I am thrilled to announce that Full Circles 6th bi-annual Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market is officially partnering with Used Everywhere to take freecycling further out of the box!

As the creator of Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market, I asked the Full Circles team to allow me to create a truly money free event that was cost  free, right down to the insurance and permit protection we needed.

We worked hard to find ways to insure the safety of the public and to operate within the acceptable limits of City legislation.  Taking any kind of monetary donation to purchase items for the market having come this far would compromise all we have done to ensure that the Full Circles ORRFM is really really free!

In Fact, Full Circles-ORRFM has not spent one dime since its inception.  Not for a location, transportation, tables, photocopies, insurance or even an event permit!

Full Circles-Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market has entered into a contract with Used Everywhere accepting in kind trade for tangible items the market needed that are permanent, reusable as well as feasible and timely.  Used Everywhere is providing us with a much needed market banner, direction signs, volunteer shirts and advertising!

Not one penny will pass between the two groups!

Used Everywhere will be at this years spring market to launch the social media tag #ShouldaUsed using Instagram and Twitter.  Depending on the city your in your tag will indicate which city, a general location and a pic.  You can meet the Used Ottawa Team and get on board to help both Full Circles and Used Everywhere take freecycling to even more people.

Full Circles and Used Everywhere hope to encourage people everywhere who see good usable items on the “curbside” to take that good item that for some reason someone put in the trash!   Maybe you don’t want or need it but you realize that this item should not be going to the garbage.  Take the opportunity to earn your wings!  There’s a free treasure sitting on the side of the road and you could be the hero that saves the world with a pic, a hash tag and a post, its just that easy.

Coast to coast, city to city good usable items are being put in landfills instead of being used.  Full Circles and Used Everywhere want you to know that your garbage is gold and if you spent the energy to carry a good usable item to the curb you #ShouldaUsedOttawa or at the very least you #CouldaUsedFCO.  What’s a few key strokes vs. carrying it to the curb?    You know its free to post an add on Used Everywhere don’t you?

Just because its old and ugly doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t want it.  The only stigma attached to the item that you can use and don’t give away for free is the one you attached to that item.  You don’t have to join a freecycling venue you can freecycle outside the box.  If your not into memberships, you #ShouldaUsedOttawa and not the curb!

The word “freecycle” is tainted by the belief that if there is money involved its better off put in the garbage.  There are so many ways to save this planet personally without ever hugging a tree.  Picking up the item you need on the curb doesn’t make you a cretin.  You now have created a better lifestyle, put a few bucks in your own pocked and saved the landfill from an item that isn’t garbage.  No more keeping up with the Jones, the grass is just as green on your side of the fence.

Why not pay it forward?   Used Everywhere is giving you an opportunity to earn your wings with a random act of freecycling kindness as well as doing right by the environment.  If you can’t use it but you can take a pic and post it then tag it so everyone knows that because someone else #ShouldaUsedOttawa  or #CouldaUsedFCO another person can get something they want or need and its free!

Freecycling groups like Full Circles, ReUseit, and Freecycle are closed communities offering you a different way to get what you want or to give away what you don’t need.  These venues offer you privacy and the ability to exercise freedom of choice for where the gift you offer goes.

Free user friendly services like UsedEverywhere give you a larger market to pass on an item that still has monetary value in society for those who want to be part of the upgrade crowd but aren’t able to afford who they “wannabe”.  In the end the same service that made you realize that the item didn’t have value can also offer you a venue to still have that item taken and used instead of walking it to the trash just change the value to free!

Remember that you can give items away on all of these online services but the one thing that Full Circles Ottawa and Used Everywhere want you to know is that even if you ignore us, the least you could do is separate that good item you put on the curb and put a sign on it that says… FREE!

If your the person with too much stuff who thinks that because you don’t use it that its garbage you #ShouldaUsedOttawa or you #CouldaUsedFCO…we now have a way to use self directed diversion simply by using social media.

Thanks to Used Everywhere, freecycling for Full Circles Network members is even further out of the box.

Meet the Used Everywhere Media Team at Full Circles-Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market.

DROP WHAT YOU DON’T WANT; TAKE WHAT YOU NEED!  IT’S ALL FREE!

8 A.M.  June 8, 2013

206 Montreal Road

Free eWaste on Site provided by certified OES collector RD Long Computers.

I am Kelly Ann Wilson creator of Full Circles Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market and I believe that there is so much stuff that whether you purchase it second hand or are given it for free that you are saving the world from one more manufactured item.

https://www.facebook.com/FullCircles.Wedding.Circle

At the Ottawa Food Bank, these containers are constantly used and required on an ongoing basis!

 

Now we’ve had positive confirmation from the Ottawa Food Bank that they can always use these items.  

