Reduce, reuse, recycle... can it go too far?

One of Our Daily Green's favorite forums is The Freecycle Network. We've discussed Freecycle in the past as a great way to share items that are no longer needed, but not ready for the dump. It's a green lifestyle haven, reducing the need to manufacture, reusing usable goods, and recycling other items. What is great about Freecycle is the way to match up goods with people who need them.

From their site mission statement:

Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,951 groups with 8,520,467 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on 'Browse Groups' above the search box. Have fun!

Exhibit A

As the child of a long line of pack-rats (farmers have so many barns so they can keep stuff), I believe in saving things. Exhibit A is the photo from my garden of the string holding up my green bean plant. It is from a dog food bag. I confess that I save the pull strings from dog food bags to use to tie up plants. I also cut old pantyhose into strips to tie up plants, as well.  I'm not sure how much I'm saving the environment by keeping that string out of a landfill... but I've recently received proof that I'm not alone in my commitment to keep stuff out of landfills.

Enter Freakcycle, a site dedicated to the crazy stuff folks try to give away on The Freecycle Network. Set up by an avid Freecycler participant who has a funny bone that is NOT being given away,  Freakcycle accepts submissions from around the nation and I probably spent two hours reading and laughing. My sides hurt and I laughed until I cried.

The site contains stellar examples such as freezerburned leftovers, a chair with broken springs that smells like dog, or dead man's underwear. Some of these items are so absurd, I want to stage an intervention. I want to show up at the homes of these posters with a garbage bag and assure them that it's okay to throw stuff out on occasion.

If you no longer can find a use for it, why on earth would you think someone else may? Do you doubt your personal creativity that much? This coming from the woman who ties up plants with ripstrings from dog food bags. Believe me, if you haven't thought of a way to reuse this item, nobody else will. HAVE confidence in your ability to pack-ratify your life!

In all seriousness, Freakcycle is one of the funniest sites I've found in ages. It will do for the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" folks what People of BigBoxStore did for well, people who shop at BigBoxStores. Offer a little proof that all of us can go overboard at times.

And perhaps, just perhaps, we can find a use for 10 bags of concrete that were left out in the rain and now are rock solid, but they are free for the taking.

Freakcycle has a Facebook page and Twitter account as well. Give yourself a laugh today and check it out! It's worth it at half (err what IS half of free) the price!

Disclaimer: Our Daily Green would like back the hour we spent guffawing. Other than that, we received no compensation or consideration for this endorsement. Just a lot of laughs, and those are priceless.

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