Juniper2 ah, autumn!
We have a well-organized provincial recycling program for household materials. I also try to avoid purchasing items which have non-recycleable packaging.
However, our business community has been exempted from some of the recycling rules, (temporarily, I believe), and many still-useable things still seem to end up in dumpsters because in order to salvage them, the right person would have to be there at the right moment with the means to haul the things out of the way of whoever discards them. Businesses can’t just put it out curbside as homeowners can. Sometimes other staff can take home still-useable discarded things. I was lucky this week to save a 2’ x 4’ piece of rubber fatigue mat before it hit the dumpster; my boss said I could have it (it was leftover after the rest was cut to fit a work space). It will go in my kitchen, and my feet will appreciate the comfort.
But I still regret the waste of resources where so much gets discarded. I hope that whoever hauls the dumpsters away might save some things, but I doubt they could do so, especially after everything is mixed together. I have never ‘dumpster-dived’ because they can contain broken glass, lumber with spikes in it, and other hazards. I’m not shy about picking up things like furniture or leftover building materials from the curbside on collection days.
