I’ve created a site that makes existing freecycling groups on Yahoo Groups easier to use. It’s basically a custom webmail system that addresses a lot of the issues you raised. You can check it out at http://trashnothing.com

I’ve also built a map-based directory of all the freecycling groups around the world at http://finder.trashnothing.com

You have summed up the reasons why we created http://www.ReuseMoose.com perfectly so I thought I would respond to your article.

After trying to use Freecycle here in Melbourne Australia, it was obvious the system used by Freecycle is way out of date, difficult to use and the number of rules mind boggling.

I discussed these problems with a friend of mine (We are both involved in the IT industry) and we decided to try and create a better platform.

Many, many hours later we had created ReuseMoose – Free online recycling for anyone.
http://www.ReuseMoose.com can be used anywhere in the world so there is no need to sign up with multiple communities anymore.

We are committed to make it as easy as possible for anyone to recycle and will keep improving this free service based on peoples feedback.

Considering your history with Freecycle, it would be great to get your feedback.
Happy recycling!

In response to Karen’s comment concerning Washington State’s system at
http://www.2good2toss.com

With respect, I disagree that people don’t want to visit 10 different
sites. I’ll explain why.

Research from the U. of Tennessee shows that most low-value material
(potential waste) will travel less than 50 miles from provider to
recipient. Which makes sense, because transportation costs (driving,
shipping) will mean that it’s not worth going to get the item even if
it’s free or low cost.

So a regional, state or national materials exchange only makes sense for
high-value items. And this is the sort of stuff that is already handled
by services like Craig’s List, Buy/Sell.com etc.

However, there are some circumstances where you might want to see items
from outside the local area. So…in the case of the service in
Washington State, the County/City is the home base, and you can then
search the whole system if you prefer to see items from outside your
local area. And we are now preparing to provide an integrated
local/statewide system so that the user can choose the area to see
listings from.

The same system used in Washington State has now spread to British
Columbia under the http://www.bc.reuses.com name, with the support of the
Recycling Council of British Columbia and the local municipalities.
Services are available in Vancouver, Surrey, the Okanagan, and
Thompson-Nicola (Kamploops) with more coming in several other areas in
2008.

We also supply the Recycling Council of British Columbia with
professional grade software to run the British Columbia Industrial
Materials Exchange (www.bcimex.ca ) and the British Columbia Electronics
Material Exchange (www.bcemex.ca ). In addition, we provide the
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority with a service to encourage/faciliate
waste diversion between hospitals and clinics.

Our software also runs Industrial/Commercial Waste Exchanges such as the
Pennsylvania Materials Exchange (www.materialtrader.org) and the
Pennsylvania Manure Exchange (www.manuretrader.org) along with the
Chicago Materials Exchange (City of Chicago-internal waste exchanges)
and the State of Georgia (www.scrapmatchga.com). We also provide the
I.T./software for the Calgary Materials Exchange service operated by
Clean Calgary Association (www.cmex.ca )

Residential service is also now available in Madison, Wisconsin
(www.madisonstuffexchange.com ) and Newton, Massachusetts
(www.wastenotnewton.com). We have services under the http://www.iwastenot.com
name in Davis, California (www.iwastenot.com/davis ) and Arcata,
California (www.iwastenot.com/arcata ) . For a complete list of
residential services visit http://www.iwastenot.com .

Ontario is another node where local services are becoming available, for
example in Hamilton (www.hamilton.reuses.com ) and soon in other
cities/areas.

In addition to materials exchanges, we also provide Recyclopedia which
is currently bundled with the waste exchange service. This is a local
A-Z Recycling Guide by type of material. For a good example, visit
http://www.wastenotnewton.com .

We also bundle a Recycling Business and Non-Profit Directory with the
local service. So that people who want things reused, repaired or
recycled can find someone in their local area who does that sort of
thing.

Our service also includes ‘metrics’. The weight of each item is
estimated, and from that we are able to report on waste management
savings by municipality, or in the case of Industrial Waste Exchanges by
company. We also provide information on Greenhouse Gases reduced through
the materials exchange service. Plus metrics on ‘awareness’ value of the
websites.

More to come in 2008 with new services expected in the Northeast U.S.
and Canada. And new ‘community environmental services’ under
development, so that people who want to do the right thing, can access
good local tools and information to help them reduce their environmental
footprint.

Norm Ruttan
iWasteNot Systems
http://www.iwastenotsystems.com
1-800-630-7864

http://www.gigoit.org/

- peace

There is a startup emerging out of Vancouver, BC Canada which is catching a bit of buzz. It is called MaterialLove (www.materiallove.com). The application is still in Beta so I’m not sure what all features are still in the works – it is not really an exchange, but I think something like this or similar to this would work out better than freecycle.

Here’s the link once more – http://www.greengonzo.com

Starting with 0 members in 2003 and approaching
20,000 members end of 2005, with over 418 tons
of waste diverted in 2004, and over 573 tons diverted
in 2005 (with about 75% of counties/cities reporting).
(Not all of the material moved on the site would have
been thrown away; however not all counties are reporting either).

The system comes with a local administrator’s control
panel; it can be set up in less than a day, and provides
all sorts of options so that the material exchange meets
local needs.

The system can restrict items to FREE but the
Washington State system doesn’t; research shows that
there is a large volume of material going to landfill that
is too expensive to advertise, but 2good2toss. And some
people won’t be bothered listing if they can’t get a bit
of money for it.

With our experience at this hosted, multi-community system
we are now enlarging the advertising supported Reuses Network at http://www.reuses.com

The Reuses Network (see http://www.vancouver.reuses.com or
http://www.rideau.reuses.com ) is intended to be non-profit,
advertising supported (or with a fee to avoid ads),
open to environmental groups or individuals, and contains
many of the features and functions of the full-featured
i-WasteNot Systems. Local administrators follow some network
rules, but are free to set their own local policies to fit
local conditions as well.

Contact me at the email address listed for more information
on either a municipally or privately funded i-wastenot.com system
or an advertising supported Reuses Network System.

Norm

I hope you’ll check it out. We’d love to get your comments.