I have to pass two dumpsters as I leave my apartment. Often it is overflowing with the everyday household debris... empty milk containers and cardboard boxes, broken plates, empty plastic packaging and left overs that, while no longer palatable to humans, make the cats and birds very happy. But inevitably there will also be a piece of furniture, a mattress, or an old tire. I've seen high chairs and electric fans, an entire six drawer dresser with mirror, and even a car bumper once. The trash always goes beyond the container and oozes into the roadway like some horrible lab experiment that has gained a life of it's own and wants to escape it's captors.In many ways, the trash we produce is getting away from us. We are not only a nation of mass consumers, but mass disposers as well. Despite dwindling resources and finite landfills, we believe it's so much easier and cheaper to throw something out than to try and fix it or reuse it. It's ingrained in the American psyche that what you have isn't enough. The gods of consumerism command that we buy the latest thing. In order to get that new thing, you have to get rid of the thing you bought 6 months ago. As soon as you step out of the store your computer is obsolete. The resale value of that car plummets the moment you drive it off the lot.
We Americans consume things. It's what we do. We're good at it. Consumerism is part of our culture. It was elevated to an art form in the 20th century and now it threatens to drown us in debt and our own garbage.
At the beginning of the industrial age planned obsolescence wasn't a marketing strategy. Once upon a time, we actually took pride in craftsmanship and made things that were sturdy and well built. We designed and manufactured things that would last a very long time. Something that could be of use not only to us but to the generations that would follow us.
The problem with making quality products that never break is that a company can only sell so many before everyone has one. But somewhere along the way someone discovered that if you could make something slightly less durable so that it would wear out or breakdown at a certain time...well then you could sell it again, and again, and again. Add to that the holy grail of planned obsolescence--rapid multi-generational electronic devices and you have a Jackpot! The strategy goes like this: "You wanna play that new game or run that new app?" Well, you'll have to have a faster computer or a better phone or the newest game machine. Some nerds become billionaires and our dumpsters overfloweth!
I'm not a mass consumer or a mass disposer, or at least I try not to be. I'm not on a par with the hoarders you see on TV, but I try to consider the value and reuse of an item before it's pitched in the trash.
Case in point: We no longer needed the box springs for my son's twin size bed. Instead of tossing it on top of the trash pile, I re-purposed it. After stripping off the fabric and cardboard, I had a frame for my new bookcase. We made shelves from wood that was rescued from the construction scraps of a neighbor. On this free bookcase I placed a chipped water pitcher, no longer able to do its original job, it now houses a plant grown from a clipping that would itself have been thrown away. And finally, an antique fan that was rescued from the trash heap now sits on my new box spring shelves. Thrown away simply because it needed a $2 cord.
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
If you want to make treasure from trash, you might give these websites a try.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/from-trash-to-cash.html
http://www.suite101.com/content/creative-repurposing--turning-trash-into-treasure-a253753
http://earth911.com/news/2009/04/27/5-ways-to-repurpose-your-trash/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1645679/repurpose_your_household_trash.html
