Note: This story part of a paid promotional partnership with Freeya.
Free piles, freecycling, recycling — they all go very well with bicycling. Not only do many people ride bikes because they want to have a lighter footprint on the earth and because they like how much money it saves them over driving; but when you’re on a bike it’s much easier to scope out free piles and pull over quickly to pick something up.
Add into this mix a boom in bikes that can easily carry extra cargo and you’ve got a free-cycling revolution.
All this is partly why I was happy to hear about a new app called Freeya that helps people donate and discover free items. You’ve seen their banners on our site already and this story is part of that same advertising partnership. The folks who created Freeya happen to be Portlanders who love to bike, but the app isn’t just for bike lovers.
Here’s how they describe it:
“Freeya helps people donate or discover free items through 1:1 connections that require no contact. Freeya is like an infinite free pile in the palm of your hands. A place you can say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. Our mission is to free up your time, space and wallet.”
Freeya is like an infinite free pile in the palm of your hands.
The idea behind Freeya is to make finding and getting rid of free stuff easier than it is today and keep stuff out of landfills. Co-founder Bryan Kappa also created ChipDrop, a service that connects arborists and gardeners to set up the free exchange of wood chip mulch.
To launch the app, Bryan and Andrea Kappa (his partner and co-founder) are partnering with local businesses to stock the app with free stuff, like bike lights from Metropolis Cycles. To redeem the free goods, app users simply claim the item in the Freeya app as they would with any other posted item. For example, on free bike light day, just find one of the lights in the app, claim it and scoop it up at Metropolis (2249 N Williams Ave). Freeya will share who their partners-of-the-day are on their Instagram. The items will also show up in the feed alongside everything else in the app.
The Freeya folks will also lead a Pedalpalooza ride on August 27th where folks will round up items with the app and donate them to a nonprofit.
And if you use the app in the month of September, you’ll be entered to win some big-ticket items, including a custom built (by Metropolis Cycles) Surly Ogre or a Rad Power Plus e-bike.
Visit Freeya.com to learn more and be among the first to download the app when it launches August 15th.
And thanks for supporting a business that supports BikePortland!