A couple of generations ago, the best recycling sites were at the community dump.

If you were throwing out an old piece of furniture that had only minor flaws, a kid's bicycle, a radio that still worked, or a marginal but working lawnmower, you might set it aside near the dump entrance for someone else to pick up.

Today, scavenging for treasures at the landfill is illegal, but a new free recycling system has erupted, and it involves less legwork.

Freecyle is a worldwide collection of community Web sites where people list things they want to get rid of — free. If you see something you want, you send an e-mail and arrange the pickup details. You can also list things you're looking for.

It's kind of like the bulletin board on the wall at rural stores, or eBay, with no cash changing hands.

There are four Freecycle sites in the Islands, one in each county. FreecycleHonolulu had 1,212 members at this writing. FreecyclingBigIsland had 493. KauaiFreecycle had 97, and MauiHIFreecycle had 71.

It works through e-mail. If you are a member, you get e-mail notification anytime someone puts something up for freecycling. Somebody in the community volunteers to oversee the network, and membership in it is free. Everything listed needs to be legal, free and appropriate for all age groups.

Madhu Lundquist, who started FreecycleHonolulu nearly two years ago, said his motivation was simple: "It was an opportunity to benefit the community and help the environment. Hawai'i has a big problem with trash, and this could help remove some larger items from the waste stream."

For details on how it all works, visit www.freecycle .org. The site says there are now 1.5 million people worldwide signed up to more than 3,000 freecycle "communities." You can click from there to U.S. Pacific, and get a list that includes the Hawai'i Web sites. The sites are all maintained within Yahoo's groups system.

"Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources and eases the burden on our landfills, while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community," say the founders, who established Freecycling in Tucson, Ariz., in 2003, in part to reduce the proliferation of landfills — attempting to divert material from the waste stream in the same way that container recycling, green-waste composting and other systems do.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or call him at (808) 245-3074.