Credit: Jacob Chinn

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Have you ever tried to get rid of a second-hand mattress? It can be just about impossible, as Deron Beal discovered five years ago when he and his new wife rationalised their merged possessions.

"My wife and I were moving in together and we had this extra bed," says Beal, from Tucson, Arizona. "Good Will [an American charity store] wouldn't take beds, none of my friends needed a bed so it was headed for the dump."

He was convinced there must be a better way to keep a perfectly good mattress out of landfill, so Beal set up an email group for 'free recycling', and thus began the Freecycle story.

Cyber-kerbside, cashless eBay or gifting … whatever you call it, the Freecycle movement is a spectacular success, with more than 3.5 million members in over 75 countries, supported by an army of 10,000 volunteers. Each day, The Freecycle Network saves more than 300 tonnes of stuff from landfill.

"When I set it up I had no idea at the time it would be so big," says Beal. "I set it up as a tree-hugger, thinking environmentally minded people would use it to give items away rather than throw it away but it's grown to have a much wider reach than that."

Whether you are trying to shift your old mattress, a refrigerator, left-over hair dye or bubble wrap, odds are someone in your area will be willing to take it off your hands and put it to good use.

Freecycle matches up giver to receiver via online groups such as Yahoo, transforming someone's trash into someone else's treasure. Best of all, there's no money involved and no strings attached.

Freecycle is used by all manner of people. Non-profit groups use it to collect items for the needy, while empty-nesters and downsizers use it to get rid of extraneous clutter and renovators use it to dispose of or collect building materials.

Almost everything, however unusual, finds a home, according to Janelle Grimshaw, founder and moderator of the 960-strong Blue Mountains Freecycle Network.

"Somebody found a home for Sebastian the pet goat," Grimshaw says. "From kids' sandpits to old carpet - there's anything you can think of."

As a volunteer moderator, Grimshaw's task is to check the 10 or so emails a day from Blue Mountains Freecycle members offering or requesting items, and filter out spam or inappropriate posts. The Freecycle Network relies on a network of volunteers like Grimshaw to keep it running smoothly.

There are around 10,000 volunteers acting as local moderators and 500 volunteers in leadership positions, says Beal. The only official staff of the Freecycle Network - a non-profit charity organisation - is Beal, who works full-time from home.

"It is definitely a labour of love but I do get paid wages and when you think about those 10,000 volunteers, on average they put in 20 hours a week."

But volunteering brings its own reward - the chance to be part of a thriving online community. "People who might have some sort of disability, are home-schooling their kids, live out in the middle of nowhere - people who otherwise may not be able to participate actively in their community are able to make a real, positive difference," Beal says.

Freecycle has also spread to some unlikely places, such as the Palestinian Occupied Territories. "That was an interesting one," says Beal. "We weren't even sure what the name of the country was."

While The Freecycle Network currently operates in English only, it's about to enable volunteers in non-English-speaking countries to translate the template into their own language.

Despite being such an altruistic endeavour, Freecycle has faced its share of problems and detractors. A recent sponsorship from North America's largest waste hauling and recycling company drew criticism, and there is ongoing debate about whether eBay traders should be allowed to collect material from Freecycle to sell.

It has been a wild five years for Beal. "If I'm honest, I'm unable to get my brain around it, it's too big," he says. "What I try to do is just kind of ride out that wave that I'm on right now and make sure that it goes OK."

But it has also been an incredibly positive and affirming experience. "That's the message I take with me," says Beal. "The fact that Freecycle functions means that we as bipeds are basically good and giving."

So if you're scratching your head trying to work out what do with that mattress/goat/car tyre … don't dump it, Freecycle it!