What do kittens, clothes, toys and basketballs have in common?

All are items offered for free on the Orangeburg Freecycle Network. And by the time you read this, they'll be gone, replaced with new items someone no longer wants but that someone else can put to use.

The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,553 communities with 5,505,720 members across the world. There are 51 groups in South Carolina. The Orangeburg group, founded in 2005, has nearly 350 members.

"Freecycle is a network of groups that are dedicated to giving away items that we no longer need to prevent them from going to landfills," said Karen Fairey, Orangeburg Freecycle's moderator.

Fairey joined Freecycle two years ago. As moderator, she handles membership and makes sure items are posted appropriately. She checks the site at least twice a day.

The Freecycle Network, a nonprofit organization, was founded in May 2003 by Deron Beal to promote waste reduction in downtown Tucson, Ariz., and help save the desert landscape from being overrun by landfills, Fairey said.

She said Beal sent out the first e-mail announcing the network to about 30 or 40 friends and a handful of non-profits in Tucson. When a local newspaper wrote about Freecycle, Beal's list of participants grew from 80 to 800, and he worried that it would become too big to manage. Fairey said the Freecycle concept has since spread to more than 75 countries, where there are thousands of local groups representing millions of members.

Estimates are that the network keeps the equivalent of 300 tons of stuff out of landfills every day. According to its Web site, Freecycle is not a place to just get free stuff for nothing but instead is a place "to give or receive what you have and don't need or what you need and don't have."

In its five years of existence, Fairey said Freecycle has become one of the most effective environmental groups around and an example of how social networking can be used to address social and environmental problems.

Local Freecycle groups are run by volunteers, organized as Yahoo!Groups and don't collect any advertising revenue.

Fairey said members don't have to offer items to list a want. Membership is free, and anything can be posted as long as its completely free, legal and appropriate for all ages. No alcohol, tobacco, firearms or drugs can be posted.

Items are taken at a first-come, first-serve basis, Fairey said. For example, if you need a refrigerator, she said you should put your location and be a specific as you want for the type of fridge you need. If someone has it, they will respond.

"It's against the rules to sell items," Fairey said. "No money can exchange hands at all."

Recently, the Orangeburg Freecycle group included wants for clothing, toys, an old shed, scrap lumber, window frames, twin bed mattresses and more.

The group is strictly online, and there are no physical meetings. Fairey said she would like to see the Orangeburg group grow. Columbia has more than 2,000 members, she said.

"We only have this one earth, and we only have so much space for landfills," Fairey said. "You help other people and, in return, you get help.

Fairy said she got a water bed from Freecycle, and she's even seen cars on the site.

"If someone else can use it in someway, it still has value," she said. Other popular items are children's clothing, toys, dress clothes, vases and microwaves and other appliances.

Freecycle is a great way to pass along your unwanted items, Fairey said.

"We're a disposable society," she said. "We buy better than we throw away."

For more information or to join a Freecycle Network, visit www.freecycle.org/.

T&D Features Writer Candace Newson can be reached by e-mail at cnewson@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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