One Man's Trash...

[ducklite]

Saturday afternoon, DH and I drove to the transfer station to drop off a few bags of recyclable paper. (Our town has the strangest rules on recycling, but that's a different post.)

Anyhow, we get there and are tossing the three paper bags of paper into the white paper dumpster, and I look over towards the furniture dumpster and see these two guys loading a chair onto this trailer held together with coathangers and chicken wire. I said to my husband, "Are they taking that chair?" It was this stained, falling apart rust colered crushed velvet easy chair--it was filthy let alone hideous. DH assured me that they were just putting the gate up on the trailer to go to the next dumpster to get rid of something else on the trailer.

Lest I insult someone, I'm not going onto detail about what they looked like, but get the picture of the biggest redneck you can imagine into your brain, and you're halfway there.

Anyhow, they drive over to the metal dumpster, with the dump lady screaming over to them to put out thier cigarettes--they waved at her --and proceed to take this rusty, grill out of the dumpster. Now DH is believing me that they are indeed "shopping." The top literally falls off the grill as they take it out of the dumster, and you could see daylight coming through the bottom. There was no pedestal, this thing was literally garbage. They load it onto the trailer.

OK, now I can certainly understand people who dumpster dive for "good stuff." There was a Little Tykes set next to one of the dumpsters--I couldn't believe it hadn't been taken already. It looked like it needed a littl elbow grease, but otherwise it looked fine. But these guys were taking the most decrepit, filthy, useless stuff, I have no idea what they were going to do with it.

The personification of "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

Anne

 

[Southern4sure]

I know of a couple who are dumpster divers and get as you say hideous chairs and couches. In their spare time they use the frames and re-upholster them and they look beautiful. They sell most of them very cheap but have given some away to the less fortunate.

 

[disneysteve]

I don't know about the chair, but with the grill I suppose it is possible they were going to sell it as scrap.

 

[ducklite]

I know of a couple who are dumpster divers and get as you say hideous chairs and couches. In their spare time they use the frames and re-upholster them and they look beautiful. They sell most of them very cheap but have given some away to the less fortunate.

I can see that, but in this case one of the arms was missing and the other one was dangling. I'm not sure how much value there was even as a "fixer-upper."

I'm not against dumpster diving, my FIL does it at Lowes for scrap wood all the time, and he uses it to do small repairs to senior citizens homes for free. But these two really seemed to be taking the biggest jonk, and leaving some other stuff that looked to be in much better condition behind.

Anne

 

[Free4Life11]

I believe it should be "One mans trash is....still trash."

 

[ChristmasElf]

Look at it this way, they are "recycling" and who knows what "treasures" they are actually able to come up with?

 

[Kahana-ri]

Our neighbor had put out his old fridge to be picked up by the trash collectors. That afternoon this guy had pulled up his mini van and started to take parts and pieces out of it. DH said he was taking the cooper out to sell it. I guess cooper is very expensive. Can’t blame the guy for wanting to make a buck.

 

[MushyMushy]

I'm betting it was for scrap. We have a place where you can sell scrap metal in our town. I don't know what you get for it, but people are always headed there with truck loads of scrap.

Dumpster diving isn't real popular where I live, but there was this one family who drove through the neighborhood in a beat up mini van every trash day, looking for treasures.

Man, I don't even like to shop at yard sales. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I have absolutely no patience to go around looking for good things.

 

[disneymom3]

Maybe it was for a joke. They were getting the most useless crap they could find to play a practical joke on someone. We never really know what is going on with someone else. I am sure it would have made me scratch my head and raise my eyebrows too, though!

 

[mommaU4]

Lest I insult someone, I'm not going onto detail about what they looked like, but get the picture of the biggest redneck you can imagine into your brain, and you're halfway there.

What does a redneck look like? Dirty? Poor? Trashy? What? I really don't know. Is a redneck someone from a certain area?

And I'm just wondering what difference their appearance makes in this story. If they were hauling away trash, they were hauling away trash, whether they look like rednecks or whether they were dressed to the nines and loading a BMW.

It's still the same so why even mention a description of them at all?

If they looked different/nicer would that have made it any less odd?

Just curious.

 

[grlpwrd]

I think you had more issues with the way they looked than what they were doing.

I don't need to flaunt my wealth yet I still dumpster dive and recycle a lot.

Who cares what they looked like.... They are recycling and keeping it from the landfill. This is a smart thing to do.

 

[ducklite]

What does a redneck look like? Dirty? Poor? Trashy? What? I really don't know. Is a redneck someone from a certain area?

And I'm just wondering what difference their appearance makes in this story. If they were hauling away trash, they were hauling away trash, whether they look like rednecks or whether they were dressed to the nines and loading a BMW.

It's still the same so why even mention a description of them at all?

If they looked different/nicer would that have made it any less odd?

Just curious.

Oh Lord. You can't even tell a funny story around ehre without someone getting offended these days. Like I said, I'm not going to describe them, use your imagination.

Anne

 

[mommaU4]

Oh Lord. You can't even tell a funny story around ehre without someone getting offended these days. Like I said, I'm not going to describe them, use your imagination.

Anne

Did I say I was offended?? I only asked a question. It was your description of them, not mine. I just wondered what a redneck looks like and thought it was interesting that their appearance even mattered.

Talk about getting easily offended.....

 

[Yardbird]

Oh Lord. You can't even tell a funny story around ehre without someone getting offended these days. Like I said, I'm not going to describe them, use your imagination.

Anne

Really, the term "redneck" is subjective. Not all "rednecks" look like rednecks.

 

[ducklite]

Really, the term "redneck" is subjective. Not all "rednecks" look like rednecks.

Exactly. So use your idea of a redneck to picture this story.

Anne

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I don't need to flaunt my wealth yet I still dumpster dive and recycle a lot.

Who cares what they looked like.... They are recycling and keeping it from the landfill. This is a smart thing to do.

You know if we don't look acceptable to some we are trash.

 

[Yardbird]

Exactly. So use your idea of a redneck to picture this story.

Anne

Hmmm well, that's an interesting thought.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

You know if we don't look acceptable to some we are trash.

I had somebody INSIST I take a children's book for FREE once at a church rummage sale. She clearly felt sorry for DH and I, who had rolled out of bed early to go yard-saling, and presumably looked a little rednecky.....

I have to admit, since that incident, that I dress up a little more when I go yardsaling.

 

[mommaU4]

Exactly. So use your idea of a redneck to picture this story.

Anne

Got it.

So a redneck is someone who's friendly, (they waved right?), cares about the environment/recycles, and lives in your area.

That's cool.

 

[MosMom]

This will all end in tears, I just know it