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A Note on Cafe Cymru History Cafe Cymru is a discussion forum which started life early in 2006. It was originally named Freecycle-CafeCymru and provided a discussion forum for the Freecycle free recycling groups which were forming all across Wales. Cafe Cymru ran smoothly for nearly seven months until September 2006, when things started going terribly wrong within Freecycle in Wales. “Freecycle” is a trademark named owned by an American business called the Freecycle Network, and therefore in late September 2006, the name of Cafe Cymru was changed to avoid any association with this trademark. For the same reason Rhondda Cynon Taff Freecycle changed its name to avoid being controlled by the American business, the Freecycle Network. People seem to be getting wise to the true...

The Freecycle Network is an American business that runs freecycling groups across Wales, including Cardiff Freecycle currently Wales’ largest freecycling group. Rhondda Cynon Taff Ecycle is NOT a part of the (American) Freecycle Network (or TFN). We are an independent local group, owned, run, and managed by local people. Perhaps it is time we wrote a brief ‘history’ for our group now that we are nearly two years old. Many freecyclers are unaware of the controversies surrounding the American Freecycle Network. Below is a brief summary taken from Wikipedia. Feel free to add to the article at Wikipedia. Freecycle Network Controversies * Corporate Sponsorship - In February 2005, Deron Beal accepted TFN’s first corporate support of $130,000 from Waste Management,...