When HMS began running freecycle events, the organizers weren’t sure what to expect. It didn’t take long, however, before the idea caught on, lightly used goods started changing hands and the program was on its way to becoming an institution. Now it has its own room offering 24-hour access during the work week.
“It’s as if we hit some sort of bubble point in the past five years,” said Gilmore Tamny, a former HMS staffer who was instrumental in getting the freecycle efforts started at HMS. “Suddenly everyone is realizing how ridiculous it is, how much stuff we have.”
Like all freecycling, the HMS program is simple. The new “freecycle shop” provides a space for dropping off small surplus items—usually from offices, but also select items from labs and elsewhere—that others can then browse at their leisure (there is a long list of acceptable and unacceptable items posted inside the room). Traditionally, items have been available at freecycling events in the fall and spring, but this new room addresses the HMS community’s desire for a permanent location to store and exchange goods in between these events. As the name implies, everything is free, which, of course, encourages participation.
“We started small,” said Manager of Campus Operations Vinnie Mazzone. “We told people about the program and found a small space, and people started making donations.”
Now, with several events and a history of successful exchanges, the program has evolved to include a permanent room on the first floor of the TMEC building, room 150.
“It took a long time and a lot of people advocating for it,” said Office for Sustainability Program Manager Claire Berezowitz, who cites the chronic lack of space at HMS as a barrier they needed to overcome.
Berezowitz envisions the new room as an opportunity for recapturing Harvard resources like file folders, desk lamps and unopened toner cartridges, keeping them out of landfills and even recycling bins and putting them into the hands of people who might otherwise waste resources by buying these items new.
Due to a lack of resources and space, Berezowitz and Mazzone say they will have to limit access to their freecycle room to HMS and HSDM affiliates only.
“We hope people all over the University will be excited when they see what we are doing,” Berezowitz said, “and then freecycle rooms will become commonplace, just as freecycle events have throughout the Harvard community.”
