Gloria P wrote:
> maxine wrote:
>
>>>
>>> In an earlier post in the thread about homeless people rummaging
>>> in recycling bins set out for collection,
>>
>>
>> The local reason for not allowing people to rummage in the recycling
>> bins is that the state makes money from the recyclables, so if it's in
>> an official state bin, (or city, or town or whatever) it is gumment
>> property and if you take it, you are a thief!
>>
>> You're also a criminal if you take a deposit bottle from your recycle-
>> only state and return it for the nickel in the next state over.
>>
>> I have never seen them enforcing that law for the trash part of the
>> trash. People come by and take lawn mowers, tvs, couches, and whole
>> house furnishings in college neighborhoods in May....
>
>
>
> A local TV station did a story on college recycling in Boulder after
> summer school ended. It showed kids in station wagons pulling up
> and retrieving things like expensive skis, TVs, computer monitors,
> loads of furniture, etc.
>
> One of the summer school kids said "I had no way to get the stuff home
> so I had to just pitch it."
>
> Reminds me of locker cleanout day at our high school when we purged
> nominally "empty" lockers of the stuff the kids left behind. It was
> nothing to pull out textbooks, library books, $100 graphing calculators,
> $200+ down jackets, CD players, Ipods, and (ugh) still wrapped food they
> were supposed to deliver from months-before fund raisers or Mom's
> Tupperware with green growths inside.
>
> The staff returned the books to the places the kids were too lazy to do,
> the clothing went to Goodwill, calculators and pens, pencils, backpacks
> went to the counseling dept. to be distributed to our less affluent kids
> in the fall.
>
> To paraphrase Mr. Rogers, "Can you say irresponsible, boys and girls?"

I won't bother with garage sales. True junk gets thrown away, stuff
that somebody might like to have is periodically set out on an old horse
blanket on the front lawn with a sign reading: "Free Stuff"

Last time I was home to watch what went down. The Creepy Crawler oven
and accessories went first, nabbed by the little kids from across the
street and three houses down.

Didn't see who took the freebie webcam we got from Charter at some point.

A cluster of teen girls lurked at the curb for a good 15 minutes,
clearly expecting to get pranked, but finally approached and took the
lava lamp, a set of crafting/scrapbooking scissors and a big bag of
assorted brass beads.

A white-haired lady driving past parked at the curb and took a two-year
planner/organizer and the blanket the stuff was sitting on(!).

Didn't see who got the rest of the stuff, but it was all gone by the
time I got home.

When we got rid of one of the kids' old twin mattresses, I put it at the
curb with a sign that read in bold text "FREE GENTLY USED MATTRESS",
with smaller text explaining that it had always been used with a
waterproof, dustproof plastic cover.

We saw several cars slow down and look at it that day, but it was still
in the driveway at dusk. My husband wanted to bring it back in but I
told him to just wait, it would be gone by morning, it's just that
nobody wants to be seen taking a used mattress. And sure enough it was
gone before the 10 o'clock news, along with its' zip-off impervious cover.