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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Free for all

Psst … Need a pot-bellied pig? How ‘bout a pot-bellied stove? Or maybe you have an old freezer, some computer parts or a pile of firewood taking up space in your garage.

A Web site called www.freecycle.org just might be your answer.

The site started with just one post in May 2003 for a queen-sized bed. It now has some 300,000 members in 1,100 cities around the world. Spokane’s freecycle group has nearly 400 members.

The premise behind freecycling is why-didn’t-I-think-of-that simple: Everybody has stuff they don’t need clogging up their space. And just about everybody has something they need, but can’t or don’t want to buy.

Freecyclers log on to their community’s Web page and post the items they’re offering or seeking. Then they wait for responses to roll in and arrange a pickup to hand over the goods.

There’s just one overarching rule: No money can change hands.

“It’s one human being helping another,” says Tucson, Ariz., resident Deron Beal, who came up with freecycling. “If we weren’t basically good, giving people, this system wouldn’t work.”

Spokane resident Brenda Buckingham had a bulky freezer and pot-bellied stove to get rid of before she moved last spring. She posted them on freecycle.org, and a young, newlywed couple claimed them and drove from Lewiston to pick them up.

Buckingham also gave away a ‘70s-era bar that was taking up space in her new house.

“They’ve been very nice, very appreciative,” Buckingham says of the “takers.”

Now that she’s given some things away, Buckingham is thinking about what she needs for her new house. She plans to ask for some bookcases from her fellow freecyclers soon.

Krista Benson volunteers with the Spokane nonprofit group PEACH, People for Ethical Alternatives for Children’s Health. She heard about freecycling last year and realized that it fits well with her group’s mission.

“One of our fundamental things we are focused on is ways to reuse things and prevent waste,” Benson says.

So, Benson decided to start a Spokane freecycling chapter, and she now moderates Spokane’s Web site. She makes sure people aren’t using the site to make money and that spammers don’t have access to the site.

But, mostly, “this is a pretty good group of people,” Benson says.

Since the Spokane site sprang up, Benson has seen freecyclers give away a steel door, and a partially working hot tub, among many other things. Just recently on the Spokane site, there was someone giving away a pot-bellied pig, and wood shingles for kindling, and somebody else was looking for a trampoline for her daughter.

“Before you throw it away or toss it in the Dumpster, there’s probably somebody that wants it,” Benson says. “So you might as well post it on freecycle.”

The site has been especially popular with nonprofit groups. In Tucson, Beal says some 60 nonprofits are regular freecyclers.

“The little groups that don’t get donations — now they can ask for what they need instead of taking what they get,” Beal says.

Barb Ewing, who works at Michael Anderson Elementary School on Fairchild Air Force Base, posted on freecycle, asking for donations of soup labels and box tops. Through a General Mills program, each box top is worth 10 cents for the school. The soup labels can be used to order merchandise through a catalog.

“I thought, ‘I’ll just post this and see what happens,’” says Ewing, who lives in Medical Lake.

Since posting her request at the end of June, one person has sent in about 100 labels and box tops.

The donations will go into the parent-teacher organization fund.

The Spokane Humane Society has posted on freecycle, requesting benches, picnic tables and potted plants for the shelter grounds. So far, the group hasn’t received any of those items. But it plans to keep trying.

“It’s a neat idea, and it’s a great way to let people know what you need,” says Diane Rasmussen, the society’s outreach and volunteer coordinator.

There haven’t been any problems with giving away pets on freecycle, Beal says. But he leaves the decision up to each city’s moderator about whether to allow that practice.

“Giving away a pet like you would give away a set of pots and pans makes me uncomfortable,” Benson says, but she has yet to ban pets from the site.

Candace Landres has been trying to give away a refrigerator and a dryer (it needs a new heating coil) on freecycle, but so far, she hasn’t had any takers.

“I don’t want to have a yard sale for this,” says Landres, who lives in Deer Park. “It’s just a way of making you feel good about giving away something that someone needs.”

Landres did, however, scoop up a nice bike for her 13-year-old daughter, after posting a request for one on the site.

“The people seem to be really friendly and honest and try to help you,” she says. “If you put an ad in there, they’re really good about calling you back.”

But it’s smart to use some commonsense when arranging pickups for the items.

Buckingham, for example, made sure she wasn’t home alone when the freecyclers came to pick up her goods. Or, if the items aren’t large, you could arrange a meeting on neutral territory.

“I don’t know these people,” Buckingham remembers thinking. “I don’t know if they’re going to come in and case our place.”

Spokane freecyclers have one beef about the site. There are too many people asking for things and not enough people giving things away.

Beal says everyone’s first freecycling post should be an offer so people learn it’s “cool to give stuff, too.”

For most folks, though, finding things around the house they can part with shouldn’t be too tough.

“Go through your house and find things you’ve been hanging on to but never needed,” Benson says. “It could be a set of four Tupperware bowls.”