Maybe it’s just the definition of “garbage” that’s the problem.
I’m grossed out by the whole thing too - because anything that goes in my garbage is just that - garbage. There is absolutely nothing in that bag that could be used by anyone else.
Diapers, cat litter and nasty food. That’s it.
(okay, I could potentially compost, yes)
Everything else gets recycled if possible, and anything “donatable” get donated to the Sally Ann.
So if someone was going through my garbage, I WOULD feel really grossed out.
Thanks for defending me, wook. I’m kind of done with this thread. Apparently I’m in the wrong for feeling like my privacy has been invaded by a bunch of drunk losers.
I’m also in the wrong for feeling that it’s disgusting to root through other people’s refuse “looking for something good”. If I need something, I’ll go buy a new one.
It’s not a matter of what I put in my trash, it’s the matter of my immediate neighbors pawing through it that bugs me. I do my fair share of donating and “free, take me” items in the front yard. What goes in my trash is just that – things that I deem are no longer of use to me or anyone else – along with personal items that my neighbors don’t need to know about.
Not all of the cat food dumps out of the cans every morning. Am I being wasteful in tossing the couple of tasty morsels out any more than tossing out a 1/2 missing BBQ set my ex gave me – that I never wanted or used – that I’m sick of looking at? It’s 1/2 missing. I wouldn’t feel comfortable donating that in the first place, any more so than the neighbors opening up my trash can to get it.
And yes, they’re opening up the bags.
And why the fuck should I have to inconvenience myself by taking my Netflix to another mailing location? My mailbox should be secure.
This thread is done. I’d stick a BBQ fork in it, but my neighbors have it now.
Then yes, that is totally gross. Thanks for explaining.
And no, it’s still not gross to scavenge used furniture, appliances, or other reusable items from other people’s trash, if you can get at them without opening up sealed trash containers or pawing through dirty refuse.
And no, you don’t have to scavenge other people’s trash items if you personally consider it gross, and you’re not a bad person for liking to buy stuff new, as long as you’re not pathologically wasteful in your turnover rate.
And no, people should not be taking stuff out of your mailbox, which I believe is a federal crime as well as incredibly selfish, greedy and thievish. Tell the cops.
Posting that the actual bags were being opened, much sooner than that, would have helped a whole lot for the confused and the people who were asking for clarification. And yes, that’s gross and weird.
Not to mention the “my movies don’t make it back to Netflix when I put them in my outgoing mail” issue. Now we actually have some context for your suspicion of why you think your neighbors might be stealing from you.
Remind me next time the kids have lice that I need to destroy the stuffed animals instead of just tossing them so someone helpful doesn’t donate the lice to the Salvation Army.
Seriously, some of the “perfectly good” things that have gone into my trash aren’t really “perfectly good.”
Good point. In fact, when trashing any item that shouldn’t be reused because it’s contaminated in some way that’s not obvious at first glance, it’s a good idea to conspicuously deface or destroy it first.
Partial disembowelment with an old pair of scissors is a good way to keep nit-infested furries out of the hands of trashpickers, and can also be quite a cathartic experience.
(Um, just to avoid potential embarrassing misunderstandings and legal contretemps, let me specify that it’s the furries that should be disemboweled.)
Rarely do I get the chance to see someone be so wrong about so many things in so few words.
In the first place I’m not a prophet so much as a descriptor and blame-assessor: the damage, at least to the extent I talk about it, is already done. In the second place, I’m not a “self-styled” anything. I raise issues, usually in response to something someone else has said, and I answer questions that other posters put to me. Most of what you no doubt take offense at are things I’ve said within those two contexts, with the second one likely predominating. Third, the neighbor I spoke of is hardly “flag-savin’ country folk” but a big-city dwelling, liberal, Democrat Obama-voter who is raising his mixed-race grandchild. And fourth, I couldn’t care less if modern-day hippies (and people call me anachronistic) take something I’ve thrown out.
I hope the OP doesn’t mind my answering VT’s slight hijack, but since he/she has bowed out anyway I thought it would probably be okay.
