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Don't Trash it, Freecycle it!

Mobile technologists are known for their love of, well, gadgets. If you’re reading these pages odds are that you have either a drawer, closet or garage (or God help you – all three) full of various tech items that are collecting dust.
The problem is that you have an emotional attachment to the Whiz-Bang 2000 and can’t bear to throw it out, admitting that it isn’t quite as Whiz-Bang as you first thought. Another problem is that it isn’t worth squat on eBay either. Worse, electronics (especially computers and monitors) don’t belong in landfills due to the environmental consequences of heavy metals like mercury seeping into your drinking water. What is the gadget obsessed to do with all this working but unused crapola? Read more…


Mobile technologists are known for their love of, well, gadgets. If you’re reading these pages odds are that you have either a drawer, closet or garage (or God help you – all three) full of various tech items that are collecting dust.
The problem is that you have an emotional attachment to the Whiz-Bang 2000 and can’t bear to throw it out, admitting that it isn’t quite as Whiz-Bang as you first thought. Another problem is that it isn’t worth squat on eBay either. Worse, electronics (especially computers and monitors) don’t belong in landfills due to the environmental consequences of heavy metals like mercury seeping into your drinking water. What is the gadget obsessed to do with all this working but unused crapola?
I stumbled across what may be the perfect answer to all of your problems, ok, maybe not all of them. Freecycle.org is “a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns.”
It works like this, you go to Freecycle.org and subscribe a list (Yahoo Group) in your region and you post things with a subject line beginning with OFFER: or WANTED:. People contact you directly and you arrange a pickup.
Quite brilliant overall and I have to admit to being quite addicted to it. Check it out in your region and if you have any old records or a turntable sitting in your basement – let me know 🙂

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.