Wastefulness

[MaggieTheCat]

The day after Christmas, my cousin found a Christmas tree that had been tossed, complete with (removable) lights, ornaments, star, tree stand, and tree skirt, all still on the tree, all of which were new or at least looked new and in perfectly good condition. She was pretty upset; she's a single mom of a one year old, trying to go to school, and working when and where she can to make end's meat. She didn't have the money for a nice tree like that (it was a large, real tree; all she has is a very small artificial tree and few decorations) and to see someone just toss out their ENTIRE tree without even removing the decorations ticked her off. So, she took the decorations, lights, stand and skirt off the tree, kept some of it for herself, donated the rest to the Salvation Army, and left a note taped to the tree that basically said whoever tossed the tree fully decorated is a lazy, wasteful person and an embarrassment to the human race.

Well, my cousin apparently knows (or knows someone who knows) this person, because said person posted a response on her Facebook that got back to my cousin. The response basically said: "The decorations and lights are old, no one wants them, the Salvation Army doesn't need or deserve them, and I'M NINE MONTHS PREGNANT (yes, she said it all in caps) and I didn't want to un-decorate my tree." Then she called the person who left the note (my cousin) a bunch of not very nice names and said she was wasting her time by taking all the decorations off.

So, I'm curious what you guys think. Personally, I gave my cousin huge kudos for doing what she did, especially leaving the note, because I do think that people are way too wasteful in the world today and they don't give it a second thought. The person who tossed the tree said the decorations were old and no one would want them, but obviously that isn't true since my cousin kept some of them. I'm sure my cousin is not the only person who can't afford Christmas decorations and there's probably other families out there who have had to skimp on decorations, especially in the last few years with the economy being in the crapper. Like my cousin said, this person could have at least taken the decorations off, put them in a box, written "FREE" on it and put it on the curb with the rest of the garbage.

[Amanita]

^I agree wholeheartedly with your cousin! That level of waste is just disgusting, and I don't buy the pregnant thing as an excuse. If she could decorate the thing in her condition, she can damn well un-decorate it, or get somebody to help her.
The salvation army doesn't "deserve" them? Nobody else "deserves" them? Puh-lease!
I'm glad your cousin saved that stuff, and shame on preggo for being such a lazy, wasteful sack! She's just butthurt that she got caught, is all.

[HYHYBT]

In years when I don't feel like un-decorating a tree, I don't put one up in the first place

And old is good in Christmas ornaments! Half the fun of a tree is in seeing them again.

[telecom_goddess]

OMG I think your cousin did great. As for the ornaments being "old"...really? isn't that part of having ornaments? I have ones that are at least 100 years old and I treasure them. I also have ones that were made by me in school and by my kids...ones I've bought them and ones they've bought me...and they are all different materials/ages/styles and I love them all.

What a maroon for throwing all that out.

[Andara Bledin]

How strange that a "NINE MONTHS PREGNANT" woman can haul a tree out to the garbage, but can't manage to undress it. I call bullshit and laziness. If she didn't feel like it and whoever helped put the tree out wouldn't help, the woman just needs to own up to it.

^-.-^

[Rageaholic]

So she's getting rid of the tree anyway, yet is still pissed about someone taking it for better use? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Though I can see why she'd be annoyed by the letter.

[blas87]

I love the pregnant excuse. I must agree with Andara, if you can haul a tree out to the curb as trash, you can take all the bling off it as well.

I also love it when people throw out trash, then get upset if someone comes along to take it. I don't mean people who dumpster dive to steal info or like my landlord who has been seen dumpster diving ever since he found a microwave in the dumpster and has been paranoid ever since, but when someone throws out furniture or other stuff and then someone takes it away.

[LadyBarbossa]

I hate the attitude of 'it's not new to me, therefore it's trash'. I see red whenever I'm driving along and see barely used furniture on the curbs. OP's cousin did the right thing. I also really wish people would realize that pregnancy does not equal disabled. Our ancestors would want to slap us for being pansies about the whole thing.

[Boozy]

I hate wastefulness, but I also hate nasty notes from people who should probably be minding their own business.

That's pretty much my take on it.

[AdminAssistant]

That's pretty much my take on it.

Mine too, Boozy.

