I just got this from the Freecycle group and want to pass the idea along. X-posted to damnportlanders and some emails. Better that everyone get it lots than people not getting it at all, right?
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We throw out tons of garbage. Along with garbage, though, we also throw out lots of valuable items – items that others would love to own.
Here's how it typically goes – in your garage is a great bike you rode maybe twice in five years. It's taking up space. When you finally get sick of looking at it, you wheel it out with your trash on garbage day. Problem solved? Not really.
So here's this beautiful bike out by the curb, free to a good home. But no one knows about it. And the people who rush by on their way to work are too sleepy to pick it up. So your bike winds up with thousands of others like it – rusting in a landfill.
Meanwhile, millions of kids all over the place would love to own that bike. This culture of excess ownership and waste is prevalent in our country. It wasn't like that in the old days – just ask your grandparents.
So I created "Curb Day" to reduce the number of valuable items going to landfills. I'm hoping Curb Day becomes a national event twice per year. I'm hoping it makes us less wasteful and makes millions of usable free items available to those who could use them.
Curb Day is a simple two-pronged solution:
1. Let's not throw out valuable items with our garbage
2. Let's put our items out on the same day – so others can easily pick them up
The first Curb Day will be on Saturday, May 16, 2009. On that day, or the night before, people are encouraged to take their valuable (but unwanted) items to their curbs. Because this is a weekend, it will not interfere with normal trash pickup. There will be treasures on neighborhood curbs all over the country. People will be out en masse picking up these free items. Kind of like Halloween!
The key to success is promotion. If everyone knows about Curb Day, it will be a safe and efficient way to transfer goods to those who are willing to pick them up.
( Read more )www.curbday.com