Shopping is nearly free at online 'sharing' marketplace

Now there's a nearly free online marketplace to fix all the shopping days gone wrong and clear out the gifts that are yet to be regifted.
The website and Apple app for "sharing" lightly used goods is called yerdle (yes, lowercase). Sign up for an account, and you can have what others no longer want for a $2 to $4 flat-rate shipping fee.
The founders – a former Wal-mart exec and a former Sierra Club president – think this is a way we all can save money and cut waste. Why buy something new when you can dust off a similar version?
The butterfly tea set shown here, for example, was available on yerdle for 65 credits and $3 shipping. I got 250 points just for opening the account. The cheerful mortar and pestle, below, was available for 50 credits and $3 shipping.

Changing our ideas about shopping would be good for the planet and our consumerism problem, yerdle's handlers say.
Does this arrangement really get us a pass?
We've all got donation centers just a detour away. I just dropped off a trunkload of books at one. Eventually I'll probably stop to unload a box of tag sale dishes that my mom couldn't pass on years ago.
OK, the founders might be kind of right about the unchecked shopping. Mom convinced herself that I'd squeak at the sight of the circa-1950 pink floral imprints on those four-piece place settings.
And maybe somebody on yerdle would still want to set the table as Grammy did. If so, I could earn more points to use for shopping – uh, “sharing” – on yerdle.
But I keep wondering how far that box would have to travel to reach a “green” home?

Sullivan: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com and @sullivan_obs on Twitter