I probably throw away things that could be used by someone else, and I'm crazy about expiration dates, so I know I throw out food that someone else might eat, but is "bad" in my head. But it's my stuff, and I can do what I like with it. I'm glad your cousin 'rescued' the decorations, but if someone wants to buy all new things every year and throw them away every year, then that's their right.

And I nearly called the police on some guy rooting through my four-plex's dumpster. There's a big group of locals who do that as a lifestyle choice, and it's annoying. Private dumpster, private property, GTFO.

[blas87]

Amen, Admin.

If anyone wants to hear another one of my wonderful stories of growing up, well, I got a golden one!

I was maybe 16 years old (?) and had a friend over, one morning my parents and brother were gone and we wanted to make breakfast. My friend went to pour the milk but checked the date, it was expired. Which led her to find some modly fruits and veggies STILL in the bags from the grocery store, which led us to find nasty old cottage cheese and moldy sliced cheese, bad yogurt and leftovers that were pushed all the way into the back of the fridge.

We then went into the freezer and found meats that actually made the move to this house from the old house. I'm talking venison from 1997-2001 (and this was 2003) and other various frozen stuff that was no longer good.

We tossed every nasty thing we found.

My parents came home, outraged. My friend had to leave, and I was promptly grounded for wasting food and throwing stuff away without my parents' permission.

While they did leave the rotten dairy and produce in the garbage as it was, they took all that meat back out and put it BACK in the freezer (it's probably still there today) and some other random stuff we pitched, and I was threatened that if I ever did it again, I'd be grounded again and buying my own fridge and my own groceries until I moved out, and I'd learn that you can't just throw everything away.

And to this day, there is still always some sort of nasty rotten fruit or bad yogurt or other dairy product in their fridge. My mom NEVER actually takes a tally of what they need and just buys tons of fruits and yogurts and no one eats them and they go bad. She just buys more and more and shoves the old ones BACK instead of eating them first, or at all.

My parents take the saying "Waste not, want not" way too far.

[MaggieTheCat]

Ugh, blas, that's nasty. When I moved in with my husband, I was rooting through the freezer one night to see what kinds of frozen meats he had. I found a package of ground beef that had been in there for like 2 years...and I know that during those 2 years, his fridge and freezer had died 3 or 4 times and finally had to be replaced, so likely the meat had been frozen, thawed, sat out for however long it was till he got a new freezer, and re-frozen. Gross! I tossed it immediately.

I also try to make a point of going through our fridge about once a month to clean out any old stuff that's past its prime. I should probably do it more often, but at least I keep it from smelling awful.

[blas87]

I have inherited a few bad genes from my family, I will openly admit that I'm a mini pack rat, but I do my damnest to not have nasty old food in my apartment.

I have a spare bedroom full of boxes and random crap. I have a bathroom closet that became an anything closet. Every once in a while when we don't have overtime or I have a good couple of days to myself, I go through and clean up really well (but have still never done anything to that spare room....eeek! That may take a week) and actually organize.

I will admit I'm not the cleanest of people and can be a mini-horder but I don't hopelessly cling on to stuff, I am just lazy and feel I don't have time to deal with it.

[protege]

And I nearly called the police on some guy rooting through my four-plex's dumpster. There's a big group of locals who do that as a lifestyle choice, and it's annoying. Private dumpster, private property, GTFO.

Out in the 'burbs, there are quite a few people who do that. Every night, before trash day, a beat-up green van cruises the neighborhood, looking for "treasure." I've seen the van hauling scrap lumber, broken appliances, TVs, and other junk. There have been instances of the treasure being worthless, and it has been known to "reappear" where it came from

What gets me about the waste, is that quite a bit of it could easily be reused. Instead of contributing to the country's landfill problem...why not donate it to charity, or even sell it in the cheap ads? Some people are just lazy, I guess. But, some of the waste stems from the fact...that many electronic products, simply aren't worth repairing. Prices have come down enough, that it's actually cheaper to buy a new printer than to fix an old one, for example.

[telecom_goddess]

As far as trash goes....I feel once it's thrown out it's fair game and doesn't belong to anyone anymore, and if I see something that is good and not worthy of throwing away I will grab it. I've found lots of great things this way. By the same token if I have something I don't want anymore I put it out there and expect it to be taken.