Recycling Unwanted Items

In last week's City Pages, I enjoyed an article about a worldwide organization dedicated to recycling products instead of adding to the landfill. Since one man's trash is another man's treasure, this is a great way to get rid of unwanted items, or pick up gently used items for you and your family. The only catch - it has to be free. You can't ask for anything in return. So this weekend, I posted my kids old Crabby Sandbox and my old washing machine, both in great shape, but just sitting unused in the garage. Within hours I had emails from folks who were thrilled to take them off my hands. The sandbox is now in the yard of a 5 year old boy, new to town - and the washing machine went to a young military couple getting married in June. I felt great about putting these items to use. The site is www.freecycle.org - you can sign up for your locality and browse postings for everything from comic books to ponies - and you can also post the things you want in hopes someone will supply you with it for free.