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<div style="font-size:.88em;color:#777;margin-bottom:10px">[[Main Page|Freegle Volunteer Wiki]] &rsaquo; 📦 '''Handling Specific Items'''</div>
This section answers one question a moderator keeps needing to ask: can this item be offered or requested on Freegle, and what should I watch out for? Freegle's baseline rule is that everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages - that's the hard line, and it's what rules out a handful of items completely, like asbestos, tasers and prescription medicines. Above that legal floor, a lot of these calls are local judgement rather than law: a group is free to add its own restrictions - on animals, alcohol, weapons or anything else its volunteers or members are uneasy about - even where the item itself would be perfectly legal to give away. The pages below go into the detail, reasoning, links and sample wording behind each ruling.

== Weapons & dangerous items ==
* '''[[Archery equipment]]''' - bows and arrows are unrestricted; crossbows can only go to someone over 18.
* '''[[Fireworks]]''' - not allowed - giving them away outside a licence falls foul of firework supply law.
* '''[[Guns and replicas]]''' - licensed firearms can only pass between licence holders; realistic replicas are illegal outright; most groups adopt a blanket "no firearms" rule, air rifles included.
* '''[[Knives and Swords]]''' - kitchen and craft knives are allowed with care (over-18s only, handed over in person, wrapped); samurai swords are legally restricted and shouldn't be offered.
* '''[[Tasers and stun guns]]''' - not allowed - illegal to own in the UK outside narrow exceptions such as the police.

== Medicines, drugs & controlled substances ==
* '''[[Alcohol and tobacco]]''' - local discretion; home-brewing kit is fine, distilling equipment isn't (needs an HMRC licence); vaping products are left to each group to decide.
* '''[[Contact Lenses]]''' - illegal to offer unless you're a qualified optician; lens solution is best treated as not allowed either, as it's classed as a medical product.
* '''[[Medicines and supplements]]''' - not allowed for human use in any category; most veterinary medicines are banned too (only over-the-counter AVM-GSL is fine); medical gases and oxygen are never allowed; supplements are a group judgement call.
* '''[[Worry words]]''' - explains the automatic ModTools flag that holds posts mentioning explosive precursors, drugs or medicines for a moderator to review.

== Hazardous materials, chemicals & waste disposal ==
* '''[[Asbestos]]''' - not allowed - illegal to supply in any form, and a genuine health risk.
* '''[[Batteries]]''' - allowed - no legal issue, just a reminder about safe handling and disposal, especially for car and lithium batteries.
* '''[[Creosote]]''' - not allowed - illegal to sell or use domestically since 2003.
* '''[[Fire Extinguishers]]''' - allowed, except Halon models, which are illegal to own; suggest getting older ones checked.
* '''[[Garden chemicals: pesticides, insecticides, weedkiller]]''' - check against the RHS's list of withdrawn active ingredients; anything banned or out of date should be disposed of safely, not offered.
* '''[[Light Bulbs]]''' - halogen and fluorescent bulbs already in circulation can still be given away even though new sales are banned; dead bulbs are hazardous waste, not for Freegle.
* '''[[Scrap Metal]]''' - allowed; any waste-carrier registration requirement falls on the person collecting it as a business, not on Freegle or the group.
* '''[[Slug Pellets]]''' - not allowed - metaldehyde pellets are banned from sale and use because of the harm they do to wildlife.
* '''[[Thermometers]]''' - generally fine; older mercury ones count as hazardous waste if they're being disposed of rather than reused.
* '''[[Wood]]''' - allowed with care; never let CCA-treated or methyl-bromide-stamped pallets be burned, and blue CHEP pallets should go back to CHEP, not Freegle.

== Fuel & oil ==
* '''[[Cooking Oil]]''' - allowed, including for use as biofuel; record-keeping and duty obligations fall on the person using it, not on Freegle.
* '''[[Oil]]''' - allowed; point members to the storage and duty-of-care rules if waste oil is being collected.
* '''[[Red Diesel]]''' - allowed - no licence needed to offer or request it.

