Freecycling: dump your junk with a clear conscience
Free-cycle has quickly become an Internet phenomenon. Starting as an ad-hoc email list in Boston, there are now groups dedicated to every area across the connected world. The premise is simple - people collect junk. Eventually this junk has to be dumped. Rather than throw it out on the kerb, a short description is placed on Freecycle, offering it on a first-come first-served basis to be picked up by the collector.
While the prospect of furnishing a new student hovel with kitsch brica-brac, only to freecycle again when moving out in June is an enticing one - Imperial students may find the most attractive aspect of Freecycle is the possibility of actually applying all those technical skills in the real world. Computer & electrical hardware is often presented on the email list as broken, but with a delicate application of your Triple-E housemate, can be revived into its former glory. However, to find these gems one has to be fast on the email, and prepared to spend hours sifting through a literal pile of rubbish.
As long as you don't mind your house quickly descending into a parody of "Steptoe and Son", you can finally build that particle accelerator you've always wanted from flotsam and jetsam discarded by conscientious Guardian readers.
The Good: reoffered: Linksys RT31P2-VD broadband router (N1)
The Plain Weird: offer 400 pots of body cream E9
The Bad: offered: Bag of pewter pendants IG5
