Freegle Cumbria County Council Partnership

This briefing note is a historical record of the partnership between Cumbria County Council's Waste Prevention Team and Freegle in Cumbria. It was prepared by CCC Waste Prevention Manager Nick Wright (Nick.Wright@cumbria.gov.uk) in September 2015, who was happy to be contacted about the collaboration at that time.

• Cumbria County Council and Freegle had been working together for about 18 months, in a relationship that went from strength to strength.
• Freegle is a fantastic concept: it encourages local people to support one another and reduce the waste burden by redistributing unwanted items between themselves. It's essentially an initiative set up to promote reuse.
• Cumbria County Council has a statutory duty to manage the county's waste, and is committed to reducing, reusing and recycling as much of that waste as possible - in that order. Working with Freegle was a great way of helping with this.
• Freegle is an online reuse portal where people can give away unwanted but still useful household items, completely free. You can freegle furniture, electrical items, soft furnishings, decorations, clothes, toys - almost anything. You list your item on the website, where everybody who is registered can see it and claim it. You can even use it to ask for things you're looking for.
• As well as being great for the environment, Freegle 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 - an incredibly valuable service.
• At the time, Cumbria had 5 vibrant Freegle networks and over 15,000 Freeglers. Between them they saved almost 9 tonnes a month from waste treatment and possible landfill - a great accomplishment, thanks in no small part to the partnership between Cumbria County Council and the local Freegle networks.
• Together, Freegle became an important part of Cumbria's waste minimisation programme, promoted across the council's various teams and services to help spread the Freegle message and encourage as many Cumbrians as possible to sign up and start Freegling.
• Cumbria County Council and Freegle jointly held several Give and Take days across the county, where people could bring along unwanted items, browse what others had brought, and take away whatever they wanted, completely free of charge.
• One such event, where people could take unwanted items and pick up a household freebie, was held at The Old Courthouse, Shap, on Saturday 3 October 2015, from 10am to 2pm.
• At the time, people could freegle via their smartphone thanks to the first ever app, developed and trialled in Cumbria. The app made using Freegle even easier, letting people see a picture of the item and a map of where it should be collected.
• Cumbria County Council and Freegle had a joint ambition of getting one in ten Cumbrians Freegling within 2 years, and encouraged everyone to sign up. You can find your nearest group and register at www.ilovefreegle.org or via the app.
• The partnership was shortlisted for the Best Partnership Award at the 2015 Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Awards. LARAC is the national industry body comprising local authority recycling officers, representing their voice. The awards recognise achievement and best practice in the waste industry.

Once you're in contact with your council, here are some Council Help ideas to suggest.

Update - February 2017

A blog post at www.penrithedenfreegle.org.uk describes the Freegle partnership with Cumbria County Council.

In 2016-2017, Freegle received funding from the Cumbria County Council Community Waste Prevention Fund for a year of publicity (more details).

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