When I first joined Freecycle, back in late 2008, I was a little underwhelmed. In a country where the ‘midnight dash’ is one of the more common forms of escape, you would think there is not often time to ethically dispose of one’s belongings. But the response to a website that would help these unwanted items go to a good home was surprisingly slow. A turgid drip-feed of unwanted nappies, mattresses and bedknobs did little to spark my interest. However, lately, as the Emirate catches onto the idea of getting something for nothing, that drip has turned into a flood.
Freecycle is a craze that started around six years ago in America. Deron Beal, an activist from Tucson, Arizona, found he was recycling items that still had use. Instead of wasting them, he drove around the neighbourhood distributing them to various non-profit organisations. Naturally, it wasn’t long before a website was set up. Now there are over 4,480 similar groups around the world approaching seven million members in total.
Having only begun in March of last year, the Abu Dhabi branch is still rather cultish. With a mere 250 members, it is smaller than the Dubai version, but those who use both admit it is far more active. The way it works is simple. Members are tasked with ‘gifting’ each other items. It’s not Ebay; you don’t bid. Instead you can choose either to ‘offer’ items or request them as ‘wanted’. Of course, there is an etiquette involved: no pornography, no firearms, no spamming (although, technically, you could give away actual spam), and no offering yourself, says the rulebook – ‘It’s not a dating site’ the organisers are keen to stress.
Newbies are asked to begin by giving away something rather than taking, but the Abu Dhabi Freecycle group is still a haven for peculiar requests. We’ve seen demands for breast-feeding pillows, metal parasol stands and even ‘a pair of Australian parrots or parakeets’. Of course, the ad goes on to state that the birds ‘be in good health’ – well, naturally, no one wants a dead parrot.
Absurdities aside, though, Freecycle performs an important job. The UAE is mostly made up of a transient population of expats, each sliding off this mortal emirate at the drop of a hat or the bounce of a cheque. The old-fashioned garage sale usually leaves you with half or a quarter of your belongings left over, so why not just give it away? In a country with little to no interest in buying second hand (hence the lack of charity shops), donating your ‘unwantables’ to someone in need is surely the most ethical way forward.
Susan Toth is an expat from Seattle and was already familiar with the Freecycle concept. For her, it is simply a case of cutting down on waste. ‘Anything that reduces further creation and consumption of products is a good thing,’ she says. ‘Part of it is environmental, part of it is karma, part of it is about not accumulating a lot of unwanted items, and part of it is just keeping the community feel alive.’
Naturally there are taboos. You’re not supposed to take things and sell them on for profit and, as Freecycler Elmarie Little points out, ‘nor is it a free garbage removal system’. Having given away a dishwasher, a washing machine and acquired in their place a set of drums in need of ‘a bit of love’, she stresses that you have to give away something of use. If not, it’s against the whole ‘Freegan’ philosophy.
For those who aren’t aware, ‘Freeganism’ is the anti-consumerist lifestyle which urges people to use as fewer resources as possible. It has acquired buzzword status in the States, but it is unlikely it would ever truly take off in the UAE. The idea of diving into a red hot, stinking dumpster to rescue a decaying sandwich can’t appeal to many. But in a country reliant upon exports and boasting the highest carbon footprint in the world per capita (says the World Wildlife Fund, 2008), Freecycle is the acceptable face of ‘freeganism’.
There are added benefits, too. Regular Freecycler Susan Toth says, ‘I’ve met a lot of interesting people through Freecycling.’ But it’s not an expat meeting room. The idea is to be of help to someone. Of course, this can take various forms. ‘I saw one person offer half a pizza,’ she says. ‘Their post indicated that they were vegetarians. Sure enough, I saw the “taken” message go up in about 10 minutes. Someone in the neighbourhood clearly thought, “Waste not, want not!”’
Pizza and parrots, eh? Whether you subscribe to the idea that consuming less actually affects global production (there are still quotas to be met), Freecycle is a great way to make use of and discard unwanted items. In the smaller scale of Abu Dhabi it has a good home, too. After all, with the constant to and fro of expats, the only consistency is change. So get Freecycling, we say!
Join at www.freecycle.org
