Does this sound familiar? From the kitchen door, I can see a spire of crazy paving, varied timber, several old windows and a ladder that's too heavy for me. All stuff that my partner wants to take to the tip, but that I can't bear to get rid of. It might come in useful, I protest, if not to me, then to someone else.

It was this sort of scenario that prompted Deron Beal to found the Freecycle Network. Begun in 2003, in Tucson, Arizona, to prevent more landfill sites springing up in the desert, the Network now has more than three thousand groups around the world in over fifty countries.

Existing wholly on the internet, each group has a message board on which to advertise items that you would otherwise throw away. Anyone who wants the item responds direct to the advertiser by e-mail and then collects it for free.

Deron is a man with a mission. "When we look at the Freecycle movement, we are talking about a worldwide gift economy," he says. "Changing the way people think about what they buy, when they buy it, and what they do with it when they no longer need it."

For the rest of us, it means that not only might someone come and collect that leaking hose to use as part of his irrigation system, but that someone else out there has the paving slabs that we've put off buying.

Membership is free and the rules are simple. Anything can be offered, so long as it is legal and appropriate to all ages (no alcohol, drugs etc.). And your first posting should be an offer, but after that you can ask for something you want. Charities and schools are also encouraged to ask for items they might be collecting to raise money.

Britain already has over 200 groups, all run by volunteers. For Hedley Phillips, who runs the Mole Valley website in Surrey, it fits right in with his philosophy. "Recycling is a way of life for me and my family," he said. "When I saw an article about the Network on the BBC website early last year, I decided to set up a local group."

The profile of items on the sites depends on where you are in the UK. The Mole Valley-part Surrey suburbs, part rural-offers a predictable amount of Ikea furniture and computer peripherals. But this spring someone posted a request for the loan of a broody hen and, last year, a farmer off-loaded 250 plastic barrels around the community. Most went to a local gamekeeper for grain storage. A couple ended up in Hedley's garden, to grow potatoes.

Hedley's wife, Melanie, hopes that Freecycle will foster neighbourliness. "Passing things on to neighbours-recycling-is part of a good community. We've met a lot of interesting people since starting the group and, if the idea is encouraged on the internet, perhaps it will spread around the community generally."

And while some query why people don't try to sell the better items, they're missing the advantages of having them collected and the liberating honesty that giving stuff away engenders. If only all car adverts were like this one on my Freecycle message board: "It needs a new windscreen, one of the wheel arches is suspect, the clutch is possibly not long for this world and the thermostat needs replacing." Nevertheless, the Astra had gone within days.

Freecycle is popular with local councils too, who are desperate to hit government waste-reduction targets. Last year, research funded by the State of Iowa concluded that, around the world, Freecycle members are saving 221 tons of waste from landfill every day. And it's set to save more. Membership is rising steadily. As groups grow, the intention is that they will split into smaller ones, making each more local, with less distance to travel to collect and a greater sense of community. London Freecycle, the largest by far of the UK groups, is set to divide, and not a moment too soon. Its twenty-four thousand members currently generate a huge number of postings.

More information on joining or starting a group can be found at www.Freecycle.org, which lists all the UK message boards.