Folk are soooo wasteful

seven-day-weekend

Ages before Freecycle started, we always put anything serviceable but surplus to requirements outside our house with a notice on 'Free to Good Home'.

One day we were puttting my husband's small exercise bench out, went back in to get another part of it - when we came back out, the bench had gone! All of 30 seconds. We noticed the builder in the house two doors away had got it, so we gave him the rest.

I don't think it's too bad leaving serviceable things in a house - the new owner/tenant may have a use for them. We left a virtually new fridge-freezer in our investment property when we sold it, as we were 1500 miles away in Spain, and it was less trouble.

And my son's friend's bike was in the garage...we'd asked her many times to remove it, otherwise it would go....so it went!

Bet the new owners were delighted!

GardenMillie

Thanks Lynzpower I couldn't remember the name of the organisation but a friend of mine from church works with fareshare in Edinburgh and they collect leftover food from Pret, Marks & Sparks and Sainsburys (probably others too) they then deliver it daily to a variety of homeless shelters.

What a great organisation and I'm delighted that these stores are being "socially responsible" in donating left over food.:T

SusanCarter

If they were going abroad then I guess cleaning materials (and perhaps other things too) might cost more to take with them than to buy when they get there. Also when moving house, it is easy to run out of time and the thing you are going to miss out is finding new homes for unwanted items. I agree we live in a thow away society now though. When I had moved out of my first rented flat because it was getting knocked together with nextdoor, I walked past one evening and saw a skip outside. They had throwen away all the crockery, utensils etc. from the kitchen. There were some things I'd bagged up when I'd first moved in as I wasn't going to use them (greasy horrible roasting tin, butter dish, salt shaker etc) which were still in the bags. Unfortunately some of the stuff was damaged from being thrown in and it was a bit gross as it was rainy and there was cement dust in it but I did retrieve one plate which I really liked. I was absolutely gutted thought as I could've used those things.

angela110660

Hope this thread is a good one to add my message to about wastefulness.
Went to hairdressers last evening. They always have loads of mags to read including travel, house and psychology ones. Their new copies had arrived that day; the "old" ones (dated June and July) were going to the recycling bin but hairdresser said she felt bad dumping them. Said I could choose some and she had already asked other customers to do the same if they wanted.
Came out with a great haircut and £21.50 worth of magazines to read on my hols and then pass onto my mum.
Will have to time my haircuts around this time of the month in future!!

nickj_2

people confuse what they want with what they need
i've just got rid of a load of stuff that was cluttering up our house
my rule if i'm generous is that if it hasn't been uesd for 3 years then you aren't going to miss it , although i sometimes reduce this to one year if i'm feeling ruthless

Savvy_Sue

Sarahsaver wrote: »

Once when I went to glastonbury, people were leaving their whole tent behind.

Maybe it was someone determined NEVER to camp again! :rotfl:

Savvy_Sue

To add to the 'charities would be glad of it' debate, it's not always as simple as 'giving it away'. It is great if fresh food businesses can identify groups and charities which CAN use such food, but there are some things to think about.

We run both a drop-in and an outreach van. We provide a cooked meal at our drop-in and serve sandwiches on the van. But we need to KNOW what we've got in advance and plan ahead: we NEED food for X people each day, and we can't 'wait and see' what we get offered - what if nothing comes that day? So if we've already organised what we need, then that food may go to waste if we pick up something else, plus we can't necessarily drop everything to send someone off to pick up food which is going to be thrown out.

We don't serve food which is past its BB date, even if all the staff would be perfectly happy to eat it. Our client group (and homeless people in general) often have compromised immune systems, and we really can't risk it.

FareShare's about to come to our area, which we're very happy about. although I believe they insist that any group they're donating too has staff properly trained in food hygiene, so they take BB dates seriously too!

Taadaa

nickj wrote: »

people confuse what they want with what they need

I reckon that just about sums up the modern lifestyle of most people these days.

There is an article in this month's 'the environmentalist' entitled 'Possession is our Obsession'. Although I disagreed with some of the detail of the article, generally I couldn't agree more. If it breaks, buy a new one. If it's not in fashion anymore, chuck it away. If so and so has got one, get a bigger, better flashier one.

I think some of it is rooted in our busy lives - it's all about convenience, and taking as little as our precious time as possible - except for those who are motivated enough to find the time to mend, and reuse!

Let us know the next time you family move we will come around and help clear up