As students pack up their dorm rooms and discard old goods, they may have a more environmentally-friendly option available than throwing out those materials they no longer have a use for.
The Tufts' annual Dump-and-Run sale is one that students have known of for several years now, but there is a new option in the website Freecycle.org -- an international grassroots movement of people giving and receiving used goods within their immediate community.
Started in May 2003, the Freecycle network sets up an easily accessible Yahoo! Groups system that allows registered users to donate unwanted "stuff," -- from half-used shampoo bottles to magazines to flip-flops -- to locals who can use it.
According to Freecycle.org, there are currently 360 different cities and 52,195 people "freecycling."
Freecycle helps the environment by enabling re-use and thereby reducing trash and the demand for newly manufactured goods.
Upon joining a local Freecycle group, users can submit and receive e-mails advertising available items, which they can then arrange to drop off or pick up at designated locations.
"If you look at this from an environmental position with the goal of benefiting people, it's an awfully good idea," said Fletcher School professor William Moomaw, who teaches a course on environmental nonprofit organizations. "Freecycle enables the transaction of goods that would not have been used otherwise -- it's like eBay without money."
The Boston area has responded enthusiastically to Freecycle. They claim a membership of 445, and its Boston group has 336. Tufts students can join either or both.
The network was created to reduce waste in downtown Tucson, Arizona so that the demand for landfill space would not result in the destruction of the desert landscape.
Now, college students see it as a way to easily rid themselves of unwanted items while helping others in the process.
"I think it's cool," sophomore Sam Ronfard said of the website. "Why throw something away if someone else could use it?"
"I'll definitely use the program," freshman Brett Garling said. "It doesn't cost anything, and it would require no more work than putting trash on the curbside would. I see no reason not to [try it]."
Anja Kollmuss, Project Manager of Tufts Institute of the Environment, has dealt with such concerns on a lesser scale with Tufts' annual Dump-and-Run sale, the proceeds of which benefit environmental programs.
During the Dump-and-Run, students can donate unwanted items to be sold for low prices to other students, and Kollmuss must determine what is and is not sellable, a system which she said is similar to Freecycle.
Kollmuss is considering posting unsold Dump-and-Run items on Freecycle in the future. "It depends on the logistics of it -- how easy it is for the people wanting the items to pick them up from the Tufts campus," Kollmuss said.
Like those on Freecycle, the items offered in the Dump-and-Run sale are varied. Last year, the sale received three 40-foot trailers worth of donations -- including rugs, furniture, clothes, office supplies, shelving, and books.
Some items recently exchanged through Freecycle include instruments, old doors, unfinished bottles of hair dye, hot tubs, chicken coops, doghouses, beds and other furniture.
Each local Freecycle group is run by a volunteer. Those wishing to participate, visit the website and send an e-mail expressing their wishes to the leader of their local group.
An ad is then posted describing the objects being offered, so that website viewers in need of that type of "trash" can contact the site and initiate an exchange.
Other Mass. cities with Freecycle groups include Haverhill, Lowell, North Andover, Salem, the South Shore region, and Worcester County. Freecycle's grasp goes far beyond Mass., however: other nations participating include Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, and Korea.
Freecycle reserves the right to edit users' posted information. The site's policy also states that it is up to individual Freecycle users "to be familiar with any legal limitations that may exist on the exchange of any posted materials," and that the network itself "is not responsible for the determination of what may constitute a hazardous waste or create a hazardous situation."
