Edinburgh is part of a new online re-use network called Freegle formed in the UK as a friendly alternative to Freecycle. Freegle's sole objective is to enable individuals to 'do their bit' by  keeping household goods out of landfill by giving away things they  don't want, to people who can use them.  This will be a truly grassroots co-operative run by and for local people.

It was created in mid September, and in the first four days 127 local groups representing about 560,000 members moved to the new co-operative umbrella organisation, and many more are expected to follow in the coming days.

Freegle which means Free Giving, Locally, Easily. It offers greater freedom for us to organise the way we work to suit local needs, without the rigid management hierarchy imposed by The Freecycle Network.

The UK has been a big player in Freecycle's global network accounting for approximately one quarter of all re-used household items saved from landfill, and with more members per head of population than any other country.

There are already millions of people in the UK who offer unwanted household items for reuse by others, rather than dumping them. The new site Freegle is open to everyone who wants to do their bit for the planet - just visit www.iloveFreegle.org

Edward Hibbert (one of the former moderators of FreecycleEdinburgh and now of EdinburghFreegle) said: "Although we and other volunteers have put countless unpaid hours into building Freecycle, we no longer felt we could be part of it - and nor did we feel it was in the best interests of members to turn over the group to people who no longer seem to be focused on the simple idea of local action to keep items out of landfill.  This left us with no alternative but to set up an alternative for our members in the UK.  Although we keep the site ticking over, it's really the members who are saving money and the planet by keeping things out of landfill and we hope they will continue to do that at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EdinburghFreegle/ ."