
While many of us loudly celebrated Preservation Sunday on 19 February, over 5,000 residents of Hastings & St Leonards quietly marked the seventh anniversary of their remarkable group, Hastings Freecycle. Using simple email messages they recycle stuff among their members, for free, saving many truckloads of waste or trips to the tip. These unsung heroes and heroines of recycling redistribute anything from egg-cups to wardrobes and with over 10,000 transactions per year they are keeping significant volumes of material going to landfill or the processing companies. To find out more about the group Richard Hull spoke to seven of its members and its two hard-working and unpaid administrators Sara Lee and Gayle Valentine.