Problem

The environmentally conscious of you would be aware that simply throwing things away without much thought results in soil, sea and air pollution. This can be in your home country or abroad if the waste is then exported.

One aspect of reducing waste is to make sure we continue to reuse things we no longer need. The most common solution is advertising your unwanted items in the second hand market place with sites like eBay reporting a total of 87 million second hand sales in 2021, an increase of 29% compared to 2018.

While this is great news there is a hidden administrative burden for advertising your item for sale. This includes but is not limited to: A thorough description of your item, photographs accurately representing the state of your item, pay for and safely package your item, organise postage and be ready to post at a movements notice, avoid scams, accept returns and once its all over get ranked on your customer service skills. Finally give a percentage of your earnings to the site and be aware of any tax laws for your situation.

When comparing that against the incredibly convenient concept of throwing something of little value into the bin you can see why 54% of waste still gets sent to landfill or is incinerated.

Solution

The solution, it seems, needs to be as simple as being able to announce you have something you no longer need and ask who wants it. The removal of financial gain simplifies the entire interaction and make the primary purpose about reuse. The act of offering things for free then provides an incentive for people who want your item to collect it themselves. This has the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions since only the people nearby will show interest.

The good news is that there are at least six websites dedicated towards the idea of passing on your unwanted items for free. They include Freecycle, Freegle, FreelyWheely, FreeToCollect, Olio and Trash Nothing. They all solve the same problem by making it as simple as possible for you to upload a photo, write a description, add your approximate location then wait to hear from anyone who has an interest in collecting the item from you.

There are also another seven commercial websites that just have a section on their site for people advertising free items. They include Craigslist (Free Stuff), Facebook Marketplace (Free Stuff), FreeAds (Free Stuff), Friday Ad (Free to Collect), Gumtree (Freebies), Preloved (Freeloved) and Shpock (Filter £0).