Is it OK to take goods discarded by others for your own use?

Question

In my city we have a once a year curbside junk collection where residents can place dicarded objects such as refrigerators, computers, furniture etc outside their houses and it will be taken away for land fill. Would you stop and take an object from one such discard pile if you needed it? For example, a chair or a bicycle in good order. Would you be embarrassed to be seen taking it, even though the owners don't want it?

Answer 1

Good Heavens! I once furnished my house with items that others threw out for the landfill. I plucked a couch from the curb that was scratched and had padding falling out and missing a leg. I sewed up the cushions, stained the wood, threw 2 plaid sheets over it, tucked the ends in, found a "just right rock" to hold up the one corner with no leg and loved it for the next 13 years!

I collect rocking horses and winter is the best time of year to go trash picking. Children get new toys for Christmas and the old ones are thrown out for the garbage man. I usually get them before the garbage truck does. A little spray paint goes a long way.

One week, I collected three rocking horses, kept the oldest one and gave the other two to children in a poor neighborhood. They thought I was Mrs Claus!

Answer 2

"Junkin" has become a most acceptable and popular outing for a lot of folks today. It is perfectly alright to do, and the discarders surely would not mind if someone takes something that they no longer want, as long as you don't go nuts and scatter their stuff all over the street or something like that. If you feel insecure, just knock on their door and say "Hey, I could really use that ...... that you are throwing out...Do you mind if I take it?" On programs such as "Antiques Roadshow" you often hear folks say they found their treasure "in the trash". And it is a good way to clean house too. I recently had a few boxes of "junk" that I wanted to get rid of but didn't really feel like carrying them to the next town to donate to the thrift store. I put them out by the street with a sign that said "Take Me. I'm Free." By the end of the day, the stuff was gone and I hope that someone found them useful.

Answer 3

Absolutely, get what you can. I advise checking on things that have a serial number with your local police dept. just in case something may have been stolen at one time and you don't accidentally get arrested for receiving of stolen property. Once your neighbors has placed their unwanted items at the curb for collection it's community property.
I had a neighbor once who discarded an old box full of American war coupons. It was like money during ww2 that the G.I.'s could spend in Korea.
when the war ended the coupons were worthless and discarded. I picked them out of the box and saved over 3000 of them for over 40 years now. I recently found out that each coupons is worth $8 to $15 to a collector. I still have some mint condition Benny Goodman 78 speed clay disks in pristine condition I found on junk day. Happy treasure hunting.

Answer 4

One of my friends lives in an area that has alleys, and they use dumpsters, not garbage cans. You should see the stuff people throw out! My friend got some louvered doors, she sanded and restained them, they are in her bedroom. I saw an interview on PBS, a famous person was showing off his house. He showed a chandelier that was there, and said he got it out of a dumpster. If it is OK for him, it is OK.
The only objection I have is the mess people make, looking through the garbage. I put out hundreds of bags after I cleaned out my parents home after they were gone, and some one came in the night and threw stuff all over the yard, and tore the bags so the garbage people could not possibly pick them up. The next garbage day, I was out there at dawn, guarding the sacks.
Have you seen the show about the brothers who take furniture out of the garbage pile, redo it, and give it back to the owners? I need to see that.
No, I would not be embarrassed.
The garbage collectors are not supposed to take stuff for themselves, but they do. and there are scavengers, who drive around on garbage day, and go through stuff, looking for metal, and recyclable stuff. So get there first.

Answer 5

No problem, here in Japan, people are constantly throwing away perfectly good electronic equipment, I've got 2 amplifiers, 2 sets of speakers, a portable minidisc player that all work fine, and would have cost a few hundred dollars to buy.

I also picked up 2 sets of shelves, (they were a bit harder to get home but I managed it).

Answer 6

hey.we had that here in nsw australia a few weeks ago.and i cleaned out all my unwanted stuff and put it on the side of the road and the next morning i got up n it was all gone.i was happy they took it cos i wasnt going to use it.i didnt see anything i wanted in other ppls piles but if i did i probably would have took it.i would feel a bit pov but hey...why pay for something if u can get it for free.

Answer 7

They do the same thing in this city. Every scouts for useful items and they city is glad to have you take it so they have less tonnage going to the land fill. If I saw something of interest I would take it and not be embarrassed.

Answer 8

One mans trash is another mans treasure. I've done it a couple times. No not embarrassed all they want to do is get rid of it. Think of the space we save from trashing it when another person picks it up, that saves money also on the cities behalf and yours.

Answer 9

NO- this country wastes so much, you could even find things and donate them to people who are in serious need for them such as bikes. Be smart, not insecure.

Answer 10

Yes, homeless people dig through the trash all of the time!!! I took a lamp from in front of a house once, it saved me ten bucks from wal-mart and I had a well lit living room!!!!