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I live in Portland. Walk around certain neighborhoods, and you’ll see items out on the street - mostly garbage. Broken couches, broken tables, broken appliances

I live in Portland. Walk around certain neighborhoods, and you’ll see items out on the street - mostly garbage. Broken couches, broken tables, broken appliances, that sort of thing. Typically, items with remaining utility are exchanged via Goodwill or an online tool like Buy Nothing. My guess is that the college does not want to allow students to dump their mostly-garbage on the neighbors. At the same time, wealthy students who will throw out items of value may feel they have better things to do than separate out items to donate. That’s especially true if they wait until the last minute. Overall, separating items to donate from one’s trash is a way to avoid paying to dispose of trash at the dump and a way to perhaps be charitable or environmentally conscious. I’m not convinced it’s all that effective as an altruistic move. If the college sets up a place to dump for free, I’m not at all surprised many people take advantage of it without another thought.

RajT88 1y ago
I do not even live in Portland - I live on the edge of a suburban area where people skew pretty conservative. I see the same thing - people who want to get rid of perfectly good stuff, and do not want it to go to waste. Even I do this occasionally if I cannot be bothered to repair a thing - it goes out a bit before garbage day and is usually soon gone.* *Unless it is an old non-wide LCD monitor. Nobody wants those...
paulcole 1y ago
I live near Ladds Addition and the free piles are the worst. 90% of it is pure crap that just sits out for weeks. People put it out to feel good about themselves. Once I saw a bunch of random wires with a label, “FREE - great for art projects.” It’s like thanks for letting me know I was going to knock on doors until I found the right person to make an offer to.
- cgio 1y ago
  When I put out any electrical/electronic device here in Australia, the only thing that gets picked up, is the wires, snipped from the devices; I still don’t know why. Recycling would not make sense at this scale I think. And in the process, they destroy the device for anyone who might have a use for it.
  - corkybeta 1y ago
    Maybe there are plenty of art projects going on nearby.

RajT88 1y ago

I do not even live in Portland - I live on the edge of a suburban area where people skew pretty conservative. I see the same thing - people who want to get rid of perfectly good stuff, and do not want it to go to waste. Even I do this occasionally if I cannot be bothered to repair a thing - it goes out a bit before garbage day and is usually soon gone.* *Unless it is an old non-wide LCD monitor. Nobody wants those...

paulcole 1y ago

I live near Ladds Addition and the free piles are the worst. 90% of it is pure crap that just sits out for weeks. People put it out to feel good about themselves. Once I saw a bunch of random wires with a label, “FREE - great for art projects.” It’s like thanks for letting me know I was going to knock on doors until I found the right person to make an offer to.

cgio 1y ago
When I put out any electrical/electronic device here in Australia, the only thing that gets picked up, is the wires, snipped from the devices; I still don’t know why. Recycling would not make sense at this scale I think. And in the process, they destroy the device for anyone who might have a use for it.
- corkybeta 1y ago
  Maybe there are plenty of art projects going on nearby.