The growth of the Freecycle Network
In 2003 Deron Beal had a bed that he wished to recycle but found that local thrift shops would not accept beds due to health concerns. At the time, Beal worked with a nonprofit organization that provided recycling services to businesses in Tucson. As the team recycled, they found themselves calling or driving around to see if various local non-profits could use the items they had gathered. Thinking there had to be an easier way, Beal ended up founding the Freecycle Network (TFN) with an e-mail to friends and local non-profits. Things were off and running and Beal’s perfectly usable bed was one of the first items the Freecycle Network would save from the landfill.
The organization’s website describes the concept: “The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org.) is a place to give or receive what you have and don’t need or what you need and don’t have.” And according to a news release from September, the organization is now the largest environmental web community in the world, with over 5.7 million members in more than 85 countries.
There are also notably more than 10,000 volunteers who devote their time and energy to TFN and who, according to the organization, are the reason for their overwhelming success. TFN says if people weren’t basically good and giving, the concept would not work. But it does work, and on a massive, yet “globally local” scale. Freecycle “creates a circle of giving in each of its local communities” and it is keeping a collective 600 tons out of landfills daily. Each city that participates has their volunteer moderators and a unique e-mail group. Anyone living in that city is then welcome to post items to be given away or to seek items which they might be able to use. And the network is currently growing at the impressive rate of over 40,000 new members each and every week. In 2007, Freecycle was ranked by Yahoo as the third most searched environmental term on the planet, following only “global warming” and “recycling.” Lending credence to their motto of “changing the world one gift at time,” the amount of items gifted in the past year is equivalent to over four million pounds, and would be equal to five times the height of Mt. Everest when stacked in collection trucks. And just how available is this organization? I live in a small, relatively remote community of about 30,000 people on Vancouver Island, and after just five minutes on the Freecycle website, I found there is indeed a Freecycle organization right here in my own little home town. I do believe I may be able to donate half of my back shed.
The organization’s website describes the concept: “The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org.) is a place to give or receive what you have and don’t need or what you need and don’t have.” And according to a news release from September, the organization is now the largest environmental web community in the world, with over 5.7 million members in more than 85 countries.
There are also notably more than 10,000 volunteers who devote their time and energy to TFN and who, according to the organization, are the reason for their overwhelming success. TFN says if people weren’t basically good and giving, the concept would not work. But it does work, and on a massive, yet “globally local” scale. Freecycle “creates a circle of giving in each of its local communities” and it is keeping a collective 600 tons out of landfills daily. Each city that participates has their volunteer moderators and a unique e-mail group. Anyone living in that city is then welcome to post items to be given away or to seek items which they might be able to use. And the network is currently growing at the impressive rate of over 40,000 new members each and every week. In 2007, Freecycle was ranked by Yahoo as the third most searched environmental term on the planet, following only “global warming” and “recycling.” Lending credence to their motto of “changing the world one gift at time,” the amount of items gifted in the past year is equivalent to over four million pounds, and would be equal to five times the height of Mt. Everest when stacked in collection trucks. And just how available is this organization? I live in a small, relatively remote community of about 30,000 people on Vancouver Island, and after just five minutes on the Freecycle website, I found there is indeed a Freecycle organization right here in my own little home town. I do believe I may be able to donate half of my back shed.
In 2003 Deron Beal had a bed that he wished to recycle but found that local thrift shops would not accept beds due to health concerns. At the time, Beal worked with a nonprofit organization that provided recycling services to businesses in Tucson. As the team recycled, they found themselves calling or driving around to see if various local non-profits could use the items they had gathered. Thinking there had to be an easier way, Beal ended up founding the Freecycle Network (TFN) with an e-mail to friends and local non-profits. Things were off and running and Beal’s perfectly usable bed was one of the first items the Freecycle Network would save from the landfill.
The organization’s website describes the concept: “The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org.) is a place to give or receive what you have and don’t need or what you need and don’t have.” And according to a news release from September, the organization is now the largest environmental web community in the world, with over 5.7 million members in more than 85 countries.
There are also notably more than 10,000 volunteers who devote their time and energy to TFN and who, according to the organ
The organization’s website describes the concept: “The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org.) is a place to give or receive what you have and don’t need or what you need and don’t have.” And according to a news release from September, the organization is now the largest environmental web community in the world, with over 5.7 million members in more than 85 countries.
There are also notably more than 10,000 volunteers who devote their time and energy to TFN and who, according to the organ