Let Sleeping Garbage Dragons Lie
I have wondered, on more than one occasion, why it is that my local landfill doesn’t allow browsers. (Makes it sound like a library, instead of a trash dump…oh well.) Is this because they pick through it themselves? Do they have the room to store stuff indefinitely? I don’t know.
I must be fair to them, because I am certain they have a good reason for their stinginess. I just don’t know what their reasons are. I have heard that they use the scrap metal to recycle and make a profit. I also know that they use the bio-material (not human, of course–at least I hope not) to make mulch and soil. They must have a profit there as well. But what could they possibly want with the odd screen door or computer shell I might want once or twice a year? (Alright, I admit, it could be that I would wander around their property once a week for a couple of hours…)
In my estimation, it isn’t likely that they are making like a trash dragon and guarding their garbage so they can sleep on it–it is more likely that other trash pickers (a term that should not have negative connotations, if you ask me) have ruined it for me. Perhaps they abused the privilege by taking something that the landfill purchased to use, or by vandalizing something (yes, this is possible, even at a place filled with trash).
So, if your local landfill actually permits browsers, don’t mess it up, will you?
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5 opinions for Let Sleeping Garbage Dragons Lie
Cyndi L
Jul 5, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Ours used to, but had to stop allowing it. The threat of litigation was getting too high…people who had been hurt while browsing on town land and all that. {sigh}
However, we set up a swap shop so that folks could at least drop off stuff that might be worth taking or recycling. In their opinion.
Joshua
Jul 6, 2007 at 1:04 am
I hadn’t thought about the litigation possibilities. How did you swap shop work?
Cyndi L
Jul 6, 2007 at 9:30 am
Well, it started out great! But then a few “professional” yard-salers began monopolizing it. They’d harass you for details about things you dropped off, ask you to load the stuff directly onto their trucks, etc. Unfortunately, I’ve heard from some folks in surrounding towns that the same thing tends to happen there too. We call ours the “Reuse Shed”, and it seemed like such a great idea at the time…
Fortunately for me, I work part time at our public library, and everyone in town knows about my mixed media art jones. So they bring their junk directly to me ;)
Beachbum
Jul 7, 2007 at 1:42 am
The best place I ever lived for what we called ‘curb shopping’ was Palm Beach County, Florida. There was no need to find the local landfill, garbage pickup was 2x a week, all you had to do was drive thru the areas where the garbage was due to be picked up that day. People I knew furnished their homes with mainly curb shopped items, and there was a guy who supplied his flea market booth with his finds. One of my best finds was a working computer with only slightly out-of-date software. One day I found a set of redwood lawn furniture, and within a week or two, found cushions in decent shape to go on it. I gave a set of 40’s or 50’s era wrought iron lawn furniture to my neighbor that came off the curb because we couldn’t fit it on the moving van. Here in Tennessee where I live now, people take their garbage to the dumpsters, placing still good used items alongside them. I don’t think we’re supposed to pick through the dumpsters, but we’re welcome to the stuff set next to them.
Joshua
Jul 7, 2007 at 9:36 am
Ah, curbside shopping! I lived in Ontario, Canada for a couple of years, and they had curbside shopping.
The only problem with that one was that my roomate and I accidentally nabbed a futon that the neighbors’ daughter had left outside–they still wanted it. Oooops?!
Still, that seems a good way to get some pretty nice stuff before someone throws it on the ground at the landfill.
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