I’ve posted about Trashswag before. But it continues to knock my socks off as an excellent yet simple solution to usable waste.

Trashswag, a Toronto-based website, has garnered attention for the way it gathers crowdsourced information to alert residents to discarded items left on city sidewalks. But it isn’t attracting droves of dumpster divers or students scavenging for freebie bookshelves. Instead, it’s Toronto’s artistic community that seems to be embracing the site’s green, philanthropic vision.

Using an open-source mapping platform called Ushahidi, he developed an app that allows people to share and map pictures of wood, bricks, and architectural salvage like doors and windows on Twitter, using the hashtag #Trashswag. Users can also now contribute photos on Instagram. Unlike similar online services—like Craigslist’s “free” section, or Freecycle—Trashswag doesn’t rely on people to advertise their own items. Instead, it enlists anyone with a smartphone and an eye for useful junk.

 

Read the rest of the article via Trashswag Helps Toronto’s Junk Gain New Life Through Art | culture | Torontoist.