources, and eases the burden on our landfills.” The Freecycle network is located online at www.freecycle.org where more information, including how to register for and use the service, is available.




Freecycle To Change The World

Freecycle is a network of gifting groups that started in Arizona and quickly spread to the UK, aiming to divert reusable goods from landfills and sporting the tagline ‘changing the world one gift at a time.’ This is a company slogan that actually fills people around us with a warm glow . Just think about some common materials  like Outgrown school uniforms that are offered to poor parents for free and mind it , this are given away to people whom we have not met in our life  before !


The Freecycle benefits are numerous, from the landfills going slightly unfilled to the raw materials saved in the non-production of unnecessary products. Best of all, it leaves us knowing we have done a good deed and made someone’s life a little bit easier. Baby products are put on offer on the internet forums as are musical instruments and beds. Most receivers are grateful and polite  .


Freecycle is not a new phenomenon and The idea behind Freecycle is to change the world. We’re all struggling at the moment by trying to live in a world or rising prices, unfairness and to find our voice in the babble that is capitalistic materialism. Perhaps the tools we need are already available, and perhaps we can change the world, one gift at a time.

Tags :- Freecycle , Freecycle Network , Freecycle Groups ,Freecycle websites , Freecycle Groups , Freecycle Countries 

Freecycle Working

How to Use Freecycle

The original ideal of Freecycle was to keep items out of landfills, but now many items that you’d never think of putting in a landfill are freecycled. Most cities now have a freecycle group. Freecycle uses the yahoogroup network to link people who want to get rid of stuff with other people who might use it.

To find a freecycle group

Go to the yahoogroups homepage, type in the word freecycle and the name of your city. The yahoogroup search should list the nearest freecycle group to the city you have named. If you don’t find one, repeat the search with the name of a big city near you. Freecycle is not just a US phenomenom, there are many freecycle groups in other countries too.

To get started

We must post an OFFER post before we post a WANTED post. In fact, the idea of freecycle is to get rid of stuff, not to get stuff, so try and make it a general rule to OFFER more than we WANT. We may find to start with our posts are moderated, but if we know the rules, soon our posts shouldn’t be moderated.

Posting

The title of our email should contain the word OFFER or WANTED in upper case, and then afterwards a brief description of what we are offering or what we want.

In the body we can give a little more detail, such as dimensions or a photograph. Sign off with our name and an approximate location, don’t put our address in the original email. WE don’t need to give the reason why we are getting rid of something, just the basic facts of what we are offering.

When someone replies

The idea of freecycle is that we choose by email one person to come and get the stuff that we no longer want. So don’t post that we have something, add our address, and say the first person to arrive gets it. That way too many people will be disappointed and gas will be wasted.

Don’t feel we have to offer our stuff to the first person who answers, wait for a few answers before choosing who we will offer it to. We don’t have to be in when they call, we can leave it outside of our front door for them to pick up and not disturb us. If we are freecycling multiple items make sure we mark them clearly with their names. If we don’t want people coming to our home , we can arrange to meet them at a mutual meeting point, but that’s more tedious than leaving them outside our door.

When we reply

When we reply to an OFFER make sure you keep our promise and pick up what we asked for. It’s very frustrating to offer something to someone and then have them not collect it. Make sure we give our name as the freecycler may be offering multiple items and want to mark our item with our name.

Taken

After an item has been taken, send another email with TAKEN at the start of the subject line and then the item description as in the original email. This should reduce the emails we get, although we ’ll still get a few people wanting something who haven’t read that it’s been taken.

Basic rules

There are some basic rules, such as, no alcohol, no drugs of any kind and no weapons. The local freecycle groups vary on other things such as food and pets. If you’re not sure if something is allowed, email the moderator or group leader.

Be honest

The most important thing when freecycling is to be honest about the condition. Don’t say something works if it doesn’t, if it’s dirty and needs cleaning before it’s useable, then say so. People will pick up broken or dirty items, but we need to tell them the condition before they use gas to drive to our house.

Can we get items to sell from freecycle ?

The simple answer is no, that’s not the point of freecycle. The idea is to stop items going in a landfill, not to give ebay sellers a source of products. However, the freecycle rules say if you ask the person freecycling if we can sell it and they agree, then we are allowed to resell it. There are some ads that say, “I know this is worth something, we can sell it if we like, I just want to get rid of it.”

