from Hacker News

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

by dean_mcpherson on 2/16/16, 2:27 AM with 40 comments

  • by femto on 2/16/16, 3:12 AM

    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 view Curbit as an evidence collection service, rather than a recycling service.

    Can anyone from Curbit confirm whether this will be an issue? It might be as simple as telling people to put the items in their front yard, rather than on the footpath.

  • by jonesb6 on 2/16/16, 6:59 AM

    This is a very, very, very, common problem in American college towns where students frequently have to move on short notice. It is very common for the local homeless and impoverished to idle outside dorms, apartment complexes, or rental units, and immediately dig through anything left out on the curb or in the garbage. They're often able to scrounge items still in their original packaging, you know that stuff mom sent you that you never needed, and will sell them at the local pawn shop etc. for pennies on the dollar.

    Having recently necessitated the service, it is very expensive to store or move even medium sized items in this situation, as local and national movers/storage companies are well aware of the situation and will fleece customers with outrageous fees and even vulturous customer service (oh you didn't pick up our call? +$20 reschedule fee..).

    If 1) they can make themselves accessible to a large number of college students and 2) they provide a smoother user experience then craigslist and co (possibly by partnering with University housing associations cough cough) I can see this being incredibly successful.

  • by drallison on 2/16/16, 3:11 AM

  • by Sarki on 2/16/16, 9:06 AM

    Nice project, for the record this is existing since 2006 and covers France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. https://donnons.org/ ("Donnons" means "giving" in french)

    Perhaps you'll have more impact worldwide with this, it's never a bad idea to let ones enjoy what is a now a burden for others.

  • by megablast on 2/16/16, 3:57 AM

    Surely this is just an app, not a startup?

  • by Outdoorsman on 2/16/16, 2:56 AM

    Nice to see someone organizing the re-purposing of perfectly re-usable items...

    Not sure what's in play in Australia, but in the U.S. there are more than a few individuals (entrepreneurs) who drive around looking for "curbed" articles...

    These are gathered and added to second-hand shop inventories, for resale...

    If that's true in Australia it's something you might want to be aware of...you might consider a way of ensuring that those interested in an article get a fair shot at it...just a customer satisfaction thing...

    Good luck!

  • by bakadana on 2/16/16, 5:16 AM

    https://www.tushare.com/ tried the game for some time, couldn't make it profitable.

  • by mrmondo on 2/16/16, 4:06 AM

    In Melbourne people seem to leave stuff out on the curb all the time and people just come and grab what they want, after its been there a week or so the council comes round and picks it up (I assume).

  • by dean_mcpherson on 2/16/16, 7:36 AM

    If you want to keep up with future developments, there is a waitlist at http://curbitapp.com.

  • by ancaster on 2/16/16, 5:39 AM

    There's also https://trashnothing.com, which is friendly UI over freecycle/etc..

  • by samstave on 2/16/16, 5:31 AM

    It is interesting how basically all that Craigslist has had to offer in the last 16 years has moved to "CL microservices" as it were...

  • by Xorlev on 2/16/16, 3:27 AM

    I appreciate the name. Curb+it, Cur_bit_.

  • by fucking_tragedy on 2/16/16, 3:11 AM

    Does Craigslist have a section for Australia?

  • by simula67 on 2/16/16, 7:05 AM

    How is Olx for this purpose ?