A very simple, yet appealing idea came to me this week, compliments of Very Short List, a favorite website for surfacing strange and wonderful ephemera on the web: Swaptree.
Swaptree works on a very simple premise: we all have books, DVDs, music CDs and video games we no longer want. There are other people who want them, and they have books, DVDs, music CDs and video games that we want. 
Swaptree creates an exchange where people can connect and trade their cast-offs in these categories. Users need only pay shipping costs, which Swaptree will calculate and show. In fact, users can print the required postage directly from Swaptree, turning a tedious computer --> post office trip into a slightly less tedious computer --> mailbox trip.
Of course, since it's a "web 2.0" community, you can find and maintain a network of friends within Swaptree. Find me (username: mikegil) if you've got any good stuff to trade -- I'll be working on my "items i want" and "items i need" lists.
Simple, useful, leveraging the web and the wisdom of crowds, and eco-friendly. Happy Earth Day.
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