Freegle facts for kids
Freegle logo
|
|
| Formation | 11 September 2009 |
|---|---|
| Type | Network of Communities |
| Legal status | Industrial and Provident Society for Community Benefit |
| Purpose | Reuse |
|
Region served
|
United Kingdom |
|
Membership
|
2,608,461 |
|
Official language
|
English |
|
Budget
|
£40,000 per year |
|
Volunteers
|
Approx. 1000 |
| Website | https://ilovefreegle.org |
Freegle is a fantastic organisation in the United Kingdom. It helps people give away and get things for free. This stops useful items from being thrown away and ending up in landfill sites. It's a free service that works online, helping everyone to reuse more.
Contents
How Freegle Started
Freegle began on September 11, 2009. Before that, many groups in the UK were part of a different organisation called Freecycle. However, these UK groups wanted to run things their own way. They had some disagreements about how to operate. So, they decided to create Freegle, a new UK-based network.
How Freegle Works
Each local Freegle group is run by amazing volunteers. These groups are independent but follow some basic rules from the main Freegle Ltd organisation. For example, joining a Freegle group is always free. Also, everything given away or asked for must be free and legal.
Freegle as a Nonprofit
Freegle Ltd is a nonprofit organization. This means it doesn't try to make money for owners. Instead, any money it gets goes back into running the service. It's officially registered as a society for community benefit. This shows it works for the good of the community.
Who Uses Freegle
In January 2021, there were 453 Freegle groups across the UK. About 449 volunteers helped to run these groups. At that time, over 3.2 million people were members of Freegle in the UK. This shows how many people love to give and get items for free!
Where Freegle Lives Online
Freegle groups use Freegle's very own online platform. This platform is open source. This means its computer code is available for anyone to see and improve. You can find the code online if you're interested! Many Freegle groups can also be found through the Trash Nothing website.
Freegle on Your Phone
In April 2015, Freegle launched its own mobile app. This app makes it super easy to access Freegle groups from your phone or tablet. It works on Android, iOS (Apple), and Kindle devices. Now you can give away or find items on the go!
See also
- Gift economy
- Freecycle
- Reciprocal altruism
- Reuse
- Sharing
- Sharing economy
- Circular economy
- Waste Hierarchy
