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Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

startupdaily.net

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Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#21

Post by femto »

dean_mcpherson wrote: post #13
femto wrote: post #5

Careful. Putting stuff on the kerb outside of official kerbside collections is considered illegal dumping in many Australian cities. It's hard to prosecute though, as the council generally needs to catch the offender in action ("not my stuff on the footpath guv"). Unless the law changes, it seems like a bad idea to dump something on the kerb, then post proof of your actions to a website. Councils will potentially vie…

Hey femto, I'm Dean McPherson (@dean_mcpherson), the dev making Curbit. Our current plan is exactly that, if the user is posting their own stuff, we ask them to place it in a legal, accessible location. This is accomplished by asking them for special pickup instructions (e.g. "On the porch", or "On top of the mailbox"). The other big use case though is reporting stuff that others have dumped. Using the app makes no s…

Thanks for the response Dean. One also needs to be careful if picking stuff up without the owner's permission, as it is technically theft. Granted that prosecution is unlikely.

Maybe councils would be prepared to pay for the "reporting stuff that others have dumped" aspect? If not, they might pay for a "report stuff that needs our attention" aspect: using Curbit's infrastructure to provide a stream of pictures of pot holes, broken signs, etc. with attached time/GPS coordinates?

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#22

Post by Outdoorsman »

femto wrote: post #21
dean_mcpherson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey femto, I'm Dean McPherson (@dean_mcpherson), the dev making Curbit. Our current plan is exactly that, if the user is posting their own stuff, we ask them to place it in a legal, accessible location. This is accomplished by asking them for special pickup instructions (e.g. "On the porch", or "On top of the mailbox"). The other big use case though is reporting stuff that others have dumped. Using the app makes no s…

Thanks for the response Dean. One also needs to be careful if picking stuff up without the owner's permission, as it is technically theft. Granted that prosecution is unlikely. Maybe councils would be prepared to pay for the "reporting stuff that others have dumped" aspect? If not, they might pay for a "report stuff that needs our attention" aspect: using Curbit's infrastructure to provide a stream of pictures of pot…

IIRC, in America items placed near bins, used for regular refuse pick up fit into the legal category of "abandoned" property, and are thus pretty much fair game...or are treated as such for all practical purposes...

Where I live that seems to be the case...no one cares...

That is, unless local (city) codes legislate differently...

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#23

Post by endual »

danieltillett wrote: post #10
femto wrote: post #5

Careful. Putting stuff on the kerb outside of official kerbside collections is considered illegal dumping in many Australian cities. It's hard to prosecute though, as the council generally needs to catch the offender in action ("not my stuff on the footpath guv"). Unless the law changes, it seems like a bad idea to dump something on the kerb, then post proof of your actions to a website. Councils will potentially vie…

Yes it is illegal, but if my council is anything to go by the chance of anyone using curbit’s data to prosecute anyone is close to zero. This basically happens organically anyway. There are teams of pickers who come around just before council pickups and take away anything of value (and lots of stuff of no value too). All that gets left to be collected by the council is the absolute rubbish (rotting mattresses, etc).…

Councils picking up and disposing of stuff is paid for by the council. Councils are your customer.

Collect stats on the number and type of items picked up per council. If you get any traction, tell the councils it will cost X$ to keep the service running in their area.

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#27

Post by specialist »

dean_mcpherson wrote: post #13
femto wrote: post #5

Careful. Putting stuff on the kerb outside of official kerbside collections is considered illegal dumping in many Australian cities. It's hard to prosecute though, as the council generally needs to catch the offender in action ("not my stuff on the footpath guv"). Unless the law changes, it seems like a bad idea to dump something on the kerb, then post proof of your actions to a website. Councils will potentially vie…

Hey femto, I'm Dean McPherson (@dean_mcpherson), the dev making Curbit. Our current plan is exactly that, if the user is posting their own stuff, we ask them to place it in a legal, accessible location. This is accomplished by asking them for special pickup instructions (e.g. "On the porch", or "On top of the mailbox"). The other big use case though is reporting stuff that others have dumped. Using the app makes no s…

I'd use something like Curbit if it matched my stuff with charities that want it.

