Unfortunately there are always people like Mike willing to game the system.
We even had some of that in our local freecycle group. The idea is when we have things we want to recycle rather than send to the landfill, we offer them to our neighbors for free. Apparently someone/some people were taking the offers then selling them for profit. The moderator pointed out this was against the spirit of the system so please don’t.
It had never occurred to me that anyone would do that, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. As gaming the system goes, it was minor, and the items were still being recycled rather than going to the landfill. But it wasn’t friendly, and it lessened the feeling of community.
May 30, 2016
Enterprise, Jean, enterprise. People need to eat. And as consumer goods get cheaper and cheaper, shockingly so, it’s becoming harder to sell second hand stuff unless you have a cache of John Lennon’s love letters to you or a genuine Michelangelo in your loft.
I may be wrong, Jean, though, naturally, I am not (insert smiley). Why shouldn’t someone “sell” things on? Let’s say, I am in dire financial straits and never ever have liked dead Aunt’s what’s it (insert any example of an eyesore) then, though inherited ie “free”, it’d be perfectly reasonable to sell it to someone who genuinely likes rubbish. Also, to stick with your example of Freecycle, it’s far easier to give things away for free than to dispose of them otherwise. So what is one person’s win is another one’s gain.
As an aside: Here (in the UK) you have pay the Council (city administration) to take away rubbish NO one wants, eg a worn mattress, a moth eaten sofa, you name it – anything that doesn’t fit into a bin. The more you have to dispose of the less it costs you. As discounts go you can’t beat it (insert smiley). Landfill, here we come.
U
I like it best when I can give things directly to people who will appreciate them.
I get what you mean.
I read that the CEO of Goodwill is a billionaire.
So I guess he’s doing the same thing.
Unlike if items are donated to the battered women shelter,
where they actually use the things themselves.
At work a girl brought in some items she didn’t need.
Curtains, dishes and such, thinking maybe someone else would want them.
Another girl took them and then sold them at her garage sale.
The original owner was peeved but I told her to let it go.
It wasn’t worth getting upset over.
Now we look back on it and laugh about it all.
I agree that it’s best to let it go. At least it was easy for her to recycle the items. But it wasn’t very friendly of the coworker not to ask her first.
Recycling itself is a business here. We can get rid of things regularly to people like Mahadev about who I have blogged. Everything can be given to these middle men including plastic stuff. Clothes too can be given away to various charities, the equivalents of the Red Cross. I doubt very much that the charities to whom we give clothes game the system. They usually take them to disaster areas immediately. http://rummuser.com/?p=6277
We can easily recycle a lot of things. If we lived in a house we would have our own bins for plastic bags and containers, glass, cans, and paper. We live in an apartment so we just use the bins our supermarket provide for us. An organization called Clothes Helping Kids make pickups at our apartment every six weeks or so. They phone first to see if we have anything — clothes, household items, etc. I really appreciate it.
I have had that same thing happen, and I agree with you. It really diminishes the feelings of “helping someone” and the good feelings you had in parting with it.
On the flipside, I hope you’re doing well, and have had an enjoyable weekend!
Thanks, it was a great weekend. I hope yours was too. 🙂
The US Postal Service here has a food drive. You put bags of food by your mail box and the postal carriers pick them up. In our apartment building we put our bags out the night before since our mailboxes are inside. They often disappear that same evening. We don’t know if management picks them up to lock away over night or if a neighbor takes them. We decided that a neighbor who takes them must need them so we’ve decided to not worry which is happening. But, I still wonder.
I would wonder too. I would be tempted to ask the postal carrier if he ever gets anything for the drive from your building.
As Ursula pointed out – the resale of 2nd hand goods is becoming a “disappearing act” – the amount of things I have tried to sell over the last few years – has usually meant “it’s either still here, it’s gone to the Sallies (=), or I’m now lowering my price…” One of my friends try to sell as much as possible – and I replied “but at what price!”
I just give mine away. Mostly to Clothes Helping Kids who sell them to make money for their charity, but some things using the local freecycle, and my books to the Friends of the Library bookshop, which sells them for a nominal fee and gives the proceeds to the library. At my age it’s a win-win. I save a lot of time, and they benefit.