Reducing Junk: Yahoo teams with Freecycle to turn junk into treasure

Yahoo has unveiled an Earth Day initiative to divert mountains of landfill trash, using the Internet to match people unloading “junk” with those that want the stuff. Yahoo is hoping to convince its 500 million users worldwide to join Freecycle.org, a nonprofit devoted to finding new homes for just about anything people are getting rid of.

“Our mission is keeping things out of landfills,” said Deron Beal, who started Freecycle in 2003 and is its lone staff member.

“Junk only becomes junk after it no longer has any use. It is amazing what things people find uses for.”

One Freecycle member put out an online request for socks, with or without holes. She was a school teacher with a class hand puppet project.

Another member gave away a half bottle of left over black hair dye.

Freecycle offerings have included “a box of chocolates, one eaten — take as quickly as possible.”

Beal gave away several tons of concrete chunks left from ripping out his driveway, posting the debris as ‘urbanite” in a Freecycle group.

Source: AFP