Low Impact

When it comes to lowering your environmental impact, its all about “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”… in that order! Its better to recycle things than send them to landfill and waste the raw materials. And an even better way to reduce your environmental impact is to use less in the first place – reducing your consumption means that less materials need to be refined, manufactured and transported, all resulting in lower resource use and lower CO2 emissions.

Freecycle is a group/concept that helps with that middle action – “reuse”. It aims to provide a community within which people can easily give away items they no longer need to other members. This has a number of benefits:

• It increases the useful life of an item
• It keeps things out of landfill
• It reduces the need for people to buy new items

The main freecycle website is at www.freecycle.org, which gives you the background, and can point you to a local group. There are a few simple rules (such as all items must be free and legal), and its open to everyone.

I’ve been subscribed to the mailing list for the local Canberra group for a few months now, and there are usually around 10-20 messages a day with people giving away things ranging from old magazines to tables, kitchen appliances and computers!

Its worth looking into your local freecycle group – it may save you a trip to the tip for any old items you want to get rid of, as well as saving you a few dollars if someone is giving away something you want. And if there isn’t a local group, why not start up your own?

Categories: community, environment, green, recycle, reduce