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Post by rollingbender on Apr 24, 2023 21:00:02 GMT -5
Each year, my town, and most towns in this part of the country conduct a city-wide spring cleanup. With a few exceptions (appliances, electronics, mattresses, tires) it is the opportunity for the citizens to divest themselves of the things that no longer bring them joy. The city public works department then comes around, picks up all the junk and removes it from our lives.
This is a bit of a holiday. People go around town, looking upon other’s junk piles with disgust until they spot that one thing which proves true the old adage, “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”.
I will confess that “junking” is one of my guilty pleasures. My wife and I have found all sorts of treasures. There is not one room in our house that does not contain something we have picked up on the curb. We both inspect the piles with a critical eye and ask ourselves, “could I sell that on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist”? For quite a few years now, my wife has partially or even completely financed a family summer vacation from flipping junk from the curb. I also have done well picking things up, cleaning and maybe a few minor repairs, and then selling the junk to someone who can use it. This seems to me to be recycling at the highest level.
Does your community do this? Do you participate in the reduction of waste going to the landfill? What is the coolest thing you have found?
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Post by woodini on Apr 25, 2023 0:14:07 GMT -5
No & No, but I like the concept.
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Post by rollingbender on Apr 25, 2023 12:17:28 GMT -5
Must be a Midwest thing. You don’t know what you are missing. Pickup of junk is 2 weeks out and the curb piles are starting to appear. Last night I picked up a pair of like-new Harley Davidson mufflers. Trying to figure out if I can cut them down for scooter use. 😎
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Post by aeroxbud on Apr 25, 2023 14:49:25 GMT -5
We don't do anything like this in the U.K. People just tend to fly tip in this city. I guess a lot don't have transport to take it to a recycling centre.
Used to really annoy me when I used to live. Middle of nowhere, and someone dumps at fridge at the side of the road. If they can transport it there. They can take it to a tip.
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Post by rollingbender on Apr 25, 2023 15:35:56 GMT -5
Yes, having these cleanup days do seem to keep things from ending up in ditches of deserted country roads. The city will take appliances for a fee. Nobody pays the fee though and just put that stuff on the curb anyway. Within a couple hours some scrap metal scrounger picks it up for dismantling.
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Post by woodini on Apr 25, 2023 17:03:53 GMT -5
We should certainly have organized beach cleanups but I never hear about them. Tourists just trash it.
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Post by 90GTVert on Apr 26, 2023 4:29:21 GMT -5
I've never heard of anything like it, but it seems like a good idea. I live in the middle of nowhere so there's no pickup of any sort from a town/city. I have to drive about 25 miles to get rid of anything other than standard household trash and then pay by weight after driving on trash piles. Either that or rent a dumpster, which is not cheap. One of my friends lives in a nearby town and they will pick up anything for free. All he has to do is drag it out in the front yard and schedule a pickup. I'm kinda jealous of that.
He's not impressed, but does like the service. Last time he put out a cabinet with dishes in it. You have to submit exactly what it is when scheduling, so he wrote that it was a cabinet full of unsecured dishes. He said 3 guys showed up in 2 trucks with a small crane. They assessed the situation. Lifted the cabinet with the crane in a manner that would let the cabinet open. Dropped most of the dishes out onto the road while loading the cabinet. Assessed that situation for a bit. Decided the now broken dishes in the road were not their problem. Left. He called the town, who first said he was supposed to tell them if there were items that could fall out. He told them to check their paperwork. They came back out and cleaned up the dishes. I think he said it was something like 45min to 1hr of time with 3 city employees at his house to pick up a cabinet. Nice program for residents, but it can't be cost effective if it goes like that often.
The closest thing we have a lot locally is putting stuff out front with "FREE" signs on it. I've disposed of old furniture and other large items that way multiple times. Smaller stuff doesn't work so well; possibly because I live on a 50MPH road so it's tough to see much passing by.
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Post by aeroxbud on Apr 26, 2023 4:59:54 GMT -5
We should certainly have organized beach cleanups but I never hear about them. Tourists just trash it. A couple of times a year we have volunteers pick up litter from the beach here. It's not a tourist attraction type beach. But you wouldn't believe how much rubbish washes in. |
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Post by geoffh on Apr 26, 2023 14:53:23 GMT -5
Like aeroxbud says ,no organised collections here but I am lucky and have a local centre 3 miles away,any large household items ,metal etc can be placed at the front of the house and the scrap men normally get it within a day.
Geoff
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Post by woodini on Apr 26, 2023 15:55:15 GMT -5
We should certainly have organized beach cleanups but I never hear about them. Tourists just trash it. A couple of times a year we have volunteers pick up litter from the beach here. It's not a tourist attraction type beach. But you wouldn't believe how much rubbish washes in. I totally believe it! I’ve been to desolate beaches throughout Central America, no towns for miles….. and the beach? There’s enough washed up sandals and crocs to shoe an entire village! Ridiculous |
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Post by milly on May 10, 2023 9:04:58 GMT -5
We have to pay for large items like fridges chairs, settees etc unless we take them to the local LAS recycling centre. If you spot anything you fancy there they won't sell it to you due to health and bloody safety. But you can take wood for free.
Year's ago I use to travel from Wales and back to Southern Ireland with to with stuff for his shop recycled from dumps in Hampshire and surrounding counties where a lot gave it for a small sum, free or even donation for whatever charity the guy's were collecting for. It slowly changed over time to only a few places about that will sell stuff.
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Post by rollingbender on May 13, 2023 18:06:17 GMT -5
The cleanup I’m my town ended a couple weeks ago. Today we went to my wife’s parents in order to make our Mother’s Day visit. Their town is in the middle of their cleanup. Here’s a sample of what the junk piles can look like.  Wife found a couple things to flip and saved some money picking up some free landscaping bricks she would have had to buy otherwise. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t do without. |
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