Imagine going online and finding a site where you could actually get things that you wanted—for free! They may be new, they may be used, but no matter what they are, they are all free. That is exactly what The Freecycle Network offers: a chance for people to come together and give away things that are no longer useful to them.
You simply sign up at The Freecycle Network page and you can post any item you no longer have a use for or browse items that people have and then go and get them for free. That's really all there is to it!
Freecycle has taken the free gift concept to where it is practical and useable: keeping items out of landfills. Its success is as attributable to the computer age as it is to the desire to make it work. It is a great idea now and it was a great idea back in the mid-60's, when a group called The Diggers came up with a very similar concept.
The Diggers was an acting troupe during the counter culture that decided on an idea to create a free city. They meant to put the word "free" and in front of everything that one could find in a city, such as food, clothing, and transportation. A store was set up, and everything inside was free. They even attempted to provide free clinics by asking medical students from the University of San Francisco to volunteer. This was the legacy of The Diggers, and the idea still lives on.
In today's world, there are many soup kitchens and medical clinics that essentially owe their creation to The Diggers from those long ago and far away times of the radical 60's. In retrospect, the ideas that were deemed "fringe" back then are welcomed and considered commonplace today. So it is with The Freecycle Network: a place where all is free, connected by the internet highway, where all you need are a computer and a modem to be a part of this unique type of green idea.
You have to think that The Diggers would have been proud of this idea, and quite possibly, had they possessed the technology and the resources back then, they may have even thought of it themselves.
