quote:

Originally posted by Candidate:
Melbourne is looking for cheesy plastic santas if anyone sees any.
I can only guess that these are for a practical joke.

That gives me an idea - although it's probably definitely best left to teens...

But, one could go around with some friends and collect a mountain of horrible kitsch to pile in front of someones house ....

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate:
Mama
E-mail me and I will gladly take your very dried firewood. Can I offer any junk in trade?

4MP You just answered a question for me. I was sure that wasn't your bike you were using for the Reids ride. Cute basket though.

sorry - just saw this. The firewood was snapped up in about 10 minutes. Along with two broken vaccuums, luggage with bad zippers, and a broken patio umbrella. The firewood I can understand, but what do people do with the rest of this stuff?

And as far as all the other stuff I wanted to put out, my husband won. Aside from lots of empty boxes and the luggage, which he actively reminisced about the trips we took using it as he dragged it to the curb, nothing made it outside. He even fought me on the empty boxes. Him: "What if we really need an empty box for something?" Me: "Aaarrgghh!"

I elicited a promise that if the things I wanted to put out are still in our basement in April 2010, they will find their way to the curb. I should have gotten it in writing . . .

I have watched the progression of junk seeking people since the inception of this event. I have also seen the level of junk elevate and the socio-economic level of junkers decrease. (Am I being a snob here?)I would not let a kid be outside alone on junk weekend ever! I really wonder if this weekend is an accident/unfortunate incident waiting to happen? I still think I could do this whole thing for less than $30 in pink garbage stickers. Mr. Scotty felt that as he was driving home that he was mistaken for a garbage picker. I did assure him that full time/serious garbage pickers do not drive cute little red cars!

I agree that we can't let our children out of site this weekend. I had to tell my boys ages 8 and 6 that they had to stay in the yard instead of allowing them to use the normal boundary. They asked why so I said what every parent says best, "because I said so".

Maybe we can petition the village to stop this event and use the tax dollars to keep the CBD clean.

I LOVE this event. It's the ULTIMATE in recycling. Think about it. If you just throw the stuff away on any given weekend, it likely will not be repurposed and/or taken to trade in for cash (scrap metal). Then, it just ends up in the landfills faster.

I put out two old computer monitors that work, an old vaccuum, a TV, and a furnace that works. All were taken except the TV. I also put out two bags of old shoes and none of those were taken. But still, all that other stuff would have been junked and now maybe someone else can get some kind of benefit from them. We did try to sell some of the items but they were never purchased (kind of like Fan's Armoire). So, why not have that one weekend, lay all your junk out nicely on the parkway and let the recyclers go at it!

I'm with Amy. I love this opportunity to have stuff that would otherwise be piling up in landfills reused. As my junk pile shrunk, I tried to think of more stuff around the house that we'd never use again, but someone else could.

As neighbors worked in their yards we would wager on how quickly a particular item would be snapped up after placement at the curb. We had some kiddie toys out that I knew would make the day more enjoyable for the families with children in tow.

The kids got sentimental about a few things asking, "Why are you throwing that away?" I replied, "Tell me why I should keep it?" If they didn't have a good answer, it was moved to the curb.

We did not get scary people. Maybe they came after dark. There was a very interesting variety of people, though.

I agree with you, Amy. I hope that this event does not go away. Those hauling away our good trash (the oxymoron was intentional) are doing us all a favor if the stuff stays out of landfills.

quote:

Originally posted by Amy:
I LOVE this event. It's the ULTIMATE in recycling. Think about it. If you just throw the stuff away on any given weekend, it likely will not be repurposed and/or taken to trade in for cash (scrap metal). Then, it just ends up in the landfills faster.

I put out two old computer monitors that work, an old vaccuum, a TV, and a furnace that works. All were taken except the TV. I also put out two bags of old shoes and none of those were taken. But still, all that other stuff would have been junked and now maybe someone else can get some kind of benefit from them. We did try to sell some of the items but they were never purchased (kind of like Fan's Armoire). So, why not have that one weekend, lay all your junk out nicely on the parkway and let the recyclers go at it!

Actually, every weekend, people pick through my stuff. Again - probably looking for scrap metal -which we dispose of someplace else.

quote:

Originally posted by yigo92:
I agree that we can't let our children out of site this weekend. I had to tell my boys ages 8 and 6 that they had to stay in the yard instead of allowing them to use the normal boundary. They asked why so I said what every parent says best, "because I said so".

Maybe we can petition the village to stop this event and use the tax dollars to keep the CBD clean.

Good idea! However I fear the kids are really getting into it more - little ones as well as the teens. Either their parents ask them to go 'pick something up' in their little wagons with the friends, or the kids just want the stuff to hide in their rooms and they snatch it themselves. I noticed the number of kids this year was higher, I thought.

I do like the recycling thinking part. But I do believe it does happen pretty much everyweekend, you just don't see it in front of your eyes. It happens in the middle of the night. I do hear people Sundays/Mondays coming through in their cars and trucks. If I do put a pile or large item out, it's usually gone by Monday. We don't put our stickers on until we literally see the garbage truck approaching.

I hear this is VERY expensive. That's why we didn't do it yearly.

Yeah, the only reason I could imagine trying to keep my kids in sight (when they were younger) is so they didn't bring our neighbors' trash to our house!

