Latest Adventure

I thought I'd write about our latest adventure in recycling/reusing. Here it's not against the law to dumpster dive. I hear it is in some states. If it's in the trash, it's free game. If you don't want it, you can put it on the curb out in front of your house, and someone will pick it up, or behind your house where the trash is picked up and someone will pick it up before the trash man goes by.

My husband goes by the day before trash days to scrounge for copper, steel and other recyclable metals. We collect cans to be turned in. Right now we're saving everything we can for my son's camping trip with his school. They're going to Sky Ranch sometime after school is out. I have to have $210 by April 1st. I just had to buy a hot water heater ($610) that I didn't have. I hate to tell him I can't send him when all the other kids in his Math and Science Institute of a school are going. One little girl said her mother is making home made tortillas and selling them in order to send her. This is all I know to do. No one buys home made knitted products anymore. My sister-in-law tried that. It didn't do well. They want to buy it for made in China prices, and you just can't make money that way. It doesn't even pay for your materials, let alone give you any profit.

So, with the snow softly falling over the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on this February day, my husband went out to look for materials. He took a vacation day to clean out his garage, but now it's too cold. It actually turned out to be quite a profitable day. He found a house that was either an eviction, or someone died and they cleaned it out. I'm wearing, as I type, a slanket. It's a blanket with sleeves in it. Already washed and dried. There were 4 pairs of shoes, in various sizes, one to fit my husband, one to fit his dad, and a few that will go to the cub scout garage sale. There were clothes that fit my oldest son, clothes for me, and a couple work shirts for my husband. He found a TV that doesn't work. You'd be amazed how much copper is in a broken TV. He scraps it out. He also found some jewelry. Most was cheap, but he found a pair of silver angel earrings, and 2 angel pins that may be gold, what appears to be bakelite ear rings and possibly a gold chain. Also some Christmas pins that have marks on them. We also found a set of metal wall plaques that appear to be from the 1950's. I tried to look them up. I found the manufacturer, but not that exact piece. It appears to be worth about $15 each. Not bad for finding it in the trash. If I can find a buyer....I'll hold on to it for a while, maybe put it on Ebay.

In these times, I'm not ashamed to say we dumpster dive. You'd be amazed what gets thrown out. Whatever we find and don't personally need, we donate to the cub scout garage sale. It benefits our boys, since my husband is a leader, and someone will get the use of it. It also saved space in the dump. It's getting used again. This was all going to be collected and thrown in the trash. It's all perfectly good stuff, being thrown out. It still has life in it. The TV doesn't, but it's being broken down into smaller components and recycled better. I don't know if the trash man takes a whole TV. As to getting paid for his time? Well, he's getting vacation pay today, so whatever he gets from it is icing.

So, the husband is off to the recycling center, and I'm pulling the 2nd load of wash out of the dryer.