== Electrical & gas appliances ==
* '''[[Fridges and Freezers]]''' - fine if working; not allowed for scrap, since CFC/HCFC removal is legally required before disposal.
* '''[[Gas cylinders or bottles]]''' - often not yours to give away: many LPG cylinders remain the supplier's legal property and must go back to them, and as pressure vessels they need periodic testing.
* '''[[Gas cookers]]''' - allowed; worth a note that only a Gas Safe registered engineer can legally install or remove one.
* '''[[Scanners]]''' - allowed - legal to own and give away radio scanners.
* '''[[Sky and Virgin boxes]]''' - older, owned Sky boxes and dishes are fine; Sky Q boxes and viewing cards remain Sky's property and aren't allowed; Virgin's loaned cable boxes aren't allowed, but bought freeview boxes and routers past their contract are.
* '''[[Storage Heaters]]''' - allowed; some pre-1972 models contain asbestos, which is safe unless the unit is dismantled - see Asbestos.
* '''[[Tumble dryers]]''' - allowed; flag the known Whirlpool/Hotpoint/Indesit fire-risk models and link to the model checker.

== Safety-critical & everyday items ==
* '''[[Bread Baskets]]''' - Basco-branded bread baskets are illegal to offer, as they remain company property; other makes are fine.
* '''[[Disability Aids]]''' - allowed and encouraged - just check they're in good working order.
* '''[[Food]]''' - a group decision; consider whether it's sealed, and mind the difference between a use-by date (a hard limit) and a best-before date (advisory only).
* '''[[Fur]]''' - no legal reason to reject it; groups can apply their own judgement, especially if an endangered species is suspected.
* '''[[Hearing aids, Glasses]]''' - allowed - no legal barrier, though both are fitted to the original owner's prescription.
* '''[[Safety of items offered]]''' - background guidance on furniture fire labels, cot mattresses, helmets, car seats (need R44.04 or R129 labelling) and tyres; nothing here is illegal to offer, but flag the risks.
* '''[[Sex toys]]''' - not illegal, but most groups choose not to allow them, for family-friendliness and hygiene reasons.
* '''[[Tickets and vouchers]]''' - a group decision; rail/train tickets are illegal to pass on, but unused Oyster cards are fine.
* '''[[Timeshare]]''' - not banned outright, but strongly discouraged - these "free" offers are usually a marketing technique with the real cost buried in ongoing fees.

== Animals & living things ==
* '''[[Animal Rehoming Links]]''' - not a ruling page - a directory of rescue and rehoming organisations to signpost members to.
* '''[[Local Pet Policy]]''' - a template policy a group can adopt if it chooses to allow pet posts.
* '''[[No animal policy]]''' - a template policy a group can adopt if it chooses to ban all animal posts.
* '''[[Pet Mods]]''' - explains the "Pet Mod" role: a volunteer who screens every live-animal post before it's approved.
* '''[[Pets and animals]]''' - whether to allow live animals at all is each group's own decision (ChitChat allows none); see the linked pros, cons and sample policies.
* '''[[Pond life]]''' - frogspawn and tadpoles are a common seasonal offer; some groups disallow all pond life over invasive-species risk.
* '''[[Tortoises]]''' - generally fine - the common Horsfield's tortoise needs no licence; only worry if a rarer, licensed species is suspected.

== Plants & natural finds ==
* '''[[Beach sand, stones, driftwood, seashells etc]]''' - sand and stones are illegal to remove from a beach; seaglass, shells, driftwood and fossils are fine.
* '''[[Plants]]''' - allowed, but never offer or propagate a banned invasive species (Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed and others - see the full list).

== Media, copyright & authenticity ==
* '''[[Books]]''' - always fine; also worth pointing members to BookMooch, BookCrossing and charity-shop schemes to keep books circulating.
* '''[[Copyright Issues]]''' - software, music, DVDs and similar must be original, unused copies with no other copy retained - not pirated or upgraded versions.
* '''[[Counterfeit, Fake or Imitation items]]''' - allowed to offer as what they are, since owning or giving away an imitation isn't itself illegal; fake banknotes are the exception - illegal, and should go to the police.

== Cross-cutting guidance & reference ==
* '''[[Recycling Organisations]]''' - not a ruling page - a directory of charities and recyclers to suggest when an item isn't suitable for Freegle.
* '''[[Specific items]]''' - the previous master index this page replaces; kept as a cross-reference for a few items without their own page, such as talcum powder, condoms, cots and Oyster cards.
* '''[[Waste Definition]]''' - background legal reference: passing something on for reuse doesn't make it "waste", so no waste-carrier licence is needed for ordinary Freegling.

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<div style="color:#777;font-size:.9em">Prefer to browse? Every page here is also listed A-Z in the [[:Category:Handling Specific Items|Handling Specific Items index]]. Back to the [[Main Page|home page]].</div>

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RevampBot: Wiki revamp: restructure & modernise