Give It Away

have alot of stuff you don't want anymore? don't trash it. freecycle it. The Freecycle Network™ is a grassroots and nonprofit movement of people who give and get stuff for free in their communities while keeping items out of landfills.

from the new york times: [in 2003], a self-described tree-hugger in Tucson named Deron Beal was working for a nonprofit that focused on recycling as a way to minimize what was going into local landfills. While plenty of people were willing, even eager, to get rid of things they no longer wanted but that weren’t really trash, finding people who wanted those things was a challenge. Beal set up a Yahoo Groups mailing list, hoping to create a giveaway marketplace where people could list usable items and others could lay claim to them and then come pick them up. The mailing list became the basis for Freecycle, a Web-enabled network of about 3,900 such e-mail groups, each dedicated to a local community and managed by a volunteer moderator, and claiming 2.9 million participants in more than 70 countries.

i joined a local group in hoboken-- it's easy, fast and free. i've posted a few times to get rid of stuff (old cell phone) and it worked like a charm. folks give/get all kinds of "treasures" such as steam curlers needed for a beauty pageant wig. while searching grist, i found these lovely earrings designed from cell phone buttons. i guess everything can find a new home.

for stuff you can't give away, try earth 911 where you can find info to recycle most anything.