One man's trash truly can be another man's treasure.
The freecycle network is a nonprofit organization founded three years ago in Tucson, Arizona with the aim of reducing the amount of trash committed to landfills each year by giving away all sorts of things over the company's Web site.
Since 2003, freecycle has grown to over 2 million members in 3,500 communities and is keeping 50 tons of trash out of landfills every day, according to freecycle.org.
"Our main priority is keeping usable items out of the landfills," said Bill Dickerson, freecycle site moderator. "We have people who have items that they can't use and we have people who want to use them, so we just bring them together."
Freecycle gained prominence in the Memphis area by aiding those who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
"Local people were able to get online and request specific things that they were lacking like baby clothes, blankets and even furniture," said Erin Beale, organizer of the local freecycle chapter. "People were just dropping off boxes and boxes of stuff and I'm really proud of all the local support we received."
Users go to the freecycle Web site and either post the things they have to offer or shop around to see what is available.
"The only restrictions are that everything has to be free, legal and appropriate for all ages," Beale said. "People have had success finding textbooks, old jewelry, all sorts of things really."
One may even find things on the site that you did not even know you were looking for.
"We get everything you can imagine on here and quite a few things that you probably wouldn't," Dickerson said. "The strangest thing that I personally have ever seen offered was a genuine herd of llamas."
Farm animals aside, freecycle offers many other unusual items coveted by artists and collectors.
"Artists are always looking for weird stuff," said Cedar Nordbye, a University of Memphis associate professor of art. "I know a woman who was seeking to collect 100 bathroom scales for an art project and she set up boxes asking for old bathroom scales all over town. Freecycle would make an undertaking such as that far easier."
Nordbye also believes that programs like freecycle can have an impact on our culture that has not been fully realized yet.
"The really great thing about the Internet is that it can provide a medium for an alternative kind of economy such as this," Nordbye said. "I think that in the future we as a society will waste far less because of it."
You do not even have to be impoverished or displaced to take advantage of the program, since freecycle is open to all users.
"I hope that everyone will come look at the site," Dickerson said. "I know that college students don't always have a lot of money and you might just be surprised what you can find here."
