Friday, January 27, 2012

Why I couldn't be Garbage Man

Before I start blogging I just want to state that I know that the term Garbage Man is not politically correct. It should technically be Sanitation Worker or Sanitation Engineer so that it includes both men and women but for the sake of the story, Garbage Man is what I'm using. Also, in this story the people involved were men and they were picking up garbage. Thanks for your understanding. 


This morning as I played with the kids we saw the garbage truck going by! Carebear got excited and started yelling, "Truck, truck, look Momma, truck!" (she loves trucks, trains, planes, cars and anything like that).
We watched and oow'd and awe'd as they Garbage Men collected our Green Bin and garbage. As they drove off down the street we continued to watch since Carebear and B-Man were both quite interested.
I watched as they stopped at a near by neighbours and both men had to get out of the truck. The neighbours had obviously either just moved or were going to be moving and had a TON of stuff on their curb outside their house.
Both men spent over 10 minutes continuously loading more and more stuff into the truck. My heart broke as I saw perfectly good furniture being loaded into the back of the garbage truck and then crushed.
It made me so angry and if Mr. Rooster had been home I honestly would have run down the street to save this beautiful green chair that they were about to toss!

It must be so disheartening to be a Garbage Man and seeing all the perfectly good stuff you have to toss in the back of the truck to get crunched and then dumped at the landfill. I know I could never be a Garbage Man, I would be fired so fast because I would leave all the good stuff on the curb, in hopes that someone would come by and pick it up or the owner of it would get a clue and donate it!

I have a confession. I am a garbage picker, well maybe the more politically correct way of saying that is, I am a garbage rescuer! When I first met Mr. Rooster I was so embarrassed if he ever came home with something he found on the side of the curb, but he always found the most amazing things though, all in awesome shape!
In fact our house is filled with our late night garbage treasure finds or things that were free! Some of my most prized pieces of furniture in the house are things we found in the garbage.
Old gramophone stand that we've made into our bar.
Beautiful dresser

Solid wood, heavy as heck table! 
Solid wood cabinet! Weighs a ton!


This soon became second nature to me as well and I found myself always quickly glancing at the sides of the road on garbage night for "the good stuff". We have rescued stuff for family and friends (they'd see what we had found and ask for it). We have also sold quite a bit too and donated a lot! :)
On a day when I have no time to stop or the van is full and I have no room my heart aches when I drive past something that was in such good condition but that someone just didn't want any more. Sometimes I'll even drive by later in hopes that it's still there!
What is sad is that this doesn't have to be this way. I know many times I've put something on the curb before garbage night with a big FREE sign and within an hour it would be gone! Someone would drive by and pick it up!! Free is always a good price!
And there are companies that will come and pick up your lightly used furniture (some for a small fee and some for free).
Here are just a few that I've found, depending on your location:

Heck if you live near me I'LL even come and pick it up for free! I hate seeing perfectly good things that could be reused going to the garbage heap! 

In this world where everything is disposable I like to do my share and save what I can from the garbage heap!
I hope the next time you think about throwing out something that might still have some use, you'll consider donating it before tossing it!!!



1 comment:

cdnkaro said...

I'm the same way- we've gotten lots of stuff by the side of the road. The one thing I really miss about living in the city is that, since in Forest Heights the garbage day was Monday, there was this unwritten rule that people put out stuff that was still good and they hoped people would pick up, on the Saturday.