Naomi Martin has found a charitable outlet for items collecting dust in her home. She sits down at her computer and offers her unused items on The Freecycle Network.

The idea behind Freecycle is to match up people who need things with people who have things to give away.

Martin, a Clovis mother, has been a frequent user of Freecycle since March. She is one of 422 members of the local chapter that Clovis, Portales and Cannon Air Force Base.

She said she has given away among other things clothes, an electric mixer, a fridge and a swamp cooler.

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Use second-hand equipment when possible. Buy or trade used items (not recommended for mattresses) you can find through networking groups such as Freecycle or classifieds.

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WORTHINGTON — It’s hard to imagine what 300 tons — 600,000 pounds — of stuff looks like, but that is the estimated amount not going into our nation’s landfills on a daily basis, thanks to The Freecycle Network.

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What we need is a new generation of post-consumerist initiatives, such as Freecycle and Gumtree, which allow people, by mutual self-help, to bypass the debt cycle. In the past, people looked to the state to protect them from the ravages of the market, but not any more. Where is the left in the worst capitalist crisis in half a century? The government seems to have given up, too. A defeatism about the credit crunch pervades Whitehall, a sense that there is nothing that can be done, apart from trying to use public funds to fix the holes in the financial system. One intellectual casualty of the crisis has been the myth of deregulation. Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said recently: “I no longer believe in the market’s self-healing power.” Many financiers have echoed his view. This is a paradigm shift, but Labour has failed to keep up. It has been left to bankers such as Sir Ronald Cohen to condemn the greed of what the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston, calls “the new plutocrats”. It was the governor of the Bank of England who condemned the “bonus culture” of the City, not a Labour minister.

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Check freecycle: An online group for posting and searching for free items. Many communities have freecycle groups, including Snohomish County: groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclesnohomishcounty/

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Finally, Michelle Lyster sends this note to all those who want to recycle their used odds and ends, rather than tossing it away.

“The Woodland Freecycle group is open to all who want to ‘recycle’ that special something rather than throw it away. Whether it’s a chair, a fax machine, piano or an old door, feel free to post it.”

The primary rule, Lyster notes, is that everything posted must be free. This group is part of The Freecycle Network, a nonprofit organization and a movement of people interested in keeping good stuff out of landfills. Check out freecycle.org for other cities and information on the movement by e-mailing WoodlandCafreecycle-owner@yahoogroups.com.

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Donate on Freecycle. You might even find yourself a like-minded friend from your neighborhood in the process!

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From clothes to furniture to kitchenware, rarely a day goes by when we don’t need to procure or replace something. Fortunately for us, we live in a society where people are always getting rid of their old stuff to replace the slightly newer things they just bought.

It should go without saying that Goodwill and the Salvation Army are the go-to places for people looking for affordable wares (and grandma’s old summer wear). But a greater variety of goods —food, clothing and more — can be found in your local Freecycle group (www.freecycle.org). The Freecycle Network is a loose association of individuals giving away for free whatever they no longer need. You’re often expected to give away some stuff yourself, but once you get in the habit you can most often locate just about anything.

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TIMES are hard and will be getting harder, we are told. And on top of wondering where the next sausage sandwich is coming from, we still have to save the planet.

Well, you could make a start at saving money and helping the environment by joining an internet swap shop.

“Huddersfield Freecycle is open to all who want to recycle that special something rather than throw it away. Whether it’s a chair, a fax machine, piano or an old door, feel free to post it. Or maybe you’re looking to acquire something yourself?” the organisers say.

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Web Site of the Day

Freecycle
www.freecycle.org

Freecycle proves that one person’s trash is another one’s treasure. It is a grassroots network where you can give what you don’t need and receive what you do need. This free cycle of giving keeps stuff out of landfills.