Hi, Ed, I live in a fairly affluent section of town, and have been putting things I want to get rid of at the bottom of my driveway for the last couple of months. The things have some value, but the time/cost of trying to sell them or donate them through regular outlets was not worth it. Books, furniture, toys, clothes, etc. have all been snapped up within hours or at most a day. There seems to be no specific racial, gender, or even class pattern as to who is picking them up. I can't tell whether people are taking things for their own use, or to resell. Either way is fine with me: additional value is being extracted from things I am happy to be giving away.
People are not going through our trash or recycle bins, though. A couple of years ago, one person who was recently divorced and broke with a couple of kids picked up some free things, and we made a point of getting her phone number and delivering extra furniture and toys to her in the months that followed. It is heart-breaking to see people who have "done all the right things" still ending up in dire straits. Lawry On Jul 19, 2012, at 9:33 AM, Ed Weick wrote: > I live in a nice quiet urban neighborhood. Today is the day that the city > picks our garbage up. Recently, a few people have started coming by to sort > through our recycling bins. Some are on bikes, some pull wagons and some > just walk carrying bags. They don't look as though they're from our > neighborhood. Today, the last person to come by was an elderly woman who > went through the already picked-over bins very carefully. > > If these people find anything of value, they don't get very much for it -- a > few cents for wine or beer bottles etc. But what they are doing suggests a > sense of desperation. It would seem that whatever little they get is very > important to them. > > Ed > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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