One fine, sunny spring day in an apartment complex in suburban northern New Jersey, someone made the decision that all of this fit the definition of trash.
A Grundig radio, plus two speakers. My boyfriend loves this!
A brand new, never opened bottle of liquid dish detergent. My sweetheart took all of these.
A cheerful welcome post. It will greet people once again.
Lawn chairs. These were folded up in the corner behind the dumpster. I rescued them.
A perfect condition pink suitcase and a piece of exercise equipment. I salvaged the suitcase, which I plan to donate to a local thrift shop.
Pillows. You'd pay a fortune for these at a store like Pier One or other retailer. I'll donate these. These were on a couch, also destined for the landfill.
I posed this before, but will wonder aloud again: just because a minor repair is needed, does that make it trash?
Why can't we support more jobs in the repurposing market versus the retail market? Many things I find can be reupholstered, steam-cleaned, refinished, repainted, just plain repaired. There are craftsman who can do these things.
This just had a slight tear. This will provide comfortable seating for a Jersey shore goer this summer: me.
A computer chair. It had a slight tear, but otherwise was fine. But, massive sigh, I only came to reclaim this later in the day, and three of the wheels were missing. We took it, and hope to repair it.
TVs don't belong in the dumpster! According to Earth911.com:
"Electronic circuit boards, batteries and color cathode ray tubes (CRTs) can contain hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium. If improperly handled or disposed, these toxins can be released into the environment through landfill leachate or incinerator ash." Find out where to recycle your set.
It works!
We gave this tv to my sweetheart's friend, who is a hard-working man who holds down two jobs. He was just about to buy a television set.
In addition to the obvious environmental ramifications, this is simply throwing money out the window. It may be money they spent, but it's money someone else will also have to now spend to buy new things that they simply don't have to.
Someone was clearing out a garage, and instead of calling a charity like Goodwill, advertising on freecycle or even posting a notice in the laundry room for free items, the owners of this "stuff" took the easy way out.
When rescuing these items, we drew a few strange looks from my neighbors passing by, but I don't care. I think of the line in Mr. Wendal, an Arrested Development song about a homeless man, "Uncivilized we call him, but I just saw him eat off the food we waste." Food isn't the only thing we waste.
The above items "worthless," "useless," "rubbish"? Not in my book.
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