Greater Good Philippines tells the stories of social entrepreneurs, volunteers, philanthropists, and ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things for their community, in hopes of motivating and inspiring others to do the same.

Home » Archives » 02. February 2010

The Day Mom Freecycled

February 2, 2010


Coming home from school one day, I was surprised to see a vertical piano in the living room.  My mom, who had no difficulty finding connections in Hong Kong’s expat wives’ community, was able to get the musical instrument for free after learning that a family was disposing of it.  What potentially would cost thousands of dollars cost her a few hundreds to pay the movers. 

This happened in 1998.  12 years and dozens of fingers later, we still have the piano–a prominent fixture in our living room–and a couple of people in our household continue to play the instrument from time to time, in addition to our cuddly one-and-a-half-year-old neighbor who visits occassionally.

What happened in that  fateful day in Hong Kong, just a few months after the British turnover, is known as “freecycling”.  Freecycling is the act of re-using old or unused items by putting these up as gifts (meaning for free) to people who may find them useful.

I recently learned, after reading MentalFloss‘ “Five ways to get closer to your garbage“, that there is a global community dedicated to this cause.  After visiting Freecycle.org, however, I found that only half a dozen cities in the Philippines are into this activity.
 
Maybe there’s an application currently in the pipeline, but I nonetheless took the liberty to create a group for Metro Manila.  Maybe I’ll find takers for some items lying around my room.

Have you freecycled?  What items have you received/given away?

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