Harvesting the suburbs
Posted by WonderWoman in : My life , trackback
Milling around trash at hard0rubbish time can be tricky; you never know where Oscar the Grouch might pop up.
For this reason, I do have one rule for my own hard-rubbish treasure hunts:
Never procure goods from your own street.
That way, if you do clash with a grouch, there’s the distance of at least a block between you and the muppet.
I find it best to harvest when fewer people are out and about - very early morning is good. Avoid weekends if poss.
I say: Reduce, REUSE, RECYCLE! … whoever gets there first.
And, seriously, it is not stealing. It’s borrowing. Long-term. Anything I have reaped will eventually become trash again … AT A LATER DATE.
For example, I have a toddlers’ castle with slide that had been sitting, ripe, on the footpath moments before the collectors were to arrive (I could hear their truck). Post-toddlerdom, my children will tire of it. And when they do, I’ll put it on the footpath at hard-rubbish time. See? By reusing and recycling this “trash”, I am but optimizing opportunities that the Universe provides.
Turn off Sesame St and turn on the Curious George movie (or soundtrack). Then tune in to the track Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Jack Johnson!
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Comments»
I loved your input and here’s a copy of my reply which I left for you on my page………………
newkid Jan 29th, 2007 at 11:41 am Edit
Oh Wonderwoman! ……………you put my thoughts so succintly! And I shall certainly pass along your handy hits. Better still, I’m going to adopt them myself!
I feel good about giving stuff away when I no longer need it - clothes my kids have outgrown or toys that are no longer useful. And I am not too proud to accept things that people would like to give away because they have no need for them anymore. So that’s why I simply could not understand this lady’s attitude!
Well, well, well…………the world is full of Oscar the Grouches…………can’t help that, but we can certainly do our best to avoid them springing out on us, huh?
Thank you for your comments.
In some suburbs it is illegal to take what is left out, the recyclers need to pick up enough to make it cost effective. I did see one woman with her kids going round picking out the aluminium cans only to sell for recycling, that is NOT ON!!!!