Freegle is a UK not-for-profit organisation that aims to increase reuse and reduce landfill by offering a free internet-based service where people can give away and ask for things that would otherwise be thrown away.
Freegle was formed on 11 September 2009 after many Freecycle groups in the UK decided to break away from the US parent organisation following disagreements on how groups in the UK should operate and the dismissal of long-term UK moderators, who had been speaking out.
Each local Freegle group is run by volunteers, is autonomous and affiliates to the national Freegle Ltd organisation provided they meet basic requirements such as being free to join and everything handed on must be free and legal.
In January 2021, there were 453 groups, supported by about 449 volunteers, with 3,267,715 members in the UK.
Freegle groups are hosted on Freegle Direct, Freegle’s own open source platform. A lot Freegle groups are also accessible via the Trash Nothing website.
