Saturday, March 08, 2008

Freecycle - For stuff you can't sell on Trademe

I recently upgraded (Zeds hand me downs!) to an LCD screen for my computer. My eyes are thankful and so is the planet. Throwing my old monitor away would not be good for the planet, so after looking on Trademe and seeing that CRT monitors were lucky to sell for $1, I decided the best course of action would be to freecycle it. I listed it, someone emailed and said they would take it. They picked it up, they were happy, I was happy!

So what is freecycle? Well its a website where you list stuff that you are prepared to give away for free. Its excellent for things that are not really worth selling, but there is still the possibility that someone one there could use it. Its stops a lot of junk ending up in the landfill and it gets rid of clutter super quick.

The Auckland group is managed as a Yahoo group, so if you have a yahoo ID or are prepared to get one its quite easy to join, or you can just join the email list. Heres the FAQ on joining.

Freecycle is a nice philosophy too. I like the idea of passing on things I can't use at no cost. I've seen a lot of community groups get much needed computer equipment, kindergartens get art supplys, a solo mum get some work clothes and so on. So do it for the planet, do it for the community and never throw away anything useful ever again!

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