Friday, August 24, 2012

One man's garbage...

Today is garbage day in my neighbourhood and during my walk with Eco it's kinda fun to see what types of things are in people's recycling (in this community, we combine all our recyclables in transparent blue bags to be sorted elsewhere) - the types of pop people drink, or brand of coffee, or the number of fast food containers, etc. But there's another thing that often ends up at the end of the driveway -usually several days before garbage day - and that's other unwanted items that I assume people put out there in hopes that someone else will come along and take it. Now in cities this isn't a new concept - there are plenty of stories around the internet about terrific scores people have found in their alleys -  in downtown New York or LA or other high density living areas  -  and how they take these unwanted tables, chairs, dressers etc and clean them up and repaint them and voila - a beautiful decorating item for the cost of a can of paint!!!

But it never used to occur in the suburb, or does it? Is this common in your neighbourhood too? Do you often see  boxes of items at the end of people's driveways - or living room chairs, or cat scratching posts or coffee makers etc? Or is it just some embarrassing situation that happens in my neighbourhood only?

2 comments:

Sultan said...

When I used to live in a suburb of New York City it wasn't unusual for people to put nice things out to the curb but because it was an affluent community you could call the town and they would come the next day and have it picked up by the trash people. You had to give them a bribe envelope with cash as well. In big cites the thing just stays in the alley until it is scavenged or eventually picked up by the City.

Way Out Wear said...

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing that! Do you have to pay for EVERYTHING in New York?