Dumpster diseases

We're addicted. We can't drive by overflowing dumpsters without checking the contents. Usually we find treasure: a working Soda Stream, an unopened box of key lime tea cakes, a working in-table sewing machine, shoes in the box.

We find clean clothes on hangers, a carton of canned sausage, countless brita pitchers, microwaves, backpacks, vacuums, dressers and desks that broke when thrown into dumpsters.

So many mattresses and bedding and recliners. I now want to invent disposable bedding for students. I don't need to invent anything - people have been sleeping on straw or cornhusks for thousands of years, and those mattresses would last a school year and could grow a forest rather than grow a landfill.

Someone(s) cut cords off all the appliances to sell for copper. We try to find the appliances first, since they are virtually always in excellent condition. Are you picturing hills of working appliances without cords growing landfills, perhaps leaking heavy metal? I gag, and turn away so I don't vomit on this bag of mostly-full shampoo and lotion bottles.

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Trash/reuse truck in Mexico

Where are our reuse/repurpose comrades? In Mexico we had many.

Cutting the cords for copper doesn't count - that's downcycling, not upcycling. I'm all for poor people finding quick cash, but I'd like to pay them more than what they'll get for the copper to help us move the appliances to local thrift stores.

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What's for dinner? Check the dumpster! Food from one haul.

We've been filling the van (sometimes multiple times a day) and delivering stuff to the sharing shed in our neighborhood as well as Goodwill. We could easily spend all daylight hours in this pursuit, but we're taking a break to, like, get some other work done.

But my dreams are haunted by the disease of dumping dandy desks and dressers into dumpsters which dismantle upon discard.

Two weeks from now, students will move to Purdue and buy desks, dressers, shampoo, mattresses, sheets, microwaves, pots, pans, silverware, paper towels, vacuums....do you think Target and Walmart are secretly spreading biological warfare (the dumpster disease) over 5G?

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