By Melissa Breyer, Care2 Senior Editor

Seems to me that if manufacturers just stopped making stuff, we'd have plenty of old supplies to keep us clothed, housed, and entertained for quite a while. Instead, those with the money to do so toss things in the dump and replace them with essentially the same things, albeit "new and improved."

At this rate, it won't be long before the land starts birthing new geologic formations stretching out beyond the landfills; mountains of electronics, clothing, housewares. In my humble opinion, we'd all be wise to start some serious freecycling--giving away, and getting, already-used stuff for free.

Increasingly people are beginning to list free things in the classified sections. Craig's List also has a "free" section, listed under the "For Sale" column that you can search by location. But the most comprehensive place to get and give free items is through the The Freecycle Network.

The Freecycle Network is a non-profit, grassroots organization made up of 4,552 groups with 5,506,000 members across the globe. Their mission is to "build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources, eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

The system is pretty simple. You join a local Freecycle Yahoo group which is moderated by a volunteer. People post what they want to give away, you grab it. By not supporting the production of new stuff we reduce the use of resources, and save landfill space. A win-win, for sure, and a free one at that.