I hate waste

[disneysteve]

It drives me nuts when I see people trashing perfectly good stuff for no reason. This happens at my office all the time, particularly from one person. She has been on a cleaning binge this week, which is generally a good thing, but when she comes across anything she decides we don't need, it goes into the trash. Yesterday it was post-it pads because they weren't the kind she likes. Yes, I pulled them back out. I realize we get them for free and get way more than we need, but I'd much rather give them away than throw them out.

Today, I walked over near her desk and her trash can was filled with hanging file folders. Apparently, she had cleaned out the files and just trashed the empty folders. Nothing wrong with them. Perfect condition. Yes, I pulled them out, too. I just checked at staples.com and a box of 25 Pendaflex folders (the brand these are) is $16.79. She threw out 16 folders, meaning she essentially threw $10.75 in the trash can.

Does anyone else know anybody like this? How do you deal with it?

[rob62521]

Yes, we have an administrator who is like that -- if it's old, get rid of it, even if it can still be used because it doesn't look shiny and new.

I think, and this is just my opinion, people who were not raised during the depression or raised by someone who struggled during the depression, don't understand the ideal of reusing or recycling or whatever. My parents grew up during the depression dirt poor. We didn't throw out much. They sold things if they could and reused what we could. I think it formed how I am today -- so the whole recycling and reselling is normal for me.

[LuxLiving]

My stepmother does this. I think my Dad has finally convinced her to box it up and then he offers it to either me or my sister. If I get the boxes then I will sell what I can in my booth or donate it to the women's shelter.

She is disabled and does a LOT of QVC type shopping. Tired of the old shower curtain? Throw it out. Nothing wrong with it, just tired of it.

Don't like the color anymore of all the kitchen accessories? Toss them!

What a WASTE!

These were things she paid a lot of money for and there isn't anything wrong with them.

I just tell her, when you decide you don't want stuff anymore, call one of us or at least the Salvation Army or Goodwill. There is absolutely no excuse for throwing them in the dump!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Donate it. It's still decent and especially can be used by people who need it.

[dmontngrey]

The folks in my condo complex are like this and it drives me nuts! I belong to Freecycle, but I don't think any of my neighbors are aware of this concept. I see so much useful stuff in the dumpster. I have grabbed stuff from there before - cute tins for my mom, plant pots, a beautiful trellis for my garden. DH grabbed a set of lefty golf irons and sold them on Craigslist for $25 !!

I just happened to run into one neighbor heading off the the dumpster with a framed Norman Rockwell print. HUH???????? The print is 11" x 14" and is matted in a nice frame. Who in their right mind would throw that in a dumpster? Yeah, it hangs on my wall now.

[jamiefic]

I hate waste as well! Is there anyway to have a box (kind of like another poster was saying) where the lady in your office could put stuff so that others could go through it to see if they could use those items? Then, it's no longer making a mess because it is in a specific location (she is happy) and it is up for grabs and not in the trash (you're happy). Anyway, that's the only thing I can think of.

My sister had a roommate for awhile who wasted stuff and she was going crazy. She would try to gently talk about not wasting stuff and putting things in recycle...it semi worked. She still had to pick stuff out of the trash and put them in recycle on a regular basis.

[SnoopyCool]

That behavior makes me cringe.

[LuxLiving]

To me it seems almost a type of mindless arrogance. That they are thinking "Well if I don't think it is worthy to be in my environment, then no one else should have it either." ...as if they are the final discrimanator. Weird! ...and wrong in so many ways!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by LuxLiving

To me it seems almost a type of mindless arrogance. That they are thinking "Well if I don't think it is worthy to be in my environment, then no one else should have it either." ...as if they are the final discrimanator. Weird! ...and wrong in so many ways!

Even worse is the fact that it isn't stuff she paid for. It is stuff the practice paid for. If she wants to blow her own money, that's her problem, but she shouldn't be so cavalier in throwing out things that aren't really hers.

[stressedmama]

Disneysteve your post reminded me of waste at the company I work for. Every year our company participates in the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program around Christmas that gives new toys to poorer children in the area. You are only supposed to bring unwrapped new toys that are in packaging material. Well, about 3 years ago I was working in the building where the sorting of toys took place. The day after the sort and taking the toys to where ever they needed to go, I passed by an open dumpster in the building. There on the top were a bunch of new toys. A coworker of mine and myself pulled some out to see what was wrong with the toys (they looked fine to us). It seems some people brought brand new coloring books, crayons, and new toys (not in packaging) and all these were placed in the dumpster. Why didn't they at least give them to Goodwill???? Anyway, I was pregnant with my first child so I took home several brand new coloring books and toys. After my kids outgrow the toys, I plan to sell them at a consignment shop or give them to charity. What a shame that people where going to throw away perfectly good toys that were being given for a good cause!

