First ‘Freecycle’ Event of the Semester Held in Smith Center

The Harvard Office for Sustainability hosted its first Freecycle event of the semester at the Smith Campus Center on Tuesday.

The event — a forum where Harvard affiliates and Cambridge residents could donate and exchange used books, office supplies, clothes, and toys — was the first of two this semester. Items also came from donation boxes around campus, including student dormitories and office spaces.

“Freecycling is where you bring something you can’t use — but you think someone else might — and take anything you can use,” Jerusha T. Achterberg, a volunteer and instructor at the Harvard Extension School, said.

Students said the event was a helpful way to stay mindful of their recycling habits.

Karen Yang ’27 said she thinks it is “so easy to be really wasteful.”

“I think small initiatives like this where you are repurposing things that you don’t necessarily need, but don’t feel good about throwing away, I think it’s a really good thing,” Yang said.

Nancy Bjornson, a Cambridge resident and a volunteer at the event, said she enjoys “matching things with people.”

“I’ll bring this because someone else might be able to use it,” she said.

Both organizers and attendees said they wanted to see more events like Tuesday’s ‘Freecycle’ in the future.

Dailey E. Brannin, an event organizer and a recycling supervisor at Harvard Recycling and Waste Services, said she would like to see monthly ‘Freecycle’ events.

“I think it’s great when other offices and schools start doing their own as well, because it’s not just on our group to do it,” Brannin said. “And those have definitely been growing the past couple years, without much effort on our part, just more people hearing about them.”

Attendee Carmen J. Reid said she wants to have similar events “more often and in more locations.”

“Since I’m at the Harvard Kennedy School and I spend most of my day in that building, it’d be great if we had something similar,” Reid added.

“I just want to see more of them,” attendee Megan LaFoschia said. “As long as people have access to it then more stuff will stay out of landfills.”

Goods that were left over after the event were donated to Harvard’s Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston, where a similar event is held every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The second ‘Freecycle’ event of the semester is scheduled for Dec. 3.

Because the donations included long-term lost and found items, for some attendees, the event was more than just a chance to exchange used items.

“We had one woman,” Achterberg said. “Found her own pair of glasses that she had lost in the library the previous year.”