December 12, 2007

Whether or not you are dreaming of a green Christmas, it’s good to know a few simple ways to minimize your “gift” to the local landfill after the holidays. The Freecycle Network is one of those ways.

The Freecycle Network is a private, nonprofit organization based out of Tucson, Ariz., and overseen by local volunteers in groups all over the world.

It works this way: Members post unwanted items on the Freecycle site, and interested persons snap them up. Members may also post things they want, and chances are someone out there has matching things he or she doesn’t need.

You name it; it’s been on there. And yes, it must be free.

Once an item has been claimed, the item is posted as “Taken” or “Received.”

The local group, the 800-member Columbia Gorge Freecycle Network is one of 4,121 groups in 80 countries, boasting nearly 3.9 million members.

As the Gorge Freecycle site explains, Freecycle is about keeping things out of the landfill; sharing an item that retains usefulness; clearing out our unused clutter; and community.

It is NOT a charity; a lending closet; a free-for-all; a means to get as much free stuff as you can; or a way to keep from taking your broken items to the dump if that’s where they really belong.

This time of year, Gorge Freecycle urges its members to clear out what they don’t need.

“Whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Boxing Day or Festivus it is holiday time around the world,” say its local moderators, challenging members to a “holiday haul-out.”

“As you put up your decorations this year and finish wrapping gifts, take a minute to look over what is left over and decide what you can live without. How many used bows are too many? Keep what you’ll use and give the rest of them away. How many half-used rolls of wrapping paper are too many? Give them all away! Remember: Your clutter is someone else’s treasure.”

And after the gifts are all unwrapped, items that have been replaced with upgrades can find takers on the Freecycle site. Your portable CD player may be old technology to you, but someone else may still be using a portable cassette player. Your impossibly small 17-inch TV might be just the thing for someone who doesn’t have space or money for anything larger.

According to the Hood River Garbage Service, after the holidays there are lots of perfectly good things being thrown out.

“From cradle to grave; from A-Z; you name it, we’ve seen it,” said Manager Erwin Swetnam. The company has a no-scavenging policy for liability reasons, so most of those things are just trashed.

This week there were offers on the site for a couple of DVD players (one non-working but possibly fixable and another with quirks), store coupons, a couch, maternity clothes, large bag of boys clothes, baby items, 6-month-old rabbit, a freezer, plastic merchandise bags and a cell phone battery.

Wanted items included a smaller television, boys’ rain boots, a VCR, a Cingular/ATT-compatible cell phone, a dog house, clothes racks and a wooden kids’ kitchen.

Requests for and offers of moving boxes, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, mattresses, videotapes, canning jars, maternity/baby items and toys come up on a regular basis. Most of the posts are things that just don’t have monetary value.

There is a protocol and there are rules, all of which are explained in an e-mail when you join Gorge Freecycle. Soliciting is not allowed, nor is spam, rude behavior, or promoting politics or religion. It’s not a dating site. “It’s all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” the welcome letter says.

There is a sister site, called the Gorge Freecycle Cafe, where members can converse with each other, inform members of community events, ask for information, ask for help, or offer volunteer services.