Yahoo! gets in on the Freecycle frenzy
In the interest of practicing what we preach, earlier today Yahoo! had a Free is Good Fair in honor of Earth Day.
Hopefully you saw the post last week encouraging users to participate in Freecycle and Reuse groups that enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors. Yahoo! gave employees a chance to do the same earlier today.
Staffers brought in personal items, as well as various Yahoo! gear to pass along to others. Perhaps I didn’t really need another Yahoo! coffee mug, but I wanted to do my part to help!
Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! + Earth Day = Freecycle it!
No matter which side of the Global Warming discussion you fall, I think one thing that just about everyone can agree on is that getting something you want, for free, is way cool. Especially if it is something that you want (and were about to spend money to get), or it’s something you want to get rid of (and can’t sell or might even have to pay to get taken away). Sounds to me like a win-win. Throw in a little something I like to call ‘good for the environment’ … and what we have, ladies and gents, is the trifecta!
So, in celebration of Earth Day this year, Yahoo! is focusing on one of the most important themes of environmentalism: Reuse. Yesterday we began spotlighting a “Free is Good” microsite (green.yahoo.com/earth-day) that features Freecycle and other Reuse groups. These organizations use the Yahoo! Groups platform to enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors.
To give all of you even more incentive (and potentially even more stuff to Freecycle) from April 20 – May 4th we will “hide” special prizes in randomly selected Freecycle and other reuse groups. These prizes are specifically eco-friendly in nature (e.g. a Smart car, organic food delivery, eco-resort trip, concert tickets to Sheryl Crow, other locally relevant cool prizes and a fan favorite – toilet paper (as long as you don’t try to recycle it, too). We are also featuring real stories from real people who have found “treasures” on Freecycle.
There’s no time like the present. Fire up that Yahoo! Mail and start cranking out messages to people in your local Reuse Group. After all, Yahoo! Mail messages represent more than half of all Yahoo! Groups email (and you wondered what this had to do with Yahoo! Mail), so there’s a pretty good chance that if something is Freecycled through these Groups … Yahoo! Mail was in on the fun. 
Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail