Freecycle Turns 20

If you haven’t heard of Freecycle, it is exactly what it sounds like. Its full name is The Freecycle Network and it was founded May 1, 2003. Last month it sent out a fundraising e-mail and this week it sent out a chaser. 

Freecycle was founded by Deron Beal in Arizona but now boasts a worldwide membership of well over ten million people in over five thousand locations. Its mission statement is “to build a worldwide sharing movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources and eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community”

Naturally when stuff is given away for free there are more takers than givers, but as there are no fees and everything is voluntary, there is nothing to lose.

Predictably, even with something as altruistic as giving stuff away for free, there have been legal disputes, including over its trademark. 

In 2009, a dispute in the UK led to a breakaway organisation called Freegle. Being a national rather than an international organisation it is much smaller. It is claimed it has over three million members in the UK, but this seems doubtful. 

Freecycle still operates in the UK; it remains a non-profit registered organisation in Arizona, but in the UK it is a registered charity that last year had 3 trustees, a thousand volunteers, and an income of a shade over forty-five thousand pounds.

Both Freecycle and Freegle have a social media presence in addition to their websites, but neither gets much publicity. This is a worthy cause that deserves to be better known.