One man’s trash is another man’s new fridge

A new Australian innovation is helping hundreds of people around the world to take their recycling online, promoting greener and cleaner environment and also letting others pick up free goods. Freally.com is a new project started by two Sydney-siders, Eric Bae and Xiangwei Meng, who say that they were first inspired by the amount of unused and unwanted items taking place in their households.

“We looked around and just realised how much junk we have amassed over the years and we didn’t want to go through the hassle of selling them. But we thought there has to be someone who would want this.”

Freally works by users posting their unwanted items and allowing other people nearby request them. The owner of the item can then offer the item by arranging a pick-up time and place. In addition, the site contains some of the latest web technology tools such as Google maps and connection to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to make the online recycling experience more “modern” and “fun”. While there are a number of other similar sites, Freally was made with safety and user experience in mind.

“We tried a lot of other sites out there and realised each had its limitations. For example, some were quite outdated and very inconvenient in organizing pick-ups. And others were terrible when items were not collected. We wanted Freally to offer the best online recycling experience there is, and I think we have made it quite close.”

In the last four months of operation, Freally has seen almost a thousand users registering and giving away anything from a glue stick to a computer. The site is available throughout the world and its makers are planning to translate the service into different languages.