If you have something that you don’t need and that is too good to throw into the dustbin, why not give it to someone else on the internet? An increasing number of websites are offering things people don’t need to others who can still find a good use for them.
”Changing the world one gift at a time,” is the motto of one of the biggest such sites: www.freecycle.org.
The principle is simple: Everything posted on the site must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages. Freecycle is one of the largest worldwide networks offering the service.
”Freecycle is ideal for people who want to avoid the trouble of selling or disposing an item,” says Thomas Pradel, the initiator of the German branch of Freecycle.
The Freecycle Network is open to all communities and to all individuals who want to participate. The groups are run by local volunteer moderators like Pradel from across the globe who facilitate each local group.
The things are seldom trash. Sometimes even valuable items like refrigerators or television sets with only small faults can be found.
The person offering an item decides eventually who gets it if more than one person is interested. When someone donated 1,5kg of chocolote, Pradel came too late. Even a car, although somewhat ramshackle, changed owners on the site.
But when an elderly gentleman tried to ”offer his heart”, Pradel intervened with a veto. Illegal or commercial offers have no chance.
”Nobody earns money here,” Pradel emphasises. In the past he often gave away things through ads in the newspaper. ”It is a good feeling to give something to someone else,” he says.
”We live in an opulent society where some people have too many things and others have too little,” says Vera Suehling of Medea Software, speaking about a new Bonn-based platform www.Oteuro.de.
So far, more people are looking for things than the other way round.
The service is free but the firm uses it as a platform for advertising.
Some local authorities who want to reduce their refuse problem have also started gift networks. About 30 such online networks can be found on www.abfallberatung.de.
The northern German district of Pinneberg was one of the first to start the project.
About 30 000 people log onto the community site per month. Spokesperson Marco Hoffmann says he cannot yet say whether the service has actually reduced refuse but it has had other advantages.
”We had one case where a person donated paving stones to a neighbour three houses away. Without the network they would never have found each other,” Hoffmann says.
In contrast to Freecycle and other similar services, the communal networks also offer swapping of items without exchange of money. But in one case a person managed to ”swap” his Mitsubishi microbus for 1 700 euros in cash without detection by the webmasters. – Sapa-DPA