New Freecycle List Allows Wesleyan Community to Exchange, Reuse Unwanted Items

This month, the Wesleyan freecycle program is launching its own electronic mailing list. Staff, faculty and students are eligible to join the freecycle program.

Launched last May by the Wesleyan Recycling Committee with the appearance of the “PODS”, the Wesleyan freecycle program, encourages students, staff and faculty to exchange unwanted items, rather than throwing them away. Wesleyan’s program is part of the national freecycle movement where people give away things that they don’t need, or ask for items they do need.

“Anyone who joins the freecycle program will have the opportunity to exchange items that are still usable,” says William Nelligan, associate director of environmental health and safety and the Wesleyan recycling coordinator. “These items will be free and recycled, hence the name freecycle. If a student has a working TV in her dorm room that she no longer wants, she can post it on the list. Everyone on the list will get this posting, and if someone is interested, they can contact the student and make arrangements to pick it up. The best part is that the TV is going to be reused and not thrown away.”

Leslie Starr, assistant director and marketing manager at Wesleyan University Press, has previously donated unused reams of large-size paper from the Press’s office to another department that used them. She’s also asked for plastic filing tabs and within a week, two departments with extras donated them to her. This email list will make exchanges like this easier.

“It would be wonderful if everyone on the campus joined the new Wesleyan freecycle list, to exchange excess or needed office supplies, furniture and other work-related stuff,” Starr says. “We all have office supplies in the back of our closets that we’re not using. Why not see if another department can use them?”

Personal items can also be exchanged, including clothes, art supplies, cameras, text books, gardening supplies, kitchenware, curtains, even pets. All of them are eligible to be placed on the freecycle list.

“We all come together to the same place everyday, so it would be easy to exchange items,” Nelligan says. “Freecycle can be a nice community builder.”

To join the Wesleyan Freecycle list, e-mail lyris@lyris.wesleyan.edu with a blank subject and one line in the body: join freecycle. Lyris will reply back with a confirmation e-mail link needed to confirm the membership. Once confirmed, users can send messages through freecycle@wesleyan.edu and will receive all messages sent to that list.