Intreresting stuff.

After I read the original post that mentioned Freecycle, I signed up for it just to see what would be out there, and also to get rid of some stuff in my garage. Our standby is to give stuff to the Salvation Army because they pick up and do good stuff we like to support, but their schedule is erratic and they won’t take some things if you’re not there to vouch that “this is the item.” On Freecycle, I gave away computer items, a semi-working TV, a DVD player, and a desk by posting them as offers, and recently gave out some extra lumber I had to someone who requested it for a wheelchair ramp. In all but the last case it was a hassle arranging schedules, having no shows and finding another taker, etc. It seems like the key to healthy unconsumption (vs. unhealthily tossing stuff into the landfill) is ease. Once the item is unwanted, it becomes a Different Thing, something that you want to move as quickly as possible. Maybe that’s why so much ends up in the landfill.

We have a city-run electronics recycling program in our city, but I would bet that 90% of the broken stuff ends up in the trash anyway because you have to make a phone call to have it picked up, but the big trash bins are plenty big to hide it in. There’s also a chemical and paint recycling program, same issue.

This was a very fun post to read.

Garage sale. Next week a friend is having a garage sale since she is renovating ehr kitchen and I am going to have a small table set up with things given to us…but that we don’t use or enjoy.

In Chicago, you can leave almost anything in the garbage and within an hour a truck filled with salvage will drive by and throw your garbage in the back, and resell it.In Vancouver you can drink beer on the beach in the middle of the night, leave your bottles and as you wlk off the beach people who live outisde will take your bottles to a depot for money.