Our city schedules a bulk waste collection week each fall to help us get rid of all our autumn yard waste and junk from our houses. We just pile it all up out at the curb and they come along with a truck and a loader and haul it away. It’s kinda handy, although it does seem to catch us off guard every year, in spite of the fact we have at least a month notice.
What’s interesting to watch, however, is the scavengers who patrol the neighborhood in the preceding days looking for stuff worth swiping. It’s supposedly against the law, but that obviously doesn’t stop anyone. We had to laugh at ourselves, because at first we got a little upset that people were coming along to steal the stuff we were putting out, even though they’re not supposed to.
But then we remembered: this is stuff we didn’t want any more. Like the Li’l Tykes wagon we put out this year. It was left behind by the previous owners for the obvious reason that the front wheel didn’t work very well. We used it some, but really, it was junk. So we put it out this year, along with the toilet I replaced last Saturday. And really, if we don’t want it any more, why should we care who ends up with it? If anything, it’s probably a good thing it’s not just going into the landfill.
So it became a bit of a game to us: what would go first? Oddly enough, no one wanted our toilet. Perhaps if I’d left the seat on it. Still, I think it could have made a nice planter. But the wagon disappeared the night after we put it out. I guess you just never know. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I hope they get some good out of it.