Freecycle guide discussion link 21 September 2009 at 1:50PM edited 14 June 2010 at 11:43AM in Freebies (Low Spend) 48 replies 12.4K views

competitionscafe

There is an interesting article here which explains some of the background and the reason for the change to Freegle in the UK:

What went wrong with Freecycle in the UK?

Sarah Lewis
30th September, 2009
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/329180/what_went_wrong_with_freecycle_in_the_uk.html

squeaky

The following thread night be helpful too...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1928581

Especially post #42

:-)

Clueless969

Hi folks - with regard to the Freecycle/Freegle choice, whilst Freecycle is still up and runnig the UK has recently become rapidly disenchanted with the US way of doing things and a lot of the UK groups have now broken away as Freegle. Many thought this was a flash in the pan but it seems not and I have no wish to debate the politics (I am just a Freegler and have nothing to do with the running or ownership)

The split has been so successful that almost 50% of the UK Freecycle membership has made the move. Accurate figures can be found at ilovefreegle.org 900,000 members and 194 groups as I write this from a pre-split UK total of 2,000,000 members and 509 groups. For those that haven't picked up on the other figures, the UK had 10% of the Freecycle membership before the split and conducted around 27% of the activity.

Personally, I am wholly behind this taking back of the groups, having felt that we have been trying to fit into a mould made for an American way of thinking - no jokes please about that last bit being an oxymoron.:rotfl:

andygodwin

this seems like a good thread to get a definite answer to my long unanswered question of:

can anyone tell me why 'supposedly' it is illegal to take anything out of the council run tip skips, i occasionally get away with it but the guys down the tip go nuts if they see you, and now wandsworth tip has signs all over the place saying they'll prosecute. is it just because the workers want it themselves?

as all have discussed on this thread it is such a waste to see anything usefull getting mashed up in the landfill skips.

thanks all

Welshwoofs

Ok, as a member of Stroud Freegle (nee Freecycle), let me get one thing straight for the people who runs these groups...

• Punters like me, don't give a flying ferret about these silly little 'town council' style political tiffs with Freecycle
• Punters like me care about only 4 things:

1. A 'community recycling' list with good participation
2. A 'community recycling' list platform which is easy to use and has good user preferences
3. A 'community recycling' list which has the things you need
4. A 'community recycling' list which enables you to quickly offload the things you don't want

As a punter of Stroud Freegle I am personally sick to death of this 'he said', 'she said' bickering and the erroneous assumption from the people running groups on both sides of the divide that most of their members actually give a flying crap. As someone who runs online communities for her living, I can say for a fact that this is exactly what happens when you get moderators with far too much time on their hands!

Lakeuk

andygodwin wrote: »

this seems like a good thread to get a definite answer to my long unanswered question of:

can anyone tell me why 'supposedly' it is illegal to take anything out of the council run tip skips, i occasionally get away with it but the guys down the tip go nuts if they see you, and now wandsworth tip has signs all over the place saying they'll prosecute. is it just because the workers want it themselves?

Alot of council tip waste has value which go back into council funds, a local contract firm and staff who ran our local tip on behalf of our council were recently found guilty of defrauding the council/local tax payer by putting aside metal to sell for their own gain.

A neighbouring council currently has an ongoing fraud case relating to recycling.

cally6008

I use Freeshare and find it brilliant. It is quiet on some of the Freeshare groups so I guess I'm lucky that the two groups local to me are rather busy ones.

janusdesign

I subscribed to the local freecycle yahoo group... received the welcome etiquette emails and received the posts from others - but can't post myself either via email or the site... new users posts are checked... that's fine, but its been a month and I still can't post - emails to the moderator/owners go unanswered... so i've just unsubscribed (hopefully thats automated)...

i'll throw the stuff I wanted to get rid off into the wheelie bin - a shame, but I tried.

KAYLA_2

Hi, Just to let others know - Most of my areas Freecycle mods have parted company with Freecycle due to issues about USA based policies - They have re-grouped under the umberella names of "Freegle".

Hope this is of use to other users.

Thanks for listening.:money:

kevanf1

Just to let you all know. There is also Freeworld-Recycling. I started this after being one of the first to be unceremoniously booted out of Freecycle. I did nothing wrong in my opinion and the opinion of all those who have now moved to the Freegle network. I simply voiced my opinion about how I thought Freecycle was wrong.

http://www.freeworld-recycling.org

If you have a Freecycle group near to you that is not working for you then you are more than welcome to set up your own Freeworld group. Just visit my website and then contact me. You are in charge, not me or somebody thousands of miles away.

Take care.

Kevan