Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this post, let me present you with a list. It’s a list of stuff I’ve dug out of our Waste Management waste dumpster in the last 10 days or so:
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1 1/8″x15 1/8″x48″ pressed pine wood panel (according to Lowe’s, this retails for about $17)
5 or 6 aprons, at least 3 chef’s/frontal aprons and a few waiter’s aprons (just one chef’s apron is roughly $16 at Bed, Bath, & Beyond)
1 bread pallet from a restaurant (#3 or #4 HDPE, wholly recyclable)
1 24″ women’s 15 speed mountain bike with cantilever brakes (a little rusty in spots but works fine)
1 empty and depressurized (presumably) propane tank (shouldn’t have been there in the first place)
1 3′x4′ wood frame (about $20 worth of pine)
1 pair of men’s slacks, 32×32, looks to be barely worn (probably $30)
a whole mess of clothing (mixed womens and young mens clothing but I didn’t pull this out, it was covered with all sorts of trash at the moment)
1 black bookcase made of particle board (easily $50, obscenely more at IKEA)
20-30 birthday cards for “Shane” or “Shaun” from a recent party
Without counting the price of the bike when new, people threw away at least $200 worth of stuff that anyone can use, right now at this very moment or could easily be recycled (which I did do my best to sort, something I pretty much do daily for these lazy folks). We kept the aprons and I’ve saved all the wood. With this wood alone, I’ve probably saved myself close to $50 in costs for some shelves I keep talking about building. Why would anyone throw away perfectly good usable wood is beyond me. Granted, I do need another jigsaw blade to cut the large frame’s wood but it’s about 80% usable and the wood panel is wholly usable. I got free shelves. And now we have a whole bevy of aprons, which I’ve been searching for — cheaply — for about a month now. Now I’ve got at least 3 for free. At $16 each, I saved $48 minus taxes. The bike’s going to someone on Freecycle this week — today if I’m not mistaken.
What the hell, people?!
I’ve been dumpster diving for years now but it was always for discarded electronics and such but now, I look for just about anything. This is something that’s pissed me off for years about America: rampant disposable consumerism. I don’t understand why everyone must simply throw away everything at some point. Did their parents never take them to thrift stores or Goodwill in order to rummage through used stuff? Or teach them that just about anything can get repurposed for something else? Or that when they (the parents) were growing up they had to reuse everything and use as much as possible of everything they consumed, simply because they had no other choice? Why is now any different from then, we don’t really have much more resources at our disposal to just throw away and no real reason to throw away most consumables. I’m fairly certain most of these people drive used cars, something someone else discarded intelligently for whatever reason. Why must this be different for anything else we consume? I believe this weekend we are drafting signs for clothes collection in our complex, I know it’ll get mixed reception. Some people will be thrilled at the fact that they don’t have to do any “dirty” work to get rid of their clothes and that they’re be helping others or some crap. Others just won’t care no matter what the sign says. Whatever the reception, we know it’s better than just throwing them away entirely.
And of course, this goes on everyday all around the world and everyone wonders why pollution is such an issue. For all the hemming and hawing 1st world/developed countries make about recycling and reducing emissions and so forth, we all do a pretty pathetic job at actually doing it. This isn’t indicative of every country mind you, many in Europe have a firm grip on these issues and execute them in much better ways than say, England or America are doing or have done in the recent past. There are even lesser developed countries whose populations are far exceeding our capacities to reuse and recycle, just look at the electronics recycling boom in China or all the cool gadgets/toys villagers make in Africa. Comparatively, the West is far more developed and we’re lagging behind those two countries — I stress comparatively for a reason.
We personally started recycling and reusing much more simply because I was tired of throwing away my money all the time. Now, I don’t have much more money to spare in comparison to before but I surely do have a lot more stuff to no longer feel guilty about if it goes in the trash (or recycling bin). This has also landed us two free, brand new bikes, a nice little spice box, a shelf for my hookah and shelves for all of my shisha/accessories and a buttload of other stuff.
With gas, food, and other consumables prices rising, what will it take for “developed” nations to stop throwing money away (figuratively) and start giving a damn? Will it take us literally throwing away money, just as a demonstration? Unfortunately, I think it will.
Tags: environmentalism · rant · recycling1 Comment
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To add to this list, we also found a vacuum cleaner (probably worth $75 used), a bookcase ($30) and a decent set of 72″ horizontal blinds (sell for $100, but they’re worn, so worth about $50). That’s another $155 worth of stuff in 2 days, not to mention the perfectly good aluminum futon frame I’d love to freecycle, but simply haven’t gotten the chance to go get yet.
I’ve placed the first 3 items on freecycle.org and the bookcase and vacuum are already claimed.
Someone else will always want your “junk” (One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!), so please, check out freecycle.org . It’s a great site where you can repurpose things, perfectly good things, that were going to end up in a landfill otherwise.