Trendsurfing: Freecycling (The Times)
By David Rowan
Fancy a free computer? How about a leather sofa, some Bauer roller-skates or a working DVD recorder? If you're interested, their current owners will be delighted to hear from you to arrange collection. Just one condition, though: say thank you, but under no circumstances offer any payment.
Welcome to the "freecycle" economy, in which unwanted consumer goods are found appreciative new owners. From New York to Nottingham, energetic neighbourhood networks are emerging to recycle surplus property among their members without a penny changing hands. The goal is to cut back on waste heading for landfill, but a pleasant side effect is to build a sense of local goodwill. As the movement's slogan has it, freecycling is all about "changing the world one gift at a time".
Since the first local network emerged in Tucson, Arizona, 16 months ago, the concept has taken off globally. At the last count there were 1,418 cities freecycling, with almost half a million members now signed up. Three of them live in Baku, Azerbaijan; Portland, Oregon, has 9,800. The biggest UK community, naturally enough, is in London, where everything from televisions to trees have been freecycled since business began last Halloween.
Ashley Hooper, the 30-year-old software engineer who founded the London branch, has just closed the door to a woman collecting his unwanted ski boots when The Times calls. Hooper has also just found a home for his extra-long black Levi jeans. His fax and phone answering machines are still up for grabs, as is the pink Modern Classics blouse left behind by a previous flatmate, and any day now he will offer the various computers found in skips that he has painstakingly restored. "I don't want them, though I can see their potential," he says in a perky New Zealand accent. "I guess I'm a bit of a greenie at heart. If I have to take something down to the dump, I feel very disappointed with myself. This gets rid of the guilt."
Items are advertised on Yahoo mailing lists specific to each local group, which are indexed at the main freecycle.org website. As well as offers, you can also post "wanted" ads - again, the only rule being no cash or trades in return. Deron Beal, a 37-year-old MBA graduate who launched the first group in Tucson, says he was taken aback by the network's booming membership. Beal, a self-confessed "tree hugger", came up with the idea after the recycling charity he works for needed to clear away some unwanted office supplies. He found plenty of takers just from making a few phone calls to other non-profits; why not, he thought, open up the system via an online message board?
Already the network claims to keep 20 tons of potential waste out of landfill every day. Freecycle has its rivals - Gumtree.com has been around for longer - but its vast growth makes it the eBay of the recycling movement (or "Freebay", as some members insist on calling it). The London offers alone in recent weeks suggest how eclectically useful Beal's dream has proved: Ali in Enfield gave away a Russian railwayman's pocket watch that commemorates the revolution's 70th anniverary; Matt in Camberwell offered an unused toilet and cistern; and if you want three mature yucca trees, talk to Alcina before she finishes her garden redesign.
Yet in this cynical world, won't such generosity be abused? "There's always the possibility that someoene uses Loot to sell things on, and thinks, 'Suckers!," Ashley Hooper admits. "But if it was going to be binned anyway, that doesn't actually matter, does it?"
(The Times, London, September 25 2004)
Fancy a free computer? How about a leather sofa, some Bauer roller-skates or a working DVD recorder? If you're interested, their current owners will be delighted to hear from you to arrange collection. Just one condition, though: say thank you, but under no circumstances offer any payment.
Welcome to the "freecycle" economy, in which unwanted consumer goods are found appreciative new owners. From New York to Nottingham, energetic neighbourhood networks are emerging to recycle surplus property among their members without a penny changing hands. The goal is to cut back on waste heading for landfill, but a pleasant side effect is to build a sense of local goodwill. As the movement's slogan has it, freecycling is all about "changing the world one gift at a time".
Since the first local network emerged in Tucson, Arizona, 16 months ago, the concept has taken off globally. At the last count there were 1,418 cities freecycling, with almost half a million members now signed up. Three of them live in Baku, Azerbaijan; Portland, Oregon, has 9,800. The biggest UK community, naturally enough, is in London, where everything from televisions to trees have been freecycled since business began last Halloween.
Ashley Hooper, the 30-year-old software engineer who founded the London branch, has just closed the door to a woman collecting his unwanted ski boots when The Times calls. Hooper has also just found a home for his extra-long black Levi jeans. His fax and phone answering machines are still up for grabs, as is the pink Modern Classics blouse left behind by a previous flatmate, and any day now he will offer the various computers found in skips that he has painstakingly restored. "I don't want them, though I can see their potential," he says in a perky New Zealand accent. "I guess I'm a bit of a greenie at heart. If I have to take something down to the dump, I feel very disappointed with myself. This gets rid of the guilt."
Items are advertised on Yahoo mailing lists specific to each local group, which are indexed at the main freecycle.org website. As well as offers, you can also post "wanted" ads - again, the only rule being no cash or trades in return. Deron Beal, a 37-year-old MBA graduate who launched the first group in Tucson, says he was taken aback by the network's booming membership. Beal, a self-confessed "tree hugger", came up with the idea after the recycling charity he works for needed to clear away some unwanted office supplies. He found plenty of takers just from making a few phone calls to other non-profits; why not, he thought, open up the system via an online message board?
Already the network claims to keep 20 tons of potential waste out of landfill every day. Freecycle has its rivals - Gumtree.com has been around for longer - but its vast growth makes it the eBay of the recycling movement (or "Freebay", as some members insist on calling it). The London offers alone in recent weeks suggest how eclectically useful Beal's dream has proved: Ali in Enfield gave away a Russian railwayman's pocket watch that commemorates the revolution's 70th anniverary; Matt in Camberwell offered an unused toilet and cistern; and if you want three mature yucca trees, talk to Alcina before she finishes her garden redesign.
Yet in this cynical world, won't such generosity be abused? "There's always the possibility that someoene uses Loot to sell things on, and thinks, 'Suckers!," Ashley Hooper admits. "But if it was going to be binned anyway, that doesn't actually matter, does it?"
(The Times, London, September 25 2004)
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