I agree, this is neat on many levels. But when I see some stuff that looks quite "tired" in the back of these trucks, I really wonder about the lives folks must lead that this will be a welcome improvement. Seriously, there can't be much of a secondary market for old rugs and silk plants. Certainly not enough to offset the cost of gas.

For me, unlimited trash day is one of my happier memories of Glen Ellyn. For my kids, too. I still remember the first one - it just came out of nowhere, it seemed, and my boys were small (about 9 and 7, I think? Maybe a little older.) But to them it was the most amazing day in the history of amazing days. We let them go around the block with their friends to do some "trash pickin'" and they came back with the worst junk (in our eyes, of course) but to them it was treasure. My son was pushing a giant leather office chair twice his size up the hill, but that chair - yes, it leaned a little, but still - stayed in his room until he left for college. We were all sad to see it go.

Every time the event occurred, of course, my kids got bigger and the treasure got smaller in their eyes but they always remember that first one fondly. And still, this year, my 17-year-old and his friends looked forward to it and went out and basically acted like goofy little kids again. And my son brought home this ugly portrait of an owl done in orange thread, but he's saving it to decorate his college dorm in a couple of years. And he thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

So I like this day. (Or - days.) The worst part is navigating around the traffic but with gas the way it is, who needs to drive, anyway?

quote:

Originally posted by jombl:

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Herbold: Lots of great scrap metal at my house that was picked up and undoubtedly turned into cash.....just too lazy to go farther than the end of my drive.

I'm always curious about markets - I called the local yard again this year, the going price for scrap metal is double what was posted here two years ago and is now $200 a ton. Looking at the numbers last time it looks like this year the scrappers will make from $1200 to $2500 each off of GE trash depending on delivery location. Also saw a U-Haul rental pass by, can't say I remember seeing that before.

If the Scrappy’s have any kind of market savvy they better be getting more than $200. Scrap dealers were paying $500/NT for#1 railroad scrap just two weeks ago. Since new prices have climbed almost $300/NT in the last 30 days, I suspect my numbers are now low… So, if they sort the scrap prior to selling it, they should be in the $375/NT range and probably about $300/NT not sorted.
This is a great time to be in the scrap business, they are making a killing. We pay more for scrap (sorted by a very specific grade) than what my finished product sell price was just 5 years ago.

Definitely proving once again that one man's trash in another's treasure. Good for the "scrappies" and thanks to you for taking all of my "crap-py."

perplexed - Is an aluminum wheel good for this scrapping? Can I take it to the Reynold's recycling truck and get some $$?

quote:

Originally posted by GEmom2:
Definitely proving once again that one man's trash in another's treasure. Good for the "scrappies" and thanks to you for taking all of my "crap-py."

perplexed - Is an aluminum wheel good for this scrapping? Can I take it to the Reynold's recycling truck and get some $$?

GEMom, I really don’t know… I don’t deal in aluminum directly anymore. I can tell you that aluminum is the most abundant metal found on earth (found in ore’s like bauxite). So I suspect that it’s probably not as good as say steel or copper (outrageously high right now).
I can tell you that most aluminum ore comes from bauxite and it’s all brought into the US from one dock in Texas. A few years ago a ship hit the dock causing some serious structural damage that has never been fixed. When this thing falls in the Gulf, your aluminum will be valuable (at least until they fix the thing).

Dock

Perplexed, you seem to know a lot about the scrap/recycling biz. Perhaps you could help a couple of my buddies out. You see, they live in NY but are trying to make the "Michigan bottle deposit" numbers work for them. Any advice would be appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by Ruydah:
Perplexed, you seem to know a lot about the scrap/recycling biz. Perhaps you could help a couple of my buddies out. You see, they live in NY but are trying to make the "Michigan bottle deposit" numbers work for them. Any advice would be appreciated.

LOL

perplexed - thanks for the fun aluminum facts.

Ruydah - They just don't write 'em like that anymore. We caught the tail end of the Seinfeld "rickshaw" episode from 1998 last night - good, clean (relative to today) and funny stuff.

Perplexed: are you an importer-exporter?

quote:

Originally posted by GE Fan:
Perplexed: are you an importer-exporter?

I’m in the steel business and buy/sell globally.

quote:

Originally posted by Dinsdale:
Seriously, there can't be much of a secondary market for old rugs and silk plants. Certainly not enough to offset the cost of gas.

Oh Dinsdale, you need to get out of the Western burbs more often!

Seriously, people just want to have a roof over their heads and a few things of their own - that they call their own. So, if they can get an old, used rug and silk plant to personalize their space, they'll take it. It might not seem economically feasible with gas prices but if they get enough stuff, it's probably worthwhile - which is why we see so many more people doing trash picking on the big trash day.

The first year of the big trash day, I went around town with a friend to look for items we could use in our church (First Con). The Sunday School classrooms were being re-decorated with the theme, "Lighting the Way." So every room has a light theme (The Lighthouse, Rainbow Studio, Lamppost Arcade, Temple of Light, Sunshine Cinema, etc...) We found someone's old lamppost - a little spray paint and it looked fantastic! We found some 70's shelving where the main structure looked like bamboo and the glass shelves were missing...we hung fake meat, and fruit from the bamboo at different levels and took some striped fabric to make little tent awnings over them...it's all still there and really looks like a marketplace (the outer part of the Temple). It was so much fun!