What is the real cost of Freecycle?
The real cost in terms of petrol consumption and exhaust pollution is insignificant when compared with the environmental costs of producing a new item from scratch, transporting it and eventually disposing of it. Televisions for example do not just appear in your house. Everything has to travel, the materials to make the product, to manufacture the product, to the warehousing and distribution depots, to the retail outlet and then to your home. Even if you forget the environmental costs of production and disposal, a new item is much, much more environmentally expensive in terms of transportation alone. If you have an item that you no longer want, say that television, somehow you will have to dispose of it. If you take it to landfill, it is another journey. Most people will travel less, Freecycle offers items in the local area. Freecycle is recycling unwanted goods, extending their life and preventing a new item being manufactured and sold, which too will end up in landfill, we are runni
