Better Than Recycling: Freecycle

I have to tell you that when someone reaches out to me for a recycling question, it absolutely makes my day. It means that I have a reputation for recycling and therefore I might have all the answers. And if I don't have all the answers, I will almost certainly look them up because I want to maintain this reputation.

I have a new friend and her name is Jessica. Jessica married one of Matt's friends, Aaron. She actually graduated high school with Matt but I didn't get the pleasure of meeting her until she was dating Aaron. I remember seeing her at an OSU football game and I was really impressed with her for wearing orange because I knew she was an OU graduate. My first impression of her was that she was a real sport. Here's a picture that includes Jessica from the Tacky Christmas Sweater Party I threw. I really felt like I needed to point on that it was a tacky sweater party because she traditionally dresses quite nice and her sweater is the only one you can see in this picture.

Jessica is actually one of the nicest people I know. She is one of those people that is so nice that it sort of makes you feel like you're a horrible person because how can so much genuine kindness be packed into one little person?? That being said, I am trying to become good friends with Jessica because she is definitely a friend I would be lucky to have. 

She sent me a text message shortly after Christmas and asked me a few questions about recycling because she had some DVD cases that she wanted to recycle and they only took #1 & #2 plastics where she lives. Fortunately, my town takes all the way through #7 plastics. I told her about an app called iRecycle that tells you where you can recycle all kinds of things where you live. I told her that when she came over for the party she could bring the DVD cases to me and I would just stick them in our recycling. I cannot tell you how happy I am that we have curbside recycling. It is the coolest thing. It is my life's mission to get curbside recycling everywhere in Oklahoma. EVERYWHERE! 

Anyway, she brings them over and they are in excellent condition. She had taken all of the movie labels out and stacked them in a nice bag. I looked at them and thought "Man, it would be a shame to recycle perfectly good items like these.... I have an idea..."

There is website where you can ask for or give away any kind of item, but the only stipulation is that it is free. I believe my former roommate Abbey introduced me to this site and it is also highlighted in the book No Impact Man.  It's very much like a Craigslist for free stuff, but it has much less clutter and navigation because it's all free. 

This is the home page.

Then you type in your city (or your nearest large city). I typed in Oklahoma City. Here is a list of examples that people offer or want. There's all kinds of random stuff on there. Sometimes people ask for strange enormous things like working cars and I always wonder if that works out for them. A  lot of times people post stuff like requests for gardening materials or children's clothes. There are frequent offers for old tube TVs.

 One time someone asked for wine corks. I assume this was for some Pinterest project. I responded to her and told her that we were not short of wine corks around here. I use them for decorations for myself, but I am also certain there are plenty more where they came from so I offered them up. I responded to the post which linked to her email and included my generic email address to make communication easier. She lived in South OKC and I told her that since corks are light it would be easier just to mail them to her if she didn't mind giving me her address. I put them in a box that I had re-purposed from an Amazon shipment (because I mean, we have to take the recycling full circle, right?) and for a few bucks off they went. After she received them she sent me a really sweet email about the blessing I had been to her. She told me that she and her husband had fallen on some hard times and it meant so much that I was willing to go out of my way for her because the gas money to pick them up would have been hard to come by. She never told me what she was doing with the corks but I like to assume it was for some project that she was going to use them to sell in a craft fair and make some money that her family really needed. I like happy endings. 

So instead of recycling Jessica's DVD cases, I thought I would post them on Freecycle just to see what happened. Remember, the order is Reduce>Reuse> Recycle... so if you can reuse something that's actually much better than using the energy and materials to recycle them. 

Here's my post. 

I left a post-it note on my desk to remind me to check that generic email address I have this website linked to. After a few days I started to think I was going to have to recycle them after all. Then I got an email from a very nice elderly gentleman asking if I still had them. I sure do!

He told me that he was retired and could pick them up anytime. I didn't want to give someone I didn't know my personal address so I told him to meet me at the Walgreens close to our house. A nice public place. I also had Matt and his friend follow me there on their way to a poker tournament to make sure that I didn't get kidnapped or anything. 

It turned out that he was exactly who he said he was. He had his adorable little wife with him who had to have been 107 years old. I said hello, put the cases in their trunk, and was on my way. He emailed me a couple days later and thanked me since we didn't get to talk at Walgreens. He said that he had several CDs that didn't have cases that he wanted to protect. Hey, cool by me! I am glad that he didn't spend his money buying cases that I could give him, and I am also glad that these perfectly good items found a new home. 

You really could post just about anything on there. I am hanging on to my egg cartons for my parent's neighbor who has her own chickens and had posted on Facebook in the past that she needed some. I am hoping that she'll give my parents some free eggs out of the deal. To her credit the last time my parents dropped the cartons off I think she did give them some. Aww... community....

I also have a box of candle holders with lids. When they're done burning I just wipe out the excess wax and after I have several I'll post them of Freecycle in case someone makes their own candles or something. Who knows? 

Poor Matt. These little projects have to make him crazy. I tried to put things away in boxes in closets so he doesn't see them. One time he found my jar collection. I hang on to jars so I can give away my home made salsa and pickled okra. I will never forget him walking into the kitchen with the box in his hand. "What are these??????" "They're my jars. Put them back." 

Posted in: Being Green,christmas