Our local council is very good with recycling efforts. We have rubbish collection once a week along with a paper collection and a can/bottle one. Once a year we have an inorganic rubbish collection where we can put out all the big stuff: old, tires, TV’s, mattresses, broken bicycles, toys, chairs. Just about anything you can think of, apart from toxic stuff. That has a different collection point.
Each year this collection is a source of amusement. We get a notice in the mail telling us to put out our junk for collection on such and such a day. This year it was the 26th. No one listens. As soon as the notice appears in mailboxes, the rubbish starts appearing on the curbside until the neighborhood starts to look a bit tatty and scruffy. Then all the fun starts. We have droves and droves of people in vans, trucks, cars trolling the streets for items of interest – things other people have thrown away that they think they can sell or use.
This year we put out one tire, an old fishing line and the iron supports of an old swing. Only the tire remains.
Yesterday I had to go and pick up my husband and our neighbor after golf. Traffic was heavy. In fact it was like rush hour traffic on a Sunday afternoon! Riding my bicycle around our normally quiet streets has become a dangerous affair with drivers scanning piles of rubbish rather than looking for innocent cyclists.
I think it’s great that people can use the stuff they pick up – recycling at its best – and it’s a good conversation gambit with neighbors. “What have you got left in your pile?” But, oh, boy! I’ll be so glad when the rubbish is gone and traffic levels are back to normal. It will be great to ride my bike in safety again…
Does anyone else have rubbish collections like this? What things would you like to collect? (one of the neighbors saw a broken terracotta pot that we all agreed would make a great garden feature. When she went back it had already gone. Someone else had obviously had the same idea.)
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August 27th, 2007 at 6:44 am · Link
Uh Shelley, you’re talking about your garbage.
Okay, I got a laugh out of it. Our garbage guys pick anything and everything up every week so we don’t have this kind of free-for-all, but I remember setting out my old patio table once, and a woman and her daughter asked if I could hold onto it until they came back with their van.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:51 am · Link
LOL. It’s exactly as you describe it. Thanks for giving me a nice flashback to my years in Auckland.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:31 pm · Link
LOL, Lisa. I’m in New Zealand. You have to get used to my New Zealandisms
No saving of rubbish/garbage around here. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see “rubbish” rage. It’s a serious business!
Amy – I didn’t realise you were in Auckland. That’s where I am.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:43 pm · Link
I’m not a Kiwi, though. I spent three years living on the North Shore. And I still love Auckland’s west coast beaches.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:52 pm · Link
I love the West Coast beaches, too. Nothing like black sand to burn the bottoms of your feet on a hot summer day!
I’m in the South
August 27th, 2007 at 6:53 pm · Link
We have annual collections like this in WA! Five years ago we left out a vinyl sofa we’d had given to us fourth hand from my brother three years before (the sofa was… um, battered by this time
) It disappeared days before collection. Last year, just two roads from us, we saw this same sofa left out on the curb. At least it got a good innings!
August 27th, 2007 at 11:49 pm · Link
I bet that vinyl sofa has a few tales to tell
It’s great that people can use some of the discards because as a society, we throw away way too much stuff!