Online Recycling for the Urban Crowd

London, UK. The word ‘recycling’ usually conjures up images of stacks of soggy newspapers and overflowing drop-off points. Not exactly enticing for fashionable types with something to get rid of. So where do the young urban crowd go to get rid of their unwanted possessions? Online of course.

UsefulGarbage.com is the new recycling website aimed at the ‘urban’ recycler who is unlikely to make that trip to the recycling point but still wants to do their bit. Anyone with an item of value (“dumpers”) can simply list it online for someone else (“finders”) to come along and take off their hands.

The inspiration for the site was simple as founder, Nicholas Tsiougos, explains, “I had an old picture frame that I wanted to get rid of and couldn’t find a simple way to do it in London. I didn’t want to dump it in the bin, nor was it worth selling on eBay. All I wanted was someone to come and take it away for little or no cost.”

“I never considered myself a particularly ‘green’ person but, like everyone else, I do worry about the environment and hate to see things unnecessarily being dumped in waste landfills, rivers, or by the side of the road. So, I got together with a friend to build the website and things have just taken off from there.”

The site is entirely free and people can virtually ‘dump’ anything they like for others to ‘find’. In fact, the site has started to generate a lot of interest after one London man recently decided to ‘recycle’ his car on the site. Although it came as something of a shock to the site’s owners and users, the car was offered completely free to anyone who wanted to come and collect it.

Of course, not every item on the site is quite so high profile, as one user explained, “Everyone’s got something that they don’t need anymore. It might not be worth a fortune, but just because I don’t need it anymore doesn’t mean it’s not useful to someone else. This is a simple way to get rid of my clutter and do my bit for the planet as well.”

UsefulGarbage.com is already attracting interest from a number of high profile charitable groups, businesses and local councils keen to get involved in the site. “Environmental issues have been high on the agenda nationwide for the last few months. Everyone from government to individuals and big business to the corner shop need to do what we can. Useful Garbage.com just wants to make it all a bit easier and a lot more fun.” added Nicholas.

The site is available to anyone in the UK and Ireland at present with aims to expand in the USA, Australia, Japan over the coming months. Anyone with unwanted items they’d like to dump can visit www.usefulgarbage.com or contact Nicholas and the team at info@usefulgarbage.com