The Freecycle Network (often abbreviated TFN) is a non-profit corporation in Arizona that aims to divert useable goods from landfills and strengthen local reuse and recycling communities. It provides an online registry of worldwide groups, and co-ordinates the creation of forums for individuals and non-profits to offer and receive free items for reuse or recycling.

The organisation was a project of RISE Inc., another nonprofit corporation, who then turned it over to Deron Beal to promote waste reduction in Tucson, Arizona, and reduce the need for landfill sites in Arizona's fragile desert landscape. It has since grown, reaching into 50 countries and involving over a million members in over 3,000 groups worldwide. On April 2004, it incorporated under Arizona law. The board of directors is limited to 15 members, although it currently has three: founder Deron Beal (chairperson and treasurer), his wife Jennifer Columbus (vice chairperson) and friend Jolie Sibert (secretary).

Each local group exists as Yahoo! Groups lists run by volunteer moderators with local owners. TFN welcomes new groups, subject to approval by regional New Group Approvers (NGAs). Groups approved by TFN are listed at the official website, can use the name and logo, and are subject to rules enforced by a structure of global and regional Group Outreach Assistants and NGAs. TFN plan to move in early 2006 from Yahoo! Groups to a centralised site, listing "offers" and "wanteds" across the world.

Controversies

* Corporate Sponsorship - In February 2005, Deron Beal accepted TFN's first corporate support, in the form of a $130,000 sponsorship from the largest garbage company in the U.S., Waste Management, Inc. While some applauded the move, others shouted "hypocrisy" and left Freecycle. Indications that a future global freecycle web site will take paid ads, directly contrary to the initial stated principles, adds fuel to those concerns.

* Use of Funds. Some mistrust how sponsorship funds have been allocated. The initial goals were to use this for a new website, Beal's salary and lawyers' fees. A year later, the global web site is yet to appear, although $45K has been paid to Beal in salary, and an unstated sum on legal expenses. Further, the nepotistic board structure prevents The Freecycle Network from full registration as a non-profit and efficient use of donations.

* Trademark. Beal has been criticized for vigourously defending Freecycle as a trademark, rather than choosing to protect it from corporate abuse by establishing it as a generic term. Ironically, Beal himself initially used freecycle as a generic term, and early documents were full of references to 'freecyclers' and 'freecycling', terms which now trigger letters from the Freecycle trademark police.

* Centralization. Local Yahoo! Groups run by local owners have been the foundation of Freecycle, and made it the global success story it has been. Many list owners are unaware of the plan to centralize all activity on a single global site, after which it is highly likely remaining Yahoo groups using the Freecycle name will be considered "rogue" and subject to closure. In response to a core HUB group was formed.

* Expelled groups. Freecycle began removing many groups not receiving its official approval, sending cease-and-desist emails and requesting closure by Yahoo!. This has occurred, despite the declared primary goal of keeping things out of landfill, to groups with as many as 5,000 active members, for example Baton Rouge , Louisiana . At times, mass deletions of up to 500 groups at one time have occurred. Starting in North America , these purges extended later in 2005 to Europe where a group TFN alleged to be 'rogue' was closed down in Leicestershire , England with 300 active members.

* Expelled dissenters. The Freecycle Network have summarily dismissed members who disagreed with or queried its practices and direction, deleting all record of their messages from Freecycle forums. Censorship extends to removing any hint of dissent from non Freecycle pages, including the Wikipedia.