Give. Take. Keep it moving!
You have too much of it. Someone is looking for it. Circule is the local exchange for materials still in use in Soignies: what is in your way is what a neighbour needs. Giving, salvage, reuse and sharing between residents, free, with no payment.
7 streams
- free building materials in Soignies : Reusable materials
- free grass clippings in Soignies : Healthy plant matter
- free firewood in Soignies : Fuel and timber
- garden surplus in Soignies : Harvest and plants
- free moving boxes in Soignies : Crates, jars, boxes
- free furniture in Soignies : Furniture, books, toys
- free tools in Soignies : Tools, hardware, safety gear
The rest of this stream
- Bricks, blocks, breeze blocks in Soignies
- Floor tiles, wall tiles, skirting in Soignies
- Slabs, paving, kerbs in Soignies
- Natural stone in Soignies
- Roof tiles and slates in Soignies
- Rigid insulation boards in Soignies
- Clean rubble and hardcore in Soignies
- Bags of cement, lime, render in Soignies
- Fresh grass clippings in Soignies
- Branches and prunings in Soignies
- Fallen leaves in Soignies
- Straw and hay in Soignies
- Wood chip, ramial chipped wood in Soignies
- Firewood logs in Soignies
- Rounds and unsplit logs in Soignies
- Kindling in Soignies
- Boards and solid wood offcuts in Soignies
- Pallets and crating in Soignies
- Garden and orchard surplus in Soignies
- Windfall picking (orchard) in Soignies
- Nuts in Soignies
- Seedlings, cuttings, herbs in Soignies
- Local seed in Soignies
- Packing boxes in Soignies
- Crates and slatted boxes in Soignies
- Glass jars and bottles in Soignies
- Plastic crates and bins in Soignies
- Plant pots and trays in Soignies
- Buckets and drums in Soignies
- Tables, chairs, shelves, wardrobes in Soignies
- Garden furniture in Soignies
- Fittings and fixtures in Soignies
- Books, comics, textbooks in Soignies
- Toys, games and puzzles in Soignies
- Baby gear: cot, high chair, pushchair, playpen in Soignies
- Hand and garden tools in Soignies
- Mirrors and intact glazing in Soignies
- Hand tools: hammer, screwdrivers, spanners, pliers in Soignies
- Garden tools: spade, rake, secateurs in Soignies
- Power tools: drill, sander, saw in Soignies
- Garden machines: mower, strimmer, shredder in Soignies
- Measuring and marking: tape, level, square in Soignies
- Hardware: screws, nails, plugs, hinges in Soignies
- Ladders, stepladders, trestles in Soignies
- Safety gear: gloves, goggles, masks, helmet in Soignies
- Painting gear: rollers, brushes, dust sheets in Soignies
How it works
- You post a material in ten seconds.
- Neighbours following that stream are told.
- A neighbour comes and loads it at your place. You confirm, and it is done.
Frequently asked questions
- I do not want to give out my address.
- It is never public. The map shows a 200 m circle. The exact address appears inside the app, to the one person who has reserved, for as long as the reservation lasts. It never goes out by email.
- I will have anyone turning up at my door.
- You set the time slot. Until you accept, nobody knows where you live.
- Facebook already does this.
- Local groups work well, and we post our listings there too. They mix everything into one feed, a bag of clippings, a lost cat, a car boot sale, and your post surfaces when the algorithm decides. Here a neighbour says once that they are after grass clippings within three kilometres, and they get told. Every listing carries the quantity, the load size, the distance and an end date: it clears itself when the material is gone. Something that comes back every week is declared once and reactivated in one click.
- This is going to be complicated.
- Posting takes 30 seconds. No password to remember, a link sent by email is enough.
- What if the person never shows up?
- You flag it in one click. The item goes back online automatically.
- Is Circule recycling?
- Not quite, and that is better. Recycling means grinding a material down to make another one, which costs transport and energy. Here the material keeps its shape and changes hands: this is reuse, salvage, direct giving between neighbours. A brick stays a brick, a book stays a book. Upcycling comes afterwards, at the house that collected it: a pallet becomes a shelf, a jar becomes a preserve.
- Can I lend my tools rather than give them away?
- No, and the reason deserves to be said plainly rather than hidden behind a rule. In Belgium, household liability insurance almost always excludes damage to goods entrusted to you. If you lend your sander and it breaks at the neighbour's, neither your insurer nor theirs pays: you lose the tool, and you carry the risk, not them. Circule will not organise that without saying so. A tool you no longer need can be given; a tool you want back stays at home.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing, for you. Circule is a pilot carried by its author, and no payment goes through the platform. No paid sign-up, no commission, no subscription.
- Can I sell instead of giving?
- No. Circule handles no payment. Everything that passes through it is free.
Where Circule works
Circule covers 12 km around Soignies: Casteau, Saint-Denis, Thieusies, Obourg, Maisières, Masnuy-Saint-Pierre, Nimy, Masnuy-Saint-Jean, Havré, Le Rœulx, Neufvilles, Mons, Jurbise, Ghlin, Naast, Erbisœul, Villers-Saint-Ghislain, Soignies, Lens, Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues. Anyone inside that radius can post and reserve; browsing is open to all.
For councils: waste prevention and local reuse · About Circule