Recycle or Freecycle?

Tomorrow the big trucks roll through our neighborhood picking up the stuff on the curb. Bostonist takes pride in the fact that during the last five weeks, our household has put out more in our blue recycling bin than trash. No, we haven’t just been hoarding the un-recyclables - it is just the result of learning to engage in three-R vigilance. If you don’t have a bin for recycling get in touch with your city, they’ll drop one off for free. Apartment buildings with six or more units are considered “large” in Boston, and if you dwell in such a place, contact your landlord about recycling (and refer him/her to this page).

There is one house on our block that has big, good stuff out on the street every week. Though we’re sometimes tempted to pick it up (yes, that record player we grabbed actually did work, as the sign said), other times we just have no need for an extra office chair, couch, or lamp. That’s where FreeCycle comes in. Rather than just leave perfectly good stuff on the street, FreeCycle helps you give it away. FreeCycle is a tad bit more moderated than craigslist, but it works well. There are groups for Somerville, Cambridge, Boston, Brockton, and Billerica along with 60 others in Massachusetts. We dare say it’s a bit more localized than our one boston.craigslist.com, which has postings that litter the bay state from the Cape to the Berkshires. FreeCycle works to reduce waste (keeping items from recycling facilities and landfills) by passing them directly from a person who has to a person who wants. Bostonist appreciates the “push technology” nature of the site as well - it delivers to your inbox, so even if you didn’t know you needed a new ironing board, the person looking to unload can find you.

Recycling on the individual level for household goods is a step in the right direction. Reusing existing structures goes much further along that trajectory. The City Record and Boston News-Letter dropped a list of Boston’s “recycled” buildings (as published in 1976) into the Wayfaring.com mapping tool. The map lists only the first 18 of the 83 listed in the 1976 publication. It does include the Thomas Capen House, which is the site where the Union Oyster House recycled the building to once housing a dry goods store and residence in order to operate a restaurant. Seems like that little experiment worked out well. The map shows us two things we've got a little fetish for - Boston's lesser known history and Google Maps. We can't call this a mash-up straight out (it's borderline), but it is cool.

Top left photo of a ton of plastic on its way to be your new kayak, courtesy of William Rafti. Freecycle logo is courtesy freecycle.org. Bottom left image taken from a snapshot of the Wayfaring map found here.