They belong to the town branch of the international Freecycle Network which matches people with items they want to get rid of to people who can use them.

People can also request things they may be struggling to buy or find in the shops.

So far 3,138 people from towns and villages in the Kettering borough have signed up to the Kettering Freecycle group, which was set up in July 2005 for people to trade their unwanted goods.

Jane Calcott, of Ledbury Road, Barton Seagrave, uses Kettering Freecycle group.

She said: "My daughter has used it quite a few times and got some things to set up her first home. I go to Rockingham Road Baptist Church in Kettering and when we replaced our chairs we gave the old ones away on Freecycle.

"It's helping people out and I think it's excellent. I'm not surprised people are using it, especially in the current financial situation."

Items Freecycle members want to get rid of are posted on the site free of charge. The Kettering group's organiser and a group of volunteers said its growing membership was as a result of the generosity of people living in Kettering and their willingness to do something positive to protect their environment.

There are also Freecycle groups in Wellingborough and Corby.

The Freecycle Network was started in America in 2003 to promote recycling and to stop unwanted goods ending up in landfill. The network is now made up of 4,531 groups with 5,388,000 members across the world.


Do you have a Freecycle success story to tell? Email readers' champion Nick Tite at nick.tite@northantsnews.co.uk.