Spring Clean-up

This week is Spring clean-up in our community -you may have it as well, but in case you don't  it means that instead of our 2 garbage can restriction for curbside pickup, we can put all sorts of garbage at the end of our driveway and the lovely sanitation engineers take it all (well most of it) without complaint (well mostly). Couches, washers, stoves, beds, bicycles, TVs - it all gets dumped at the end of the driveway.

And following this tradition of putting out your garbage a week before the pick-up date, people drive around picking through your garbage, 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' don'tchaknow. As I walked through my neighbourhood with Eco this week, I saw mainly junk. I really don't think any pickers would score too much. I was surprised to see a guy driving his big pick-up truck around snipping off electrical cords from old vacuums and such, I really didn't think that the cost gained would exceed the cost spent driving your big ol' truck around - but what do I know?

I did see something endearing this morning though - a young girl around 7 or 8 years old was going through a garbage bag at the end of her driveway (front door wide open) at 6:30 am and retrieved two small stuffed animals from the bag, she looked cautiously over her shoulder and clutched them lovingly as she quickly returned inside. Before she went in, I smiled at her hoping to covey my understanding and compassion. My imagination ran wild with all sorts of scenarios related to that little scene.

I wonder how many other kids are traumatized seeing their favourite toy or bicycle at the end of the driveway? I know sometimes I've had regrets about things that had been put out there (that I thought could have been useful to someone and not be dumped in the landfill needlessly). How about you? Have you ever had a regret about something you threw in the garbage?