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If you just want to give something away, like your old laptop, you have any number of outlets. Your local newspaper probably has a free section in the classifieds; you can post it on Craig's List; you can drop it off at a thrift store or donate it to a charity that will refurbish and resell it. The Freecycle Network hopes to encourage a "worldwide gift economy" -- one old laptop, bottle of nail polish, gas stove or People magazine at a time. In this article, we'll find out how the Freecycle Network got started, how the process works and how you can start giving your unwanted stuff away to people who'll use it. Freecycle members post e-mail offers for stuff they don't want anymore to a listserv for their local group. If another member is interested in the stuff, he replies to the poster. The poster then lets the interested party know when and where he can pick up the stuff.
If more than one member is interested, the giver has to pick someone from all of the interested members. Many local charities join Freecycle groups, and most groups ask that you give a nonprofit first dibs. That way, your local thrift store doesn't lose out through the success of Freecycle. If you're thinking, "Sweet, presents!", think again -- according to the official Web site, your local Freecycle group is not a place to just grab up "free stuff for nothing." A gift economy is a two-way street. Don't take it if you don't need it, and remember that it's a gift, not a freebie. If you're looking to get something for nothing, you should probably just check out the "Free" section of your local Craig's list or newspaper. The network was born in 2003 in Arizona, the brainchild of Deron Beal. Beal worked for an environmentalist group in Tucson, trying to keep usable goods out of landfills through education. The nonprofit he worked for had a bunch of office supplies it didn't need, and Beal spent hours locating other nonprofit groups that needed what his group was trying to give away.
He realized he could easily set up a listserv where people could see what was available and what was needed and save everyone a lot of time in the process. In December 2005, there are more than 1.8 million members in 3,200 Freecycle communities in 50 countries around the world. The Freecycle Network reports that its members are keeping 55 tons of goods out of landfills each day. Let's find out how it works. According to the EPA, people in the United States keep 64 million tons of garbage out of landfills every year through recycling. The next page lists all of the Freecycle groups in that region. In the U.S. Central region, for example, there are 833 groups as of December 2005. So you look for a group in your area. If there's no group near you, you can actually start one up (see "Starting Your Own Freecycle Group" below).
If there is already a group in your city or town, you can click on its "GoTo" link to visit the Web page for that group or just click on "Join" to register. Some groups require membership approval. If your local group does, you just fill out a few profile details and write a short message explaining why you want to join. The volunteer moderator for that group approves your membership and sends you a series of e-mails explaining how the process works. It has to be legal, meaning no moonshine or drug paraphernalia, and it must be "family friendly" -- if you're looking to give away your old girlie mags, a bottle of vodka or a gun you bought on a whim, look elsewhere. You're usually allowed to offer a pet to a loving home, but you cannot offer an animal for breeding or other purposes. Let's say we have an old printer just collecting dust in the closet. Our local Freecycle group might want it, so we'll offer it to our fellow group members.
To post an offer, we'll send an e-mail to the group's e-mail address or visit the group Web site and click on "Messages." The subject line of our message should be short an simple: "OFFER: Item, general location" is the framework. Once we receive a response, meaning one of our group members wants it, we set up a way to deliver the gift. We can set up any delivery method that works for us. We might give the receiver our address and leave the gift on the porch; we could meet at the mall parking lot and hand over the printer in front of Macy's; we could bring the gift to our workplace and ask the receiver to meet us there. The one thing to keep in mind besides convenience is safety: If it's raining and you can't leave the printer on your front porch, it's probably not a good idea to leave it in your garage and give a perfect stranger your garage door entry code.
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