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Do you mind garbage scavengers?

#62
1) Don't leave mess.
2) Don't tear open plastic garbage bags. If you can untie them and tie them back go for it.
3) I advise everyone to have a personal shredder. ANYTHING that has your address and ANY personal information on it should be shredded.

Other than that go for it.
 
#65
Our annual city-wide "big item" pickup week was last week, and after this year's mess, the city is considering ending the program.

Prior to and during the event, Facebook and other local gossip outlets were overflowing with people complaining about the scrappers. I think all of those who objected to the practice made the same argument: "I don't mind people taking things, but scrappers come through and smash appliances, rip up couches, etc. and leave the debris strewn in a 30ft radius after nabbing $.30 worth of copper."

A drive down any neighborhood during the cleanup seemed to confirm this complaint.

I have no problems with dumpster diving, but I really dislike people that make a public mess. If you want to take something apart, take it home first.
 
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#68
When I am involved in conversations like this I try and keep in mind that there is no guarantee I will never be forced to be a garbage picker, or panhandler, or homeless. Sometimes things happen in life that are beyond our control. A lot of us including me sometimes believe that things like that will never happen to us.
These things can happen to us and that fact helps pause if I am getting too smug.
 
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#70
Pilgrim said:
Makes no difference to me - in fact, I think it's a good thing to extend the service life of stuff that people throw out.

But as noted earlier, clean up and don't leave a mess.
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That's my perspective as well. However, where I live there is an interesting twist. I have a very long commute that includes, in each direction, 35 miles of back road twisties (It's why I drive an FR-S). I started noticing, a few MONTHS ago, piles of garbage stacking up near the road next to driveways on this part of my commute. It was the "large garbage" thing. It made the whole commute look a bit like a third world nation. I can understand giving people a day or two, but turning the front quarter acre of your property into a garbage dump for a few months just seems kinda, i dunno, non-neighborly.

Same thing happens with lawn debris events. By the time the local company picked up all the branches, etc. there was grass growing a foot or more through a lot of it.
 
#73
ChrisB2 said:
If such a condition results in less landfill waste and useful items for those in need, isn't this a good thing? Otherwise, if everyone made $70,000/year, soon we would be surrounded by landfills everywhere.... no?
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Right. No.

I assume just because someone has a liveable wage (which is below the figure you've listed), it doesn't mean their values go out the window.
 
#74
bolophonic said:
Dude, your ability to moralize and judge is stunning sometimes. Just unparalleled.
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Opinions vary. :thumbsup:

But I don't understand your response within the context of the post you are responding to. I was talking about the law, not my opinion. I didn't say I was a fan of it. I say this all the time:

What is moral is not necessarily legal, and what is legal is not necessarily moral.
 
#75
My ex girlfriend owned a condo in an upscale building on 12th street and 6th Ave. in NYC. The freight elevator would open to the garbage units on each floor. Every now and then, when we remembered that the next day was garbage/recycle day - we'd do an elevator run :), and stop on every floor. I can't tell you how many people who are well to do, throw out perfectly good, even brand new still in the wrapper stuff. It was fun. Especially fun around holidays. Many people don't re-gift, they just throw out.
 
#76
Joe Nerve said:
My ex girlfriend owned a condo in an upscale building on 12th street and 6th Ave. in NYC. The freight elevator would open to the garbage units on each floor. Every now and then, when we remembered that the next day was garbage/recycle day - we'd do an elevator run :), and stop on every floor. I can't tell you how many people who are well to do, throw out perfectly good, even brand new still in the wrapper stuff. It was fun. Especially fun around holidays. Many people don't re-gift, they just throw out.
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Before our move to central KY, we lived in Seattle. We discovered Estatesales.net. Pretty much everything we bought, other than food, was purchased that way. It became a great weekend activity. We'd hit the internet Friday night to plan out our route around the Seattle area and then, on saturday morning, hit starbucks with our good friends before hitting the sales. And most of them had "half price Sunday", so we'd often hit those on sunday for the stuff we "sorta" wanted. We would also hit a lot of garage sales in between, depending on the neighborhood.

But here's why I posted this: In an affluent area, like where you live, and where I lived in Seattle, people don't want "used" stuff, so people would buy things, never or rarely use them, and then sell them a year or five later for a fraction of what they paid for them, and they were often things we not only wanted, but needed. However, in a depressed area like central KY (four of the five poorest counties in the US are in KY), used stuff is highly valuable. It means that garage sales and estate sales are VERY expensive.

They have a 400 mile garage sale on highway 68 every year. We were so excited to get into the whole thing again. But the prices people were charging, and getting, were absurd. Something that went for $30 new would sell for $3-$8 used in Seattle. Here it will go for $25-$35. And most of the stuff was junk anyway. We spent a little time at it the second year we were here. We have not bothered since.

BTW, a cultural tidbit: Estate sales are usually better than garage sales because the former includes the stuff people kept 'till they died while the latter is the stuff they don't want any more. It was actually fairly common for me to purchase a bunch of retro, high quality stereo equipment for $20-$100, keep the pieces I wanted and sell the rest for a few hundred dollars on CL. Yeah, CL.
 
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#77
Robroy said:
Opinions vary. :thumbsup:
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I'm curious about the implications of this runaway moral judgement: on my way to rehearsal last week, I came across a standard steel filing cabinet resting near the curb at a busy intersection that is often used as a dump site. I put it into the back of my truck to use as storage for power tools at home. Would you mind giving me a breakdown of the moral terpitude that I demonstrated in this case? As a "thief," I am confused as to who I "stole" this from. Was it the person who abandoned it? Was it the city, who owns the public easement on which it was abandoned?

Going further with this, if I throw half of a Big Mac in the trash and an indigent, starving person discovers and eats it, was it stolen from me, or from the landfill to which it would otherwise be consigned?
 
#78
bolophonic said:
I'm curious about the implications of this runaway moral judgement: on my way to rehearsal last week, I came across a standard steel filing cabinet resting near the curb at a busy intersection that is often used as a dump site. I put it into the back of my truck to use as storage for power tools at home. Would you mind giving me a breakdown of the moral terpitude that I demonstrated in this case? As a "thief," I am confused as to who I "stole" this from. Was it the person who abandoned it? Was it the city, who owns the public easement on which it was abandoned?

Going further with this, if I throw half of a Big Mac in the trash and an indigent, starving person discovers and eats it, was it stolen from me, or from the landfill to which it would otherwise be consigned?
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My point was that the LAW says you are a thief. I have no problem with what you did. I'd do it too if I needed it.

But as the country becomes more "civilized" (think Singapore) nothing like that will be allowed. I really can't say any more without violating site rules, other than to reiterate that I have no problem with people taking "garbage" as long as they don't trespass and don't leave a mess.
 
#79
two fingers said:
1) Don't leave mess.
2) Don't tear open plastic garbage bags. If you can untie them and tie them back go for it.
3) I advise everyone to have a personal shredder. ANYTHING that has your address and ANY personal information on it should be shredded.

Other than that go for it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what he said. And I have a shredder, too. It's FUN to use...:rolleyes: As for whether its legal or not; personally, I don't care. Far as I'm concerned, if I throw it out, it ain't mine anymore. If you want it; be my guest. "Legal" is between the garbage scavenger, the guys on the garbage truck, and the cops...:whistle:
 

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