Beal agrees with that. Giving, he says, is the linchpin impulse of Freecycle, the Internet movement he created on May 1, 2003, by sending an e-mail to 30 friends and a handful of nonprofit groups, ...

"There are so many things that still have good use," Freecycle Patron Lesa Swartwood said. "Look, this stuff looks practically new, and if it's not it's still really useful. Sometimes people will tell ...