Today is 'Spring Cleanup Day' in town. It's the day on the schedule that the garbage trucks come out and pick up any crap you have to throw away. Yep, the broken toilet is now sitting at the end of the driveway, ready to be taken away.
I've always been.... unsure about 'spring cleanup.' Not the idea of cleaning crap out of the house, but just looking aorund the neighborhood. People have been putting junk out by the curb for over a week. And for over a week there have been old stained mattresses, broken TVs, rusted out barbecue stands, and, yes, cracked toilets. But over a week of this looks rather embarrassing, I think.
Another thing that bothers me about it is that there are items that could have easily been donated to thrift shops and there are 3 in town. One house (I know the landlord and he's been fairly patient in allowing them to stay despite the lack of a full payment of rent in months) had three 27-inch TVs in their trash. THREE. Could these have been taken down to a thrift shop, repaired and sold with the money being put to a good cause? Apparently not. And then someone came along and took them anyway.
Now, taking that into account, haivng this crap out for a week means there are scavengers driving around and grabbing trash from everyone's houses. Some of it's just taken away, but others rummage through and leave a bigger mess than before. And while some are seeing things they could possibly use at home, some people drive around and pick up every broken-down lawnmower or every TV. You know they're making money off of it, or at least trying to.
Of course, what I really hate is having our old toilet at the end of our driveway. Yick!
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2 comments:
but hoser, dontcha know that curbside shopping is one of the all-Canadian passtimes in spring? Where else could I pick up the entire series of Little House books for noting, or a pole lamp?
Here in The Hague, the Netherlands, they're really strict about garbage. You've got the normal garbage men who come along once a week and pick up what you put outside. But that has to be outside after 10 pm or before 7:30 am the day of garbage collecting. Otherwise you get a fairly heftly fine..
And then there's the big garbage you have to call other guys for (you make an appoitnment about two weeks in advance). The funny thing is, we only throw away stuff we really can't fix - but something always disappears! Last time it was a bicycle that was seriously beyond all help, this time it was a TV where the electronic board had actually broken, so is impossible to fix... just the stuff people will pick up amazes me! ;)
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