[FrugalFish]

My mother owns a small office building and has a tenant. The tenant is always throwing away pretty neat stuff like vases, decorative jars, candles, etc. Guessing a lot of the stuff are things her clients give her as gifts. Since mom puts her own trash out on the curb, she often salvages a good deal of stuff from the trashcans, which she then drops by the thrift store.

When I was a child we lived in an area of houses with a community dumpster. One lady would throw out anything she no longer wanted. When my mom asked her why she didn't donate it, she told my mom that she had grown up poor and no one had ever done anything to help her; she was not about to help someone else. It isn't only people who've never struggled who are wasteful.

[moneybags]

I had a neighbor that worked for an arts & crafts supply manufacturer. They had a policy about not donating their old products & would trash them instead. She brought home bags of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, pom-poms, etc. and shared with the neighbors. It was great stuff for school projects or just a day of crafts for the kids.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by moneybags

I had a neighbor that worked for an arts & crafts supply manufacturer. They had a policy about not donating their old products & would trash them instead.

We've talked about that kind of policy before. Many stores and companies will not donate stuff partly because of liability risk and partly because of the risk of people getting the donated items and trying to return them back to the store for credit. So they have to trash the stuff. My wife used to be a manager of a sporting goods store. Not only did they trash stuff, but they had to destroy it first so that it couldn't be returned.

[gamecock43]

I think the same thing (how wasteful people are) when I see HGTV shows. Watching people buy houses and destroy cabinets, carpeting, appliances or tiles because it's the wrong color is very wasteful. Taking a sledge hammer to items that could be removed and placed on craigslist is awful.

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by gamecock43

I think the same thing (how wasteful people are) when I see HGTV shows. Watching people buy houses and destroy cabinets, carpeting, appliances or tiles because it's the wrong color is very wasteful. Taking a sledge hammer to items that could be removed and placed on craigslist is awful.

I have thought the same thing...so what if the kitchen cabinets look old -- why can't they be repurposed for the garage or a shed?

[LuxLiving]

Exactly - when we moved here it is an old house that didn't have any cabinetry anywhere except the kitchen. For several years we used the old cabinets out of my Mom's old house that they had remodeled. At the time we couldn't afford new cabinets for the entire basement, bathroom & utility room. Those old cabinets were financial lifesavers!

Thanks Mom for not wasting them!! They moved out of the house into the workshed barn when we were done in the house with them.

[rob62521]

When we bought new kitchen cabinets a few years ago, we gave our old ones to the neighbors across the street for use in their garage. They were delighted, the guy doing our remodeling was delighted he didn't have to figure out a way to dispose of them. We already had shelves and things in our garage so we couldn't use them.

Last summer we had a new kitchen floor put in and we had this huge piece of oak that had been used to cover where a wall had been between the carpet and the kitchen floor. I kept it and almost a year later, one of the neighbors said he could use it. I was glad someone could...saved him some money and one less thing in the landfill.

[cschin4]

I thrwo "good stuff" away all the time. If I am not going to use it, then to me it is just clutter. I see no point in keeping something that I am not going to use. I tried the yard sale thing. It was a big hassle , i didn't make much and most went unsold and went to Good will. I also take boxes of stuff to Good will. However, our local GoodWill has ridiculously high prices for used things you can buy brand new at Walmart so I got tired of enriching them as well. That angered me because they get the stuff for free and are basically preying on the poor. So, now I will give some of it to friends, the rest I just toss in the trash. The trashman can pick it up if he wants it. Otherwise, good riddance.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by cschin4

I also take boxes of stuff to Good will. However, our local GoodWill has ridiculously high prices for used things you can buy brand new at Walmart so I got tired of enriching them as well.

Do you have any other thrift stores in your area? Many churches run their own as do some hospitals. There are also other charities that will pick up your stuff at your house like Purple Heart and American Cancer Society. You just call them and they come get the stuff.

Just something to think about before consigning it to the landfill.

[cschin4]

Steve, I know what you mean. However, even when I tried to give stuff away to people, they wouldn't show up to take it, etc. And, the drives for "stuff" often get pretty picky as to what they want.