Why don’t more people use Freecycle?

It’s time around these parts for the annual large item city garbage pick-up.  People set out their bulky “trash” by the road (such as furniture, TV’s, etc.), and the city comes and picks it up and disposes of it.  Most of the stuff, if not all, just ends up being dumped in a landfill somewhere I’m sure.

So as I’m driving around looking at all this stuff sitting at the end of people’s driveways waiting to be picked up, I’m wondering why a lot of it isn’t being Freecycled instead?  I’ve seen doors, couches, computers, TV’s, beds, and many other items that aren’t really “trash” and that some other person would be glad to get for free.  A lot of people drive around in trucks picking through the stuff and taking it home to be reused.

Do the people that set this stuff out by the road not know that there are plenty of people that would be glad to come get it and reuse it so that it doesn’t go to a landfill?  Or do they just not care, and don’t want to be bothered by it?  I’d like to think that it’s the former.

There are Freecycle groups all over the world that are completely free to join.  If you’ve got something you want to get rid of, you just send a message to the group and almost immediately you’ll get people writing to you asking when they can come take it off your hands.

So, that’s all I have to say about that.  If you’d never heard of Freecycle before, now you have.  :)