What do you need? What do you have that you don't need anymore? Keep your unwanted items out of landfills and reduce your manufacturing carbon footprint by extending the life of products. The reGives Network (A Non Profit) is a community of people who are giving and getting stuff for free locally in their neighborhoods. They do this by posting an item they no longer need at reGives.com, and the online service connects them up with other people in their community who could still use the item. This is done in an effort to divert useable goods from landfills. This act concurrently enriches the lives of neighbors by giving them something that they don't have to go out and purchase.
reGives founder Drew Auman answers our questions
1. What is the genesis of reGives.com?
There are so many times that I would drive through my neighborhood to see people throwing away perfectly good items and have always thought that it was such a shame that these items were being thrown away when likely a neighbor just a few blocks away could find a use for the item if only they knew there neighbor was throwing it away. I remember driving home one night and noticed that one of my neighbors had thrown away a full set of golf clubs and that's when it hit me that there had to be a better way. So I started to look online and found a few sites where I could give away things that I no longer wanted. I gave them a try. My wife and I had recently delivered our daughter, and we had stacks of forumla left that she was unable to use. I tried to give them away through these services and found that they had a number of problems that in my opinion would prevent the average person from really participating.
I decided about 2 1/2 years ago to build The reGives Network. I spent about 2 years building the system in my free time and finally launched it this past October to quite a bit of fanfair. We were in a number of local papers and even made a television appearance on WKYC Channel 3 News here in Cleveland. I wanted everyone who was a part of The reGives Network to know that I was in this for the right reason, so I formed a Non Profit Organization in the state of Ohio and we are currently working toward receiving our 501 3 c status. I think our mission states it perfectly "Dedicated to enriching lives and changing the world through giving".
2. Are there any security measures in place to protect people from exposing themselves to strangers?
Yes. And this is the biggest problem that I found with these other services like Craigslist and Freecycle. There is no accountability. No-shows are a big problem, so you end up wasting people's time that are graciously giving something away, thus discouraging the giver from ever giving again. Furthermore, you don't know who you are dealing with; you could essentially be inviting anyone to your front door which could be a safety issue. We build a feedback system just like eBay has where each party who participates in a transaction is rated and comments are left. So over time, the good apples build very good profiles and the bad apples are prevented from participating. The profiles also have pictures of the person if they choose to have it online and some other information about the person. So in essence, you have an idea of who you are dealing with before you even decide to give the item to a particular person. Since the items are being given away for free, many people choose to just leave it on their front door step and tell the recipient where to find it.
3. How extensive is the reach of reGives?
3. How extensive is the reach of reGives?
We launched in October 2001 and currently have over 5,400 members, and growing daily. We have more recently started to open communities in Canada, United Kingdom and Australia, however most of our users are from the United States. We are very happy with this progress.
4. Can you offer some examples of products that are getting second lives instead of ending up in landfills?
4. Can you offer some examples of products that are getting second lives instead of ending up in landfills?
Surprisingly, the products have been anything and everything. Since I have brought on volunteer moderators who live in these communities to help keep things clean, I don't see all of the items that come through the system personally. But from the ones I have seen, people have given away dining room hutches, sofas, lots of baby related items, television sets, books, table and chairs, video games, exercise machines, pianos, paintings and more.
5. What else would you like our readers to know?
5. What else would you like our readers to know?
I want your readers to know that it's important to not only preserve this fragile environment that we have by recycling and reusing items, but it's also important to give things to others who are in need. Consider starting something in your neighborhood, and I guarantee that the world will thank you for it.
Thank you Drew. I just signed up!
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