Freegle Cumbria County Council Partnership

The following briefing note was prepared by Cumbria County Council's Waste Prevention Manager Nick Wright Nick.Wright@cumbria.gov.uk in September 2015 for the county councillor responsible for Environment who was about to do a radio interview on the partnership between CCC and Freegle in Cumbria.

• Cumbria County Council and Freegle have been working together for about 18 months now and it’s a relationship that goes from strength to strength.
• Freegle is a fantastic concept. It encourages local people to support one another and reduce the waste burden by redistributing their unwanted items between one another. It basically is an initiative set up to promote reuse.
• Cumbria County Council has a statutory duty to manage the county’s waste but moreover we are committed to reducing, reusing and recycling as much of that waste as we can – and in that order. Working with Freegle is a fantastic way of helping us do this.
• Freegle is an online reuse portal where people can give away unwanted, but still usefull, household items, and it’s all completely free. You can freegle furniture, electrical items, soft furnishings, decorations, clothes, toys….almost anything really. You just log your item on their website where everybody who is registered can see it and claim it. You can even use it to make a request for things that you’re looking for!
• Not only is Freegle terrific for the environment, it can really help people too. There are hard-pressed and financially stretched households in Cumbria and Freegle can provide access to household items completely free of charge. It’s an incredibly valuable service.
• In Cumbria, there are 5 vibrant freegle networks and over 15,000 Freeglers. Between them they save almost 9 tonnes a month from waste treatment and possible landfill. This is a great accomplishment and thanks in no small part to the fantastic partnership between Cumbria County Council and our local Freegle networks.
• Together we have made Freegle an important part of Cumbria’s waste minimisation programme. We’ve promoted the service across all of our various teams and services so that we can help spread the Freegle message and encourage as many Cumbrian’s as possible to sign up and get Freegling.
• We’ve jointly held several Give and Take days across the county where people can come along with any of their unwanted items, browse what others have brought, and take away whatever they want completely free of charge.
• Our next Give and Take event, where you can take unwanted items and pick up a household freebie, is being held at The Old Courthouse, Shap, on Saturday 3 October 2015, from 10am-2pm.
• People can now freegle via their smartphone too thanks to the first ever app developed and trialled right here in Cumbria. This app makes using Freegle even easier as people can enjoy the whole experience in the palm of their hands, see a picture of the item and even view a map of where the item should be collected.
• We want even more people using Freegle and we have collective ambitions of getting one in ten Cumbrians Freegling over the next 2 years. So I’d like to urge everyone to sign up today. You can find your nearest group and register at www.ilovefreegle.org or download the new app from the app store.
• The partnership has been shortlisted for the Best Partnership Award at this year’s Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Awards. LARAC is the national industry body comprising local authority recycling officers and representing the voice of local authority recycling officers. The awards recognise achievement and best practice in the waste industry

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