Sustainable Terps
Cycling and Freecycling: The Gift of Giving
NOVEMBER 11, 2011 – Second year economics major Kriti Paul-Gera wanted a bike for campus transportation. English professor Marybeth Shea wanted to give away her unused, old bike. A perfect match.
The two met through Freecycle, a non-profit network designed to recycle goods by distributing them among communities. This way, instead of wasting an old bike, old clothes, or most anything else, members can post online available goods or desired goods.
Freecycle began in Tucson, Arizona, as simply getting rid of unused items, founder Deron Beal created an email list among his friends. Today, Freecycle serves millions of members in more than 85 countries and keeps more than 500 tons of materials out of landfills.
Freecycle focuses on local relationships and therefore members subscribe to a particular area, in this case College Park, where the exchanges take place. Paul-Gera “literally walked over there” to Shea’s house and then biked back to campus.
“The fact that I was able to get this for free, it felt so good to me,” says Paul-Gera. “This object that I have has more value to me somehow.” The exchange not only gave away a bike, but became the foundation of a friendship, as Paul-Gera and Shea discovered they had common ties on campus.
In addition, in respect to sustainability, Freecycle allows the reuse of household items that would have otherwise been unused or thrown away. “We Americans and other people of the developed world, we have a lot of stuff,” says Shea. “So, the greenest thing is something that has already been made.”
The Environmental Protection Agency estimated 250 million tons of waste in 2008 alone. By simply recycling, reducing consumption, and reusing goods, this number can go down. And with programs such as Freecycle, it is possible.
“I feel optimistic, [and] I feel depressed, but I really do feel that we all (everyone my age), have this responsibility, so that we have a future for our children and our grandchildren,” says Paul-Gera, who you may find cycling throughout campus on her free bicycle she received through Freecycle. Since her graduate study at the University of Maryland, Shea continues to ride her bike to and from campus, “I believe that I had a parking sticker for two years since 1983, otherwise I’ve had my bike to go to campus,” says Shea.
Over the decades Shea now rides in an age of environmental consciousness, which makes Shea feel both optimistic and dismayed toward future goals, however Shea says, “Seeing the bikes and the young people make me feel better.”
Biking on campus saves travel time over walking, and lastly, minimizes emissions.
-David Richards, The Office of Sustainability
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