In that case we are allowed to resell it. We are allowed, for instance, to make 1 working computer out of 2 freecycled broken computers and sell those. What we are not allowed to do it take something, and immediately resell it on ebay or Craigslist without improving it in any way.

Be careful

Don’t say things like, “I need to get rid of all this stuff before we go on vacation next week.” Also don’t advertise if there are children in the house, “My 6 year old daughter has just grown out of all of this.” Many people read freecycle, don’t give more information than we need to.

Freecycle Tips

Don't offer for-sale items , make off-topic chit-chat or try to make a trade.

If a non-profit responds to our offer, try to give it priority over other members.

When arranging a pick up, keep safety in mind. Remember, we don't know this person.Also we should

Be polite to members while dealing with them .

Tags :- Freecycle , Freecycle groups , Free cycle working , Freecycle Tips , Freecycle methods , Freecycle Groups , Freecycle Websites

Think Globally - Recycle Locally

Think Globally, Recycle Locally

Freecycle is an online community where eco-friendly citizens recycle their unwanted items by giving them away to others - FREE . Yes, you read that right, for free. We all have junk in our homes , regardless of whether we want to accept it or not . Launching " Mission Organization " to de-clutter may happen every three months or once in a couple of years. Some of the stuff lying around in our homes or in our garage or attic is still usable. So why not recycle it?

Instead of dumping perfectly usable items into the garbage, just post it on your local Freecycle Yahoo Group and someone will come pick it up. It sure is much easier to sit at your desk and get rid of old junk than pile it in your truck and drive to the landfill .

We can find some pretty cool items in our area, and all we have to do to get it is reply to the post. All items listed are free, so we can either give away or get neat stuff.

Local Freecycle Groups are run off the Yahoo Groups system. Just visit www.yahoogroups.com and read all about it . In short , Yahoo -Groups is like a mass e-mail group.

Someone posts a message via the groups Yahoo Group Website or sends an e-mail to the group's e-mail address. The message/e-mail is then sent to everyone subscribed to the group. The receivers are then free to reply to the original sender.

So, say for example, you have a bike you no longer want. You send an e-mail to the group's e-mail address. All the users receive it. They reply to you. You set up a time for the taker to pick up the item. Once it is gone, you send another e-mail to the group stating the item is gone. Users may also send e-mails for wanted items. Some groups have a limit on the number of wanted posts each person can send per day or week.

Each Freecycle will have their own group etiquette--rules and courtesies for the group users. Once you join a freecycle, you will get information specific to the group.

The positive side of Freecycle :

Freecycle is a great way to get rid of all of the items cluttering your house. We don't have to drive anywhere or deliver anything. We have an opportunity to help others that may be in need or just looking for something they would like to have. This is a great way for us to obtain things we want or need. Freecycle is a completely free group and money is not allowed to be charged for the items posted as "offered" or items we have to give . For every item we give, that is one less item in a landfill . We often see useable items set out for the trash . Why fill our landfills and ruin our earth when there is a great chance someone may want what we have to give ? Note the Point dear Friends .

Tags:- Freecycle , Freecycle Network , Freecycle Groups , Freecycle Top Websites , Freecycle Benefits

Freecycle Network In India

Freecycle Network In India

Everyone loves free stuff . What if you get free stuff and also get to contribute your bit to save the environment ? That is what the idea behind Freecycle is . Freecycle is a network that has close, almost five thousand groups and seven million members in 85 countries around the world. This rapidly growing non-profit organization claims to keep 500 tons/day out of landfills. Their work is neither charity nor entrepreneurship; it stems from the basic human value of give & take.

The concept of Freecycle is simple. If you have something that you don’t want or don’t have a use for and feel like throwing away in the waste then instead of binning it, give it to someone who has a need for it. Freecycle has city specific email groups where people advertise things they want to give away and whoever asks for it first gets to keep it. The giver may also oblige to drop it to your place if he is kind.

Mandar Mali, a graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology says “It’s very common in the US that the house you rent will be unfurnished.” For students who will be studying in a university abroad just for a few years it doesn’t make sense to buy new furniture just to sell it after sometime. This is where freecycle kicks in. “I got almost every piece of furniture in my house from people ready to give away things for free. All I had to do is rent a van for a day and go around the town picking up the items people advertise.” he continues.

Recycling in India although has existed for quite a long time. Thanks to the valiant ragpickers and kabaris who have made sure that they collect our unsorted garbage and recycle whatever can be. However theirs is indeed a difficult task. An undermined and unregulated activity, it renders almost a million people in India to live a very low standard of life. Most people in this profession earn very little daily which causes almost a million people in India to live a very low standard of life.

