Internet sites have folks all over giving away rather than throwing away

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 17, 2005

BY FAYE B. ZUCKERMAN
Journal Staff Writer

When Deana Theilig Brooks of Edgewood received a fancy bottle warmer as a baby gift from her friend in Texas, she was pleased but concerned that it was too extravagant.

Then, her Texas buddy told her she had found it for free on the Internet, on a site called www.freecycle.org. Brooks, a computer programmer, logged on and became fascinated with the concept of a localized e-mail network in which people give neighbors good used stuff for free.

After a search for a Rhode Island group turned up nothing last April, Brooks formed a Rhode Island offshoot. She immediately found a new home for a white Christmas tree that had been collecting dust in her basement. Next, she gave away a 15-inch computer monitor and an old refrigerator. But she didn't just give stuff away. She used the site to pick up a treadmill to help her take off her baby weight.

One year later, 2,080 members belong to freecycle.org groups in Providence, Westerly, Warwick, Woonsocket, Newport and Charlestown. The free stuff that has been passed along ranges from sewing machines, working cars and computers to furniture, appliances, and baby products.

"I love getting rid of stuff and getting more space," Brooks said. And it's easy, because with freecycling, "there are no strings attached."

Charlene Spina of Providence loves it, too. When she became tired of a house "full of things I don't need," she started purging by placing postings on the Providence freecycle site.

Along the way, she discovered www.anysoldier.com, a place on the Web where soldiers in Iraq make requests for donations. The military men had been asking for used stuffed animals to give to Iraqi children. She posted the need, and donations poured in. She has shipped to Iraq nearly a dozen boxes of the fake furry animals.

"I wanted to be able to give something usable away rather than have it just be thrown away," Spina said.

Spina and Brooks are on the cutting edge of a rapidly growing grass-roots effort of reusing rather than tossing into the garbage. This subculture has a mission to keep as much as possible from ending up in public landfills. They essentially are electronic recyclers and reusers.

ENVIRONMENTALIST DERON BEAL of Tucson, Ariz., founded the freecycle movement in May 2003. He wanted to find homes for good stuff people planned to put out on the curb. Nearly two years later, some 1 million people have joined a freecycle user's group. On the sites, consumers can both offer items to others and ask for items they need.

Emily Godfrey, moderator of the freecycle.org group in Amherst, Mass., one of the largest groups in the United States, said the last six months have seen 2,500 percent growth. The movement boasts 2,000 groups.

"Daily, we are keeping 50 tons of trash out of landfills all over the world," she said. "We gain about 50 groups per week in more than 50 countries."

John B. Trevor, who oversees the recycle/reuse programs at the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp., aka the Central Landfill in Johnston, believes those figures should be drastically higher. More people should be participating. About 3,500 tons of trash arrive at the landfill daily, he said. More than 1 million tons of waste are buried each year.

The armchairs, couches, mattresses, electronics, appliances, tables, chairs, bicycles, clothing, shoes and so on that went to the curb last week for pickup are now buried for eternity in Johnston. "Somebody could have found uses for all that stuff," he noted. "People are not recycling and reusing enough."

In a conference room at the landfill's administration building, you can hear the hum of trash trucks whizzing by on their way to drop off tons of stuff that could have been reused. Trevor hopes during Earth Day celebrations on Saturday people will become more recycling and reusing savvy.

Representatives of the Resource Recovery Corp. will be at Roger Williams Park Zoo tomorrow through Saturday, handing out educational materials on recycling and composting. Sturdy, plastic compost bins with covers will be on sale at the zoo for the heavily discounted price of $25 from April 18-20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"It takes a little bit of effort, but it's the right thing to do," Trevor said. "Think about everything you are throwing away, and see what you can divert from here."

He holds up a thermos mug. "Styrofoam is the worst. So are plastic grocery bags. They are clogging up the landfill," he said. "They never break down."

If you aren't computer-oriented, you can find a similar program in print every Sunday in The Providence Sunday Journal's Home section. A column called Pass It On generally offers about 12 items free for the taking.

TO HELP RHODE ISLANDERS FIND new uses for their used stuff, the Resource Recovery Corp. has implemented two Web-based reuse programs that work along the lines of freecycle.org. Consumers can use www.freemarketri.org to give away their personal items, while businesses can use www.resourceXchange.org to give reusable items to educational institutions, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

Paul A. Caccia, a waste prevention manager who oversees both programs, said that since freemarketri.org hit the Web in March 2004, it has signed up 15,925 members in Rhode Island -- and he estimates its members have kept an estimated 67,485 pounds of goods from being buried in the landfill. As for the business exchange, some 478 businesses have diverted more than 582,200 pounds of reusable things since last spring.

Caccia has played an integral role in linking materials from businesses to nonprofits. Recently, he worked with a group of missionaries to redirect from the landfill 40,000 pounds of used toys, bicycles, old hospital beds, crutches, wheelchairs, household goods, paint, farming materials and clothing. All of this stuff is earmarked for Central American orphanages.

In addition, from DeWal Industries, a manufacturer of polymer films and pressure sensitive tapes, he secured 500 24-inch-high by 30-inch-in-diameter drums. These 20-gallon white barrels will be shipped to Central America to be used as infant bathtubs.

"We used to pay someone to get rid of them. Now they're going to a great cause and to people who need them," said Eric Walsh, chief operating officer of DeWal Industries. "If we can find away to salvage it, we will do it in a second."

REUSING HAS BEEN PART OF MOST nonprofits' vernacular for decades. Big Sisters (at 401-464-6500), the Rhode Island Donation Exchange Program (401-831-5511, www.ridep.com), Earthen Vessel Inc. (401-272-3359), St. Paul's Thrift Store (401-847-8441) and any local St. Vincent DePaul Society are among those that will pick up your used goods and turn them into cash for their causes. They accept furniture, clothing, bedding, towels, accessories, small appliances, toys and home goods. Many more groups accept items that are dropped off, including the Salvation Army (401-421-5270), which will take large appliances and has a drop-off center in Providence.

The Rhode Island Community Crusade for Children (401-721-0934), which takes clothes only, has bins around the state outside grocery stores and at public works departments. The money made from the clothes and shoes donated to the Crusade for Children goes toward underfunded educational programs in many communities in Rhode Island.

For years Robert Unsworth, the director of operations for the Crusade for Children, has been an avid reuser. On his way to work, he often stops to pick stuff out of the trash, he said. He throws it in his truck and hauls it off to a nonprofit that needs it.

"People don't realize that there is a place for much of what they throw away," he said. "There is need for anything usable by organizations here or abroad."

One organization was founded 13 years ago specifically to allow Rhode Island educators and parents groups to make use of discarded material from local businesses. Recycling for Rhode Island Education (www.rrie.org), based in Providence, invites teachers to come in and choose from its inventory of materials such as cardboard cones and tubes, foam shapes, fabric, string, ribbon, card stock, beads, buttons, belt buckles, tape, books and foil -- it's all 20 cents per pound. (There's a $50 membership fee, and $3 can fill up a car.)

Co-founders Priscilla Miller and Kathleen Fresher-Samways in 2004 are estimated to have diverted some 135 tons from the landfill.

Now, the Internet allows that kind of success to multiply. "The beauty of freemarketri.org and resourceXchange.org is that we can use the Internet to connect even more people with stuff they can use," said Resource Recovery's Trevor.

For years, he said, he would get calls from people who were sure that their trash could be another person's treasure, but "we had no place to tell people to go." Now, thanks to the Internet, they do.