2 Washington Heights Residents Create A Local Giving Platform

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Washington Heights resident Madeline Richer wanted to start living a more sustainable lifestyle.

Part of her strategy to do so revolved around fashion choices.

Richer set out to reduce her reliance on fast fashion, which refers to a cycle fashion retailers use to promote trends and the pressure it puts on consumers to make frequent purchases to stay up to date.

She thought thrift shopping and clothing swaps would be a good way to do this but quickly realized that those things became much more difficult during a pandemic. However, that lack of opportunity led her to create a Facebook platform for Inwood and Washington Heights residents that lets them give and receive all sorts of items for free.

"Clothing swaps became a lot more challenging once the pandemic hit, and I was frustrated by the amount of packaging I was producing by ordering stuff online," Richer told Patch. "I posted on Facebook to gather interest in some sort of contact-free clothing swap system, and a few friends of mine commented telling me to look up the Buy Nothing Project."

The Buy Nothing Project is a global social movement that lets local groups form Facebook pages to create "gift economies" in which people can exchange and ask for products for free.

"The Buy Nothing Project is about setting the scarcity model of our cash economy aside in favor of creatively and collaboratively sharing the abundance around us," an "About Us" section reads on the organization's website.

The communities' rules are simple: Post anything you'd like to give away, lend or share with neighbors. Or ask for anything you'd like to receive for free or borrow.

When Richer heard about the concept, she immediately reached out to her friend and fellow Washington Heights resident, Eitana Friedman-Nathan. She agreed to co-administer the group along with Richer, and the two recent college graduates created the Buy Nothing Upper Washington Heights/Inwood Facebook group.

The group currently has 447 members and has daily activity among people exchanging items. You have to be a resident of Inwood or Washington Heights to join.

The Upper Manhattan community has taken quickly to the group.

"People seem to really like it," Richer told Patch. "A lot of people were already familiar with the Buy Nothing Project, which made it really easy because it basically started running itself."

Furniture, clothing, children's toys and kitchen appliances are among some of the most popular items exchanged within the Facebook group.

It's also not always the most conventional items that are given away on the group.

Richer recently offered to give away spider plant babies, and they were all claimed in less than 30 minutes.

More information is available on the Buy Nothing Upper Washington Heights/Inwood Facebook page.