To the tip
It is always pleasing to take a load of rubbish to the tip. In our case, most of it is recyclable material, from cardboard boxes to newspapers, to plastic and glass bottles. We also included some bougainvillea cuttings this morning as we hadn’t wanted them in the compost due to their spikes. It was bad enough trying to get them off the trailer, let alone having to deal with them at a later date if they hadn’t decomposed properly.
Amongst our load were three broken chairs, one that had rusted out and the other two because they had snapped. They certainly don’t make furniture how they used to. Even the chairs in our lounge suite are nearing their end as, with most of the ball bearings lost and the swivel action almost non-existent. These wouldn’t be much older than ten years old. I had bought the suite off a neighbour who was selling it because it was too low for her. At the time, I didn’t understand that, but I certainly do now as I try and raise myself off it. The other chairs, which we took to the dump, were about eight years old. Their construction entailed a bent piece of wood that became the arms. They looked good, but weren’t that sturdy. I think I have written about the poor quality of things in the past so won’t go there again except to say that I certainly don’t hold the expectations of things lasting as they used to.
I guess in someways it makes it more exciting, that one has a perfectly legitimate reason for replacing items - because they have worn out. I think I would feel guilty if I was just replacing something because it was no longer fashionable or just because I wanted a change. That mentality of not wasting anything is still very much alive in me, having been instilled in childhood, from my own parents’ experiences of the depressions. We were never to waste food or anything growing up.
Anyway, back to the tip. We are so lucky to have this facility on our doorstep, only a five-minute drive away. It is open three mornings during the week and both Saturday and Sunday, plus we have a bag pick-up from the house on Wednesdays. I had heard several times that we could purchase rubbish bags from the dump quite cheaply but when I enquired this morning, I was told that that was incorrect and they do not sell them. We now pay almost five dollars per bag from our supermarket. Everything is becoming more expensive.
It is nice for all the bottles to have gone and less clutter. We tend to store recyclables on our deck, a close place to put them. Cardboard boxes get taken to the garage though and it was good clearing out the supply that was accumulating there. A very satisfying morning.