I believe (on faith) that local charities make better use of my stuff. My "go to" charity is the local services for the blind, because an ex-gf works for eye surgeons.

Though it'd be more convenient, I'm loathe to give to Goodwill (greedy execs, bad labor relations), Salvation Army (homophobes, jesus freaks), Red Cross (misrepresenting how donations are used).

I'm cool with Habitat for Humanity.

[I live in the USA.]

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#28

Post by jsankey »

dean_mcpherson wrote: post #16
jsankey wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, Freecycle have been operating in Australia for a long time. There are several other competitors too, the article doesn't make clear what Curbit's advantage/angle is. I'm all for the general idea and wish them well regardless, the amount of cheap stuff we buy and waste is astonishing.

Hey jsankey, the advantage of Curbit is simplicity. All existing solutions require a fair amount of effort of the person wanting to get rid of something. Freecycle is solving the exact same issue, but I feel that the burden that comes from having to manage pickup / messaging / condition reports all from a very rough web UI deters a huge portion of the population. We shouldn't have to work to get rid of something for…

Thanks for the reply Dean. It seems there is room to make this easier, although it can be hard to find and convince the market of that when there is something "good enough" out there. Hope you have some luck.

An idea, to take or leave: a very active niche for this kind of thing is parents of young children. Very young kids (babies/toddlers) in particular churn through a lot of "stuff" by growing out of it before it wears out. Parents are very active on a range of Facebook groups trading this stuff (though not usually for free, just cheap). In fact the groups are so active that I know people using them daily, and the biggest issue with offloading stuff is posting are lost in the noise. If you're looking for a nice to focus on this is a strong one.

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#29

Post by boulos »

specialist wrote: post #27
dean_mcpherson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey femto, I'm Dean McPherson (@dean_mcpherson), the dev making Curbit. Our current plan is exactly that, if the user is posting their own stuff, we ask them to place it in a legal, accessible location. This is accomplished by asking them for special pickup instructions (e.g. "On the porch", or "On top of the mailbox"). The other big use case though is reporting stuff that others have dumped. Using the app makes no s…

I'd use something like Curbit if it matched my stuff with charities that want it. I believe (on faith) that local charities make better use of my stuff. My "go to" charity is the local services for the blind, because an ex-gf works for eye surgeons. Though it'd be more convenient, I'm loathe to give to Goodwill (greedy execs, bad labor relations), Salvation Army (homophobes, jesus freaks), Red Cross (misrepresenting…

We have something like this in San Francisco for furniture mostly: http://www.communitythriftsf.org

They pick up your stuff, you choose a charity, they sell the item to someone else and the proceeds go to the charity. As it turns out, most charities want cash not my old bookshelves but (the confusingly named) Community Thrift Store sorts it all out.

Re: Sydney startup Curbit lets users pick up someone’s unwanted goods from the kerb

#30

Post by danieltillett »

lololomg wrote: post #18
danieltillett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is illegal, but if my council is anything to go by the chance of anyone using curbit’s data to prosecute anyone is close to zero. This basically happens organically anyway. There are teams of pickers who come around just before council pickups and take away anything of value (and lots of stuff of no value too). All that gets left to be collected by the council is the absolute rubbish (rotting mattresses, etc).…

> There are teams of pickers who come around just before council pickups and take away anything of value That's illegal too, someone was recently prosecuted for this. Councils own anything put out for council cleanup. They make money selling and recycling this stuff. EDIT: My council (like many others) don't enforce this rule. They do come down hard on illegal dumping though.

Well not at my council - they just throw everything into the back of the garbage truck and crush it on the spot. Not too much value left after this :)
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