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