Making the most of waste

Now, there are events being organised in the city where people can freely give away those items to those who need them. Freecycle @Bessie is one such non-commercial initiate, from Upcycle Artz, a venture-in-making, where people pass on their unwanted items to another person who needs that item.

“People worldwide are choosing to freecycle rather than discard, as the practice frees up space in landfills and cuts down on the need to manufacture new goods. This is a different way to say you care for the environment, while allowing re-use of a product that is no longer needed by you,” says Rakesh Kumar, creator of Upcycle Artz. 

He further adds, “For this first edition of Freecycle @Bessie, we are focusing on books, music and movie CDs.We have invited people to bring any and all surplus books, CDs that are no longer needed and which might be of use to someone else. The books and CDs could be of any kind – kids books, novels, academic, non-fiction, management, magazines in Tamil, English, Hindi etc. 

They should be in decent condition and should be of some value to someone. Whether or not people donate, they can come and take anything they want. There is no barter system here,” he explains further. Upcycle Artz has been involved in building a community of people which is environmentally conscious and which supports recycling or upcyling. “We also sell products made from waste newspaper or plastic bottles. They could be anything, from  coasters, diya covers, pencil holders, key chains etc,” he said. 

They have also been conducting workshops for kids to teach making recycled products. Rakesh says these kind of events help bring together people who are willing to work on building some solutions, and viable mechanisms for a greener plant. The event  will take place on Sunday (November 20) from 6 30 am to 8 15 am at Car Free Sunday Besant Nagar.