The Freecycle Network

Or how to change the world and clear out your closet at the same time

Although touring the neighbourhood on garbage day can be great fun, some- times that giant TV screen you lugged home really is broken — or perhaps you need to get rid of a giant TV screen but have no one who, although they want it, can fit it in their apartment. What to do? What to do?

KS, ever diligent to help its readers, has found the answer.

Whether you care about the environment or not, getting rid of material goods can be a real pain in Japan. Before you join the band of midnight dumpers, surf around to the Freecycle Network to see if your trash really is another’s treasure!

Started from a single email in Tucson, Arizona in 2003, the grassroots volunteer group The Freecycle Network, with over three million members and growing by 2,500 new members a day in over 50 countries, connects local people together to ‘gift’ items they no longer need or want. Everything offered is free (no strings attached!), legal and appropriate for all ages. The aim is to reuse items and keep them out of landfills. With over 200 tonnes of reusable garbage kept out of landfills a day, The Freecycle Network is doing something right!

Maybe you need something instead? Just send out an email to your local Network and see if you can’t get it free before shelling out the yen or save some time by using the Freecycle Finder to check if anyone in your area has posted an item that you need. People have gotten building materials, clothing and even vehicles — for free!

Each Freecycle community group is run by email through Yahoo! Groups and moderated by a volunteer who lives in the area. Membership is free. Currently there are almost 4,000 community groups and yes, there is a Japanese community (although currently no Kansai-based one for all you potential moderators out there). Some useful things like the rules, etiquette and group descriptions have been translated into several languages, including Japanese.

Is the Freecycle Network just about getting free stuff? No. The Freecycle mission statement says: “Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources and eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.”

In this day and age of ¥100 stores and garbage trucks that whisk all our refuse to the magical land of the incinerator or landfill, First World countries seem to have forgotten how to look at old items in new ways — or even that old items still have life left in them. All we seem to see are belongings that can be replaced with something new and flashy.

So, the next time you hear the hypnotic song of the garbage truck, use it as a cue to hop online and see if you can give that old bicycle, computer or toy to someone. As they say at The Freecycle Network: “Think globally, recycle locally”.

Whether to make way for the new, for the environment, or just to break your packrat habit, join in the revolution and adopt The Freecycle Network motto, “changing the world one gift at a time”. It’s one easy way to clean out your closet and it sure beats paying for trash pickup!

Text: Amanda Hare • Photo: Atmo Nartan Illustration: Jack Lefcourt