Hartland Freecyclers Share to Help the Environment

With email notifications that read from "Free aged horse manure for gardening" to "Little Tykes dollhouse and a load of Barbie stuff," a group of Hartland residents are commited to helping the Earth and bringing their community closer one free "gift" at a time.

As part of the growing Freecycle movement, about 350 people participate via a Yahoo group who are ready to turn their trash into treasure and visa-versa. With a simple email request to join , members will begin to receive notifications for anything someone has to offer, all free for whomever can find a use for it.

“The mission of freecycle.org is to keep usable items out of our landfills,” said Angela Thorton Canny, founder of the Hartland Freecycle group. “I would hope everybody would share that goal. I think that it’s a great way to get rid of things that you no longer want or need.

“I’m a very frugal person by nature. It really is a pet peeve of mine to see perfectly usable items sitting out on the curb for the garbage man to pick up. There’s so much waste in our society.”

Freecycling started in 2003 when Deron Beal of Arizona sent 50 emails to friends and neighbors. Since the email blast, Freecycle has spread across the country and around the world with thousands of local communities working together to reuse and recycle.  According to Freecycle.org, as a result of these efforts by millions of people, more than 500 tons of reusable items are being kept out of the landfills on a daily basis.

In 2008, Canny moved to Hartland from a suburb of Chicago where the mother of two had already been involved with Freecycle since 2005. Originally, Canny was part of the Fenton group, but decided to start a Hartland location for convenience and practicality.

“It was so far away,” Canny said referring to the Fenton location. “When you’re trying to save the environment, you don’t want to spend a whole lot of gas doing all this stuff.”

Although Canny sees things like computer parts, furniture and even plants up for grabs on the local network, she says the most popular items, requested and offered, include children’s clothing and toys.

“When my kids were younger, we had a bunch of toys and stuff,” Canny said. “Toys in, toys out. It was like a toy library. Freecycle is great for that.”

Options to join several different Freecycle groups at one time are available to people, if they choose. Each group, however, will have its own sets of rules with the No 1 rule always being everything must be free. Canny stresses though, that the group was never meant to work as a charity.

“For me, it was just a way to clear out my house,” Canny said. “I don’t have to throw them away; I don’t have to give them to Goodwill. I can give them to my friends or my neighbors. Really for me, it gives me a sense of community.”

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of articles that focus on Earth Day. To head directly to Hartland Freecycle, click here.