The occupational hazard of working in this profession is also a serious issue. With the technological progress, India also has a growing electronic waste problem. A proper system does not exist to handle such waste and almost 150,000 tons of electronic waste is recycled informally every year, exposing these warriors of waste to radioactive tubes from CRTs and to toxic metals like Lead, Cadmium and Antimony.

India currently boasts of very feeble numbers when it comes to the membership of freecycle. Compared to Freecycle India’s 4000 strong membership, Freecycle UK has almost 2 million members.

Bangalore leads the way with over a thousand members but the numbers quickly fall. Cities on the list are: Bangalore (1150), Mumbai (546), Delhi (511), Hyderabad (427), Pune (426), Chennai (387), Gurgaon (192), Lucknow (116), Panaji (102), Jalandhar (36), Jaipur (35), Ahmedabad (32), Vijaywada (27) and Kolkata (21). Kolkata is the only metro city which has very few members.

Following a system like freecycle not only helps people get stuff for free but also enables the society to help reduce unnecessary waste from going to landfills or causing harm to people involved in this profession. Yet the success of this system depends on the number of people involved in the activity. More the number of people, more the choice of things available and more attractive does the whole scheme becomes. These low numbers can be attributed to lack of awareness but with the growth of the reach of internet in India, we only hope that green activities like freecycle will take a quick leap.

If you put your head to it, there are solutions you can work out for most things. Outside our own kitchen stand two fridges. But only one cools food and water — the other one, an old non-functional one, we use as a storage cabinet for our documents.

Then there’s a good example or incident that I can quote here - a woman in Panjim offering to collect used milk packets from others, compile them into batches of 100, exchange each batch for a fresh milk packet (a scheme offered by Goa Dairy), and pass the packets thus obtained to a local animal shelter. For free. Like I said earlier, there are many people out there doing good things. You just have to look around.

Active Freecycle groups in the India region : Ahmedabad , Bangalore , Chennai , Coimbatore North Zone , Delhi , Gurgaon , Hyderabad, Jaipur , Jalandhar , Lucknow , Mumbai , Panaji , Pune and Vijayawada

Tags :- Freecycle , Freecycle Groups in India , Freecycle regions in India , Freecycle Websites in India 

The Active and Main Freecyce Network Countries and Regions

The Active Freecycle Network Countries and Regions

The main Freecycle Network countries are listed as follows with the respective active regions too.

Australia - The major regions include New South Wales , Northern Territory ,Queensland , South Australia , Tasmania , Victoria and Western Australia.

Canada - The major regions include Alberta , British Columbia , New Brunswick , Newfoundland , Northwest Territories , Nova Scotia , Nunavut , Ontario , Prince Edward Island , Quebec and Saskatchewan .

France - The Major regions include Alsace , Aquitaine , Auvergne , Basse-Normandie , Bourgogne , Bretagne , Champagne-Ardenne , Corse , Franche-Comté , Limousin , Lorraine , Midi-Pyrénées , Nord-Pas de Calais , Picardie and

Poitou-Charentes .

Germany - The major regions include Aachen , Berlin , Bonn , Bremen , Dortmund , Duisburg , Essen , Frankfurt , Hamburg , Hannover , Koln , Leipzig , Munich , Nuremberg , Stuttgart and Wesel .

Ireland - The major regions include City of cork , County Carlow , Dublin , Galway , Mayo and Waterford.

Italy - The major regions include Bari , Bologna , Cagliari , Florence , Milano , Rome , Torino and Vicenza

New Zealand - The major regions include

Auckland , Bullet District , Christ hurch , Dunedin , Hamilton and New south wales .

United Kingdom - The major regions include London , Northern Ireland ,Scotland ,South WestWales and West Lands .

South africa - The major regions inclde Bloemfontein , Cape

Town , Johhanesburg etc .

United States - The major regions include Alabama . Alaska , California , Colorado , Florida , Georgina , Hawaii , Massachusetts , Michigan , Mississippi , Ohio , Virginia , New Jersey , New york , Texas , Washington and Maryland .

The Freecycle Network thus aims and also helps in rotating goods from one hand to another and also helps in maintaining and keeping our enviornment clean and free from bargages too . It helps a lot in enviornmental balance and make people comes closer under a family .

Tags :- Freecycle Network , Freecycle Regions , Freecycle Countries , Main Freecycle Network Countries