Wanting to recycle and keep discards out of the landfill means more than a few items around the household are future disposal problems. Offhand, I'd suggest Styrofoam as a worst offender, especially the chunks encasing new flat-screens my neighbor seems to buy. Nobody wants the stuff and its bulk doesn't lend itself to trash-cart stuffing. So, responsibly, you go to a place in Portland that will take it off your hands for a fee.
But sometimes you're in luck. Someone will buy your disposal problem. Namely, a treadmill machine in my basement, with a 300-pound motor, had to go. A resale place offered me $150 cash for this machine ... at their store. Picked up in my garage, the offer dropped to $110. But if I needed the store owner and assistant(s) to wrestle it up the two steps out of my basement, well, there might go most of any offer. I ended up building a ramp and with a neighbor got the treadmill millstone out of the basement.
Of course, a lot of what we want to Marie Kondo out of our life can go to charitable causes. We box up household goods and trundle off to the neighborhood Goodwill donation center. But sometimes not.
I recently decided to rid myself of an inflatable boat in the basement, used no more than three times (including one unforgettable trip to Clear Lake in the Oregon Cascades). I packed up the deflated inflatable boat, its electric inflator, the screw-together plastic oars, and the life vests and drove off to a Goodwill donation drive-up. Before I took anything out, I asked.
Do you take inflatable boats?
No.
Do you take these plastic oars?
No.
Will you take these life vests? (Surely someone learning to swim could use those.)
No.
Is it a liability issue?
Yes.
So I gather even Goodwill has a list of things they positively will not take under any circumstances. I'm sure baby strollers and child car seats are out for some sticky liability problems too.
Unbelievably, the whole inflatable boat went into my trash cart for pickup. Life vests cut into three pieces each. Screw-together plastic oars broke down into three pieces each. Electric inflator was small. But that big gray vinyl deflated boat? Got out scissors and began cutting strips. Cut vinyl went into four Kraft grocery bags. Each bag was compressed with my workbench vice and duct-taped closed. So I had four fairly compact bags with what used to be an inflatable boat.
So with other trash, the whole inflatable boat and accessories went out of my life. Another disposal problem brought to bay.
Image credit: amazon.com
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection (and feel free to share with a friend) The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
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