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Health & Fitness

Freecycling – what did you find?

Treasures were found at Freecycling events. Tons of items were rescued from the landfill and found new homes.

A new belt and two large brown empty plant-pots – one for the lavender that is quickly outgrowing the blue pot it’s planted in, the other for the laurel – also too big for its current home. Those are the treasures I found at Freecycling on Sunday.  I gave away a guinea pigs’ cage, bedding for the cage and food (we had five "pigs" over the years, the last one died of old age just a few months ago), my old bicycle, a few pairs of shoes (some that were my teenaged son’s and only used for a short time before they were too small), clothes, and judging the empty space in my garage – much more!

The Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission third Freecycling event was held on Sunday, May 5th, at the Crystal Springs parking lot. People in over 500 cars stopped by to drop off and pick up items. Items brought included furniture, kitchen supplies, clothes and shoes, lamps, vacuum cleaners, holiday decorations, a record player, printers and DVD palayers, toys, books and much more. Most of what was dropped off was picked up and only a small volume was left at the end of the day. Of what was left - plastic items, cardboard and metal items were sent to be recycled, clothes shoes and toys were picked up by a company that will re-distribute them for use in third world countries. Many tons of usable items that could have ended up as garbage in our landfill now have a new life.

We could not have run the Freecycling event without the help of Raviv Mor, an East Brunswick resident who donated his time and his company’s equipment to help with removal of items left at the end of the day. Many thanks go to the members of the East Brunswick Youth Council and National Honor Society for helping during the day with unloading and loading cars and distributing items around the lot.  They were easily recognized by the bright orange t-shirts they were wearing (look for them in future Friends events). Many thanks also to Friends’ members and family members who helped during the day with moving things around, directing traffic (of both cars and people), supervising the younger volunteers and cleaning up at the end of the day.  We couldn’t have done it without you Joanne, Ross, Keith, Eric, Kevin, Sean, Chris, Art and others!

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If you were there Sunday – please tell us with us (in the comments) what treasures you found at the Friends’ of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission’s Freecycling event, and share any thoughts you have about Freecyling.

Freecyling was organized by the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission and co-sponsored by the departments of Recycling and Parks, Recreation and Community Services and R. Mor Enterprizes Inc. Thank you for your support!

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To get updates on future Freecycling days and other Friends projects and events - join the Friends (it's free) - log on to the website at www.friendsebec.com and register.   The Friends is a local

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