The term freecycling, a contraction of the English terms free and recycle, indicates the activity of putting back into circulation objects no longer used but still happily usable by other people.
The objects to be exchanged are literally of any type, even the strangest, such as scratched CDs, scraps of cloth or non-working appliances and the exchange takes place free of charge, that is, they are essentially given away.
Freecycling is therefore able to extend the life cycle of some goods by delaying their recycling or disposal.
In 2003 the Freecycle Network project was born in the United States, a web platform that currently has more than 1.5 million registered users, involving more than 51 countries around the world.
The project is a non-profit and aims to share, worldwide, assets in the community of members to reduce the impact of waste on landfills while benefiting users.
Today there are thousands of freecycling groups where you can exchange items for free both on social platforms (facebook, instagram, Whatsapp, etc.) and in unofficial exchange shops, used a lot for example in the United Kingdom during the years of the Covid pandemic.