Freecycle

Freecycle is a quit amazing thing. It is a Yahoo group that allows people to post messages about things they are trying to get rid of. Everything offered is for free and I have had some interesting success of late.

In the past I have given away a dog house, garden tools, National Geographics and other things. I have managed to get from people on the list chairs, a couch, several TVs, gardening things and more. It has been worth paying attention to what is on offer.

In the last few weeks I have picked up a wooden folding chair that only needs to be cleaned up, about 80 to 90 bricks I will use in the garden, and an amazing amount of Warhammer figures.

I like this non commodity process for moving usable goods around. Too often in our society we are very quick to throw out things because we no longer need it. The effort to sell it is not worth it and most of us do not want to spend time looking for a home for stuff. Freecycle is a good way to move things on to new homes.

In a similar vein, there is the free page on Used Victoria.

The internet is allowing us new avenues to keep goods from being disposed of early. I wonder how much we are saving in society by using the internet to keep goods in use longer?

On a related question, how much are we saving in our society by having direct sales via the internet? Anything that reduces the margins of retailers is a good thing for a society and selling second goods - or giving them away - on the internet hits at the retailer bottomline.