With a motto like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and REinvent, I’m a big fan of finding a home for everything and not consuming more than I need. At the Betty Belts warehouse, I have a nice little setup with a few other local businesses, in which they save their used boxes and packing materials for me and I come by and get them regularly. Before that was established, I went dumpster diving (in the cleaner recycled bins) for what I needed. The point is why go out and spend money on something that can easily be reused again and again? I would feel so guilty if I had to actually BUY boxes and (yikes) bubble wrap.

Seriously, our society needs to cut down on the wastefulness of the consumer mentality.

So I was thrilled to discover Freecycle.org . It’s like a “trash to treasure” middleman on the Internet, which redirects unwanted goods to people who will be able to use them again before the life of the items ends in a recycling facility or (yikes!) a landfill.

And it’s so easy to use. Freecycle also has the nice effect of bringing people in the community together in a way that is very tangible and human. You can give or get anything from toys to clothes, to moving boxes to appliances and collectibles. People regularly clean out their garages and post what needs a new home. It’s fun to see people sharing and finding new homes for things. Moms looking for items for a school play, someone replacing an appliance and giving away the old one. Somebody was recently offering a giant pile of bricks from a remodel, even. It’s really true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and the proof is in Freecycle.

Please join your local Freecycle group and see for yourself how it’s helping society rethink what they put in the trash!

Lots of Aloha,

Donna