Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Kerbside clean-up

It's that time of year again. Our council is kind enough to collect large items of rubbish every six months.

I can't believe what some people throw away. Driving to school yesterday morning I saw a perfectly good outdoor setting (table and four chairs, still looked immaculate) out the front of an equally immaculate duplex. This is the place where I see a guy polishing his car at least every second day. A bit further on, I saw another house with a futon frame and perfectly clean looking mattress out the front. They also had an air hockey table, which didn't look quite as good, but still okay.

I said to the kids, "All those things will be gone by the end of today." And I was right. The outdoor setting was gone by 12 noon when I came home from the shops. The futon took a bit longer, but I suppose whoever took that needed to organise some transport for it. And the air hockey table was gone by nightfall.

On the other hand, I also can't believe what some people will take. This time we put out a white plastic outdoor table top and its four legs. We haven't set it up since we moved here and we now have a new table so we never bothered putting the old one together again. Someone has taken the legs but left the table top behind. Admittedly the top did look a bit tired, but still. What do you do with four table legs? I guess you keep trawling the streets till you find a nicer looking white top to match them.

We have had a couple of good furniture finds thanks to kerbside clean-up. Last time I found two perfectly nice looking bar stools with nice wooden backs and seats and a metal frame. One of the seats is a bit wobbly but that doesn't matter, they still work. That was courtesy of some neighbours across the road that we've never seen since we've lived here. Rubbish just appears mysteriously from their house every six months. And another time we collected a child's desk. All that needed was a sand back (still to be done) and a couple of knobs to make the drawers open again. All good.

I love the thought that we're recycling stuff rather than sending it to landfill.

1 comment:

Chris said...

I find it incredible how much we waste as a society- its truly disgraceful.

Mind you, I find it incredible that someone came and helped themselves to my bike which had been written off in an accident- and was clearly a mess with buckled wheels and a frame that was likely to collapse the first time you sat on it- except the seat had been sheared off.