O RLY? Last time I left stuff out in front of the house for CHOC (the local children’s hospital), it was gone by the time I got home, so I assumed the hospital had picked it up as scheduled. Until I was called the next day asking if I forgot to put out my donation. Someone else must have grabbed it even thought there was a big piece of paper taped to it saying “FOR CHOC”. Or maybe someone came buy named CHOC. The day I put it out was the day that the association sends in the gardening crew, so maybe one of those guys took it. If so I don’t really begrudge it from him, I imagine those yard workers are all getting minimum wage or less, but still, it was supposed to be for a charity.
Er…I think he was referring to the fact that “plushies” is the name for folks who…shall we say…like to get to know their stuffed animals a little better than the rest of us do.
Ugh, no, sorry. Digging through my trash = creepy bordering on stalkerish. First thing that pops into my head is what are they looking for in my trash? Personal letters? Financial information? Second thought – thank god I shred all paper and recycle it so they won’t actually find anything.
If I drag an old sofa to the curb, sure, come on over and ask me if I mind if you take it. For the love of god just keep it all above board and not sneakily digging through bins that I thought would be completely left alone until tossed in the truck by the garbage collectors.
Also, I thought it was illegal to dig through other people’s trash bins, exactly out of concern for identity theft and the like?
Don’t you guys have/use Freecycle in the States? I got rid of loads of stuff that way before my move to Oz - 28 inch TV, microwave, kitchen stuff, LED lights, books…got the TV and microwave on Freecycle in the first place. It’s a great idea, and the people who want the stuff call to your house, so all you have to do is answer the door and give it to them. Great for those on a low budget too, or people who move about a bit and don’t want to bring a massive TV, microwave and kitchen stuff with them from house to house (I hate packing to move and always throw out or give away loads of stuff).
I see one poster who called the OP a snob, a couple that said in essence “get over it” and most of the rest giving anecdotes about what they’ve picked up from the curb and it wasn’t that big a deal or gross or whatever. The first one to use the words “elitist” and “stuck up” was the OP.
Most posters gave the caveat that “Oh, but if they’re opening up your garbage bins, that’s over the line/gross/disgusting/worthy of the outrage in the OP.”
The OP posted three times before clarifying that, yes, in fact, they were going through the garbage bins. Oh, and possibly taking stuff from the mailbox too, which is a felony. Yes, that’s gross, yes, that’s over the line, exactly as most of us have said.
I don’t see how we’re willfully jumping all over the OP, when the relevant information was so sparse.
Have you ever dealt with lice? Lets just say that after six days of washing sheets, clothes, pillows, vaccuuming the couch, confiscating every hairbrush and rubber band and spending hours picking through hair, taking the time to make the stuffed animals unattractive to trash pickers is far below little things like … sleeping.
I need to get rid of old (ancient) computer equipment all the time. I often have clients who upgrade to an iMac and have an old CRT monitor they want to get rid of, and they look at me hopefully… So, I take it, and just leave by the street on the side of the house. It’s always gone by the next day, sometimes within the hour. I’ll even leave a note on machines that would work with some TLC, describing what works and what doesn’t. I consider this far better than recycling.
My cats always insist that I scrape the can completely empty.
As for the half missing BBQ set…that’s definitely donation material. Someone might have another half set, or be perfectly happy to have an extra set of tongs or spatula.
Opening up bags to root through trash is completely wrong, though. Tell your neighbors that you absolutely don’t want to see open bags. Plus when we had bag pickup where we live, the garbage collectors wouldn’t pick up opened bags, and they DEFINITELY wouldn’t pick up any garbage that was scattered around. These days, we have trash and recycling bins that we put out every week.
As for the missing Netflix returns, yeah, that’s flat out stealing, and I think that if you know there’s a problem, then you should probably find a nearby locked mailbox. Not because it’s your fault for putting tempation in their way, but because it’ll be your loss if the discs don’t make it back. And I might be tempted to put in a spy camera, too, and share the results with the Postmaster and/or the local cops.
