Am I missing something?

I realize that part of growing older is that almost everything seems to cost more.  But discounting pleasant memories, things do cost more. So, why do people simply through things away?  Sure, it is often the case that the repair bill is so high that a replacement seems logical, but that is not always the case and here are two examples.

In the past month I have made two trips to the Baltimore County Recycling Center, a.k.a. "dump."  During the first trip, as I was dropping off some scrap metal I overheard another resident being informed that he could not leave his lawn mower because he had not drained the oil.  Hence, he would have to return home, do the deed and return. Those of you who know me know that I have only purchase one new mower in my life so I suggested that he simply throw the mower onto my trailer and I would take care of it.  Oddly enough, the scenario repeated itself during my second trip!

I asked the first owner what was prompting him to scrap the mower, for it was apparently in good shape.  He informed me that his father-in-law gave him a newer, self-propelled unit and that this one didn't seem to run smoothly. So off to the dump.  When I returned home, I cleaned the spark plug, added new gas and mowed the lawn.

The second mower, above, had greater wear and the owner said that it would not run well.  After a couple of minutes, I think I located his problem, below.  What was he thinking?  Air filters need to be changed at least once every decade! This unit is at least a $300 unit and while it still needs a little work, it was running well enough to mow the front lawn after removing the filter and cleaning the spark plug.

I know that these are two seemingly isolated cases but the truth of the matter is that all one needs to do is visit any of the landfills on a weekend to recognize that perfectly good stuff is thrown away in VAST quantities.  What waste!

We get calls from at least 1/2 dozen organizations every month asking for donations and they of course are willing to pick up the items. Additionally, there is FreeCycle.  If you have not heard of it, check it out at http://www.freecycle.org/  Once you join a local Freecycle you simply list what you have for pick-up i.e. free, and an interested party will contact you and arrange to pick it up. I have met a number of very interesting people and found homes for more things than I can remember. I once found a home for a full set of 1/2 used tires that someone was delighted to get as she had no money for new tires she needed.  I should note that Firestone was going to dispose of them for me for additional cost of $12.  (Definitely, a win-win.)  It just goes to show you that it is really quite true that one man's trash is another man's treasure.


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