Eco homes: The best things in life are free…

Londoners have fallen in love with Freecycle, reports Sarah Lonsdale

Rose Wray-Brown has a beautiful, handmade, wooden rocking chair that sits prettily in the attic bedroom of her 1920s terrace in Ealing, west London. "I've always wanted a rocking chair and when I bought my house it was one of the first things I got," says Rose, who works in marketing.

	Rock on: Rose Wray-Brown got her rocking chair through Freecycle and caught the de-cluttering bug

But Rose did not pay for it, she found it on Freecycle, the internet's green exchange phenomenon taking London by storm. "The man who made my rocking chair was moving house and didn't need it any more, so he posted it on the Ealing Freecycle group and I asked for it. "

Freecycle is the complete antithesis of eBay. Instead of sellers flogging off anything they can lay their hands on to the highest bidder, members give their goods away, to avoid sending items to landfill.

The UK sends a higher proportion of household waste to landfill than any other EU state - 21 million tons last year, roughly 75 per cent of all domestic waste. This compares to just 11 per cent in Switzerland. Landfill sites cover more than 100 square miles of British countryside and create severe environmental problems for future generations.

Freecycle, which started in Tucson, Arizona four years ago, has more than 3.5 million members worldwide and estimates it diverts 300 tons of rubbish a day from landfill.

About 100,000 Londoners have joined - up from just a few hundred two years ago - and there are groups in every London borough. Volunteer moderators, such as Rose Wray-Brown spend a few hours a week checking through postings before compiling lists of wanted and offered items.

Every few days, members of the group receive an email full of gifts that people want to give away. A breadmaking machine, a black ash bookcase, pondweed, an overgrown kitchen garden "suitable for pigs or chickens" and a Brabantia 50-litre bin are just a few recent offerings. Items requested include: baby clothes, a tin bath for tie-dying, and an African land snail for a school pet project.

"Freecycle encourages altruism," says Caroline Holding who lives in Kentish Town and is a moderator for the Camden group. "It's interesting how it works on you. I initially joined because I thought it would be a great way to get free stuff, and I did. Bu then I got the de-cluttering bug, too, and started posting things I didn't need any more.

"After that, you get the altruism bug and you start looking at the 'Wanted' posts to see if you can help anyone out. I'm really pleased because I've just been able to match up someone offering a mobility scooter to someone who needed one. We worked out that the Camden group alone has saved 150 tons from reaching landfill in a year."

"People are always really pleased," says Rose, who has passed on shelving and an old telephone. "Because it's all free, and we are all volunteers, no one minds that things are not perfect.

"Often people who post 'Wanted' messages are young families who've just moved into a larger house. It's nice to pass things on."

How Freecycle works

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