Waste
Posted by Dionne at August 16, 2008 and is filed under uncategorized 
I was watching the news not long ago and heard a story about "dumpster diving". My kids and I sat around making all the socially appropriate "ewww!" noises and disgusted faces as the news story continued on about dumpster diving for food in NYC. I have been to NYC...and there were rats and roaches right there on the sidewalk with people -no telling what's in the garbage!
Then I heard a story about a person who found an entire dumpster behind a major retailer that was full of packaged and new but unsold school supplies. Everything from packs of pencils to calculators, everything from .10 items to $5.00 items... all brand new, unused, and all dumped.
Even more recently I was given a bag o swag at a conference... we aren't talking celebrity swag, but a vendor just decided he was done and scooped the last of his freebies into a back and handed it to me. My first thought was actually, "Oh! Who can I give this too?" Authentically and transparently followed up with, "...maybe I can keep just one?"
I started thinking about waste.
No one I asked could give me a reasonable excuse why perfectly good items were disposed of in a dumpter, or why FOOD was being tossed...or why a convention vendor would dump the last of his contents into ONE BAG and give it away to just one person. Someone somewhere paid for those things. Why couldn't they be donated instead?
I do a lot of freecycling. I have freecycled top quality name brand childrens clothes instead of Ebaying them, freecycled dry goods the kids decided they didn't like. I've been the recipient of all nature of items for use by our foster children, or as donations to my classes. And there are many more organizations out there that encourage giving... yes, there are a lot of good people out there. But I'm not talking about giving away the rusty bike in the corner of your garage, or a bag full of mismatched socks and the shoes you bought at Walmart and forgot to return, or a half a box of single serve Insta-pudding tubes.
I'm talking about school supplies. I'm talking about personal hygeine necessities. I'm talking about the amount of money spent on advertising your name on a box of personalized color coded mnm's, and the potential income produced by that vs some lazy guy ditching his swag stash so he could book out before the rush hour hit.
What are all of our commercial retailers up to? To have dumpster diving as a crime seems a greater tragedy even worse than the crime of waste, but that's not it... it's that it's just unfathomable to throw away items that could be used for the good of your own community.
Don't be a waster. Go to Big Y, they have buy one get 3 free sales, and then take your surplus downtown. Go to Stop n Shop or Price Chopper for the Dollar Deals... and give away the one's you don't need. The hole ridden sheets you need to replace? Animal Shelter. Weird rebate check you don't remember applying for? Turn it into McD's gift cards and pass them out to the homeless on the corner, or buy bus tickets or a taxi voucher for someone. Give. Give, and ye shall recieve.
And go stop by your Target or Walmart and give someone a stern lecture, write a letter to someone at the top. Get an article written by your community paper....or write your own blogpost.
And be blessed.
Dionne
I read your post this morning - and then read an email that linked to this... http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/7/prweb1149654.htm thought it was good to share it with your readers.
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Dionne, let me tell u one thing, if all expand their thinking like u then the world would be a different place to live.
An article from right from the soul.
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