SwapItGreen, online bartering in the age of recycling

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SwapItGreen is an online yard sale where you can list your wares and get new stuff — no signs or weekend drives required. Once you’re signed up, you earn points for selling items, then trade those points for belongings from others in the network. By swapping instead of tossing, SwapItGreen believes it’s keeping waste out of landfills and encouraging recycling.

The company’s founder, Margaret Mix, worked in a shop where customers and employees brought in items to trade. Her website is an expansion of that idea. Asking prices (in points) are set by sellers, though negotiating is allowed. After browsing the site, I found it hard to tell the exact value of a trading point. Some items looked like they were priced on a point-per-dollar scale, but others seemed lower or higher. I spotted a set of four patterned glass goblets listed at eight trading points, a wooden pizza peel listed at 15 trading points, and an unused Williams-Sonoma grill set listed at 35 trading points.

Membership is free. To check it out, click here.

-- Lizzie Garrett