 

           Ottawa Food Bank Red Bin

And the really good news is that you can donate them at Ottawa Food Bank Red Bin Locations at the front of most supermarkets in Ottawa although they would prefer, if it is convenient, that you bring your donations to the main warehouse - 1317B Michael St., Ottawa, ON K1B 3M9

 

Of course, since the containers will be used to repackage bulk foods, be sure they are nice and clean!  And please leave a little note inside telling them you were referred by FullCircles Ottawa.  We’d love the good will!  You might even want to throw in a food item or two while you’re at it.

 

Here’s my March 2012 conversation with the Ottawa Food Bank on their Facebook Page:

Eric Snyder - March 12, 2012
In the past, I’ve dropped off clean white 1 kg yogurt containers with lids at the Food Bank Centre on Bronson. Is this type of donation still of interest to the Ottawa Food Bank?
If so, could they be bagged and dropped off at a supermarket food bank bin?

Yesterday at 9:23am · Like

• Ottawa Food Bank Hello Eric! Thank you for thinking of us. Yes we do accept these types of containers! You can either bring them right to our warehouse (1317B Michael St) or you can drop them off in the red bin at your local grocery store.
  Thank you!

  Yesterday at 10:17am · Like

• Eric Snyder Thanks for your note! This is good news for me. I haven’t had to recycle any of these containers for the past 8+ years, since we started Ottawa Freecycle. Now… how about red Folgers plastic coffee canisters? Are these something the Food Bank can use too?

  Yesterday at 11:40am · Like

• Ottawa Food Bank I would imagine so! Feel free to donate them the same way you do the yogurt tubs. If we receive them and I hear that they don’t want them, I’ll let you know.

 

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The following story was posted yesterday as a “RECEIVED” message on the FullCircles Ottawa Yahoo! group by Kelly Wilson, one of the group moderators… herself an avid and active freecycler!

“Vacuuming” (93/365) (Photo credit: kalavinka)

RECEIVED: Vacuum Fantastic Freecycling Story;-0 (Vanier) I was going to post a wanted for a vacuum. But I’m posting a RECEIVED with what I consider a fantastic freecycling story.  I have a vacuum but there’s a catch.  It’s a knock off of a Shark called a Euro Pro and the bags have become harder and harder to find since Zellers closed.  I moved, bought the wrong bags, freecycled those bags then borrowed every terrible vacuum in the neighborhood.  Until yesterday…I borrowed a friend’s bagless out of desperation and thought wow, with 4 cats, this is the machine for me. I should post!Having someone handy around is a bonus and this is also a story about the cost of free.As I biked to the store after returning my friend’s vacuum I saw a bagless Dirt Devil Jaguar complete with all the attachments on the curb. Seeing a moving truck, I decided ok inspection time, people leave working items behind all the time. Perhaps if it’s not working right I can ask someone to fix it for me.The lady who owned the vacuum came out. I asked if it worked. She confessed that it did but it really didn’t suck anymore and that it “ate” area rugs. I decided after flipping it over that the beater bar needed a good cleaning. I told her, “great I will pick it up on the way back”. The worst that could happen is I have to put it back on the curb. I continued on and 3 houses up on the opposite side of the road I see the EXACT same machine only its got a broken wheel, no accessories and the electrical cord is cut off. On the way back I used my bike to wheel the “doesn’t suck” vacuum home. Once there I ran and showed off my prize then asked the person who is handy if they could open it up and tell me if it was salvageable.  We discovered a broken belt and the beater bar seized with all of the carpet remnants that the machine “ate”. BONUS… maybe the other machine has the parts I need? Can’t hurt to go and see if it’s still there. So off on my bike and low and behold it is still laying there! Lucky me;-) I grabbed the other from 3 houses up and dragged that machine home too. Returning with my prize I was impressed at how much cleaner the beater bar was than the other. Thinking, well if all else fails, I can switch the bars if I have to buy a belt.  LUCKY ME AGAIN! All the parts needed to replace the ones in the working machine were intact. After cleaning the parts and then taking the hose off we further discovered that the hose was blocked. Fished the hose, cleaned the filter, changed the belt and beater bar and I have a “WORKS LIKE BRAND NEW VACUUM CLEANER”! The moral of this story… the cost of free may be a little elbow grease.  But the real moral of the story is this… Freecycling patience is a virtue.  You may not get what you need when you ask but if you keep asking eventually someone will have what you need. BUT, in a world of free, there is a cost. When you become an avid believer in the system, it’s hard to shop when you know that what you need is likely sitting on the side of the street.  Even if it’s not, you have 11,000 people freecycling in this area and eventually you will find what you need when you need it the most! A Jaguar Dirt Devil like the one I just found help to McGyver would cost a lot more than the effort and time put into making it work like new. If you post once and no one replies, just keep posting every other week.  Trust me, not all of those 11,000 people are sitting at their computers waiting to give you what you want.  But eventually one of them will be… I’m Kelly Wilson and I am a facilitator with Full Circles Ottawa and a HUGE believer in I get what I need for free… but nothing is ever without a cost. Perhaps all you have to do is post a few times…it’s the cost of free;-) Thanks for reading my RECEIVED! Kelly =========