Perhaps freecycle ought to be better named “reclutter”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying it. So far I have “composted” my computer collection - turning 8 unused computers into 2 respectable pentiumII-class linux boxen for someone to play with during their MSc and 6 useless hulks in a skip at the tip. I don’t have to feel too bad about those computers, I didn’t buy most of them, I didn’t fund their manufacture, and I went a lot further than most to get the last bits of life out of them. They were lower-spec than the stuff in the giveaway bin at the York computer recycling project.
Actually, this is a bugbear of mine: this is NOT recycling, it is re-use. For it to be re-cycling, it has to be cyclic. Turning paper into soil to grow trees is recycling. Turning a computer into another computer is re-use. It doesn’t provide any route to turning that motherboard back into rocks and oil.
So there I was, congratulating myself on having made an extra 2 cubic metres of space in my house, when I realised I have also acquired a grubby armchair and a non-working washing machine.