Nov 1, 2017 3 min read

My garbage men are my heroes. Week after week, they show up in the rain, snow, heat or cold to take away things that I want to discard from my house and life.

This week, they had an easy time of it with just one tiny trash bag. They were probably cheering when they saw that, because last week they were stuck hauling away a half dozen bags of construction debris after my basement got a brand new ceiling. That was in addition to myriad other trash I was clearing out from the garage and my storage unit.

My house has been undergoing a yearlong facelift that is finally limping toward completion, and that has meant getting rid of old, dated decorations, knick-knacks and curtains. I’ve donated to charities, given items away and sold some things, but some stuff is just truly worthy of the trash bin … or at least I thought.

The old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” has never been proven to be more truthful than on the eve of trash day. I’m a very organized person, and I hate clutter, so tossing unnecessary items is easy for me. I could easily start a business helping those with pack rat or hoarding tendencies to rid themselves of their extra stuff. One trash day eve this past summer, I set out an old dining chair with a broken rattan seat thinking no one would want to buy it or even take it for charity. I turned to get its mate inside and heard a truck behind me. A man jumped out and said, “Are you throwing this out?” I replied, “Yes, it’s all yours, and I have three more if you want them, but they all are broken.” He tossed the chair in the truck and said, “I’ll take them!” He happily loaded them up, and I told him I had an old desk chair if he wanted it. He promised to return after emptying his truck. I rolled out the desk chair and went back inside. Before he could return, another trash picker had snatched it! While thrilled that my old items found new homes rather than the landfill, I wondered who these people are driving around perusing other folks’ trash.

Any metal items are immediately grabbed by scrappers to resell, and they whisked away an old, unsafe metal ladder last week that I did not have the time or energy to take to the scrapyard myself. Then a young man and his mom pulled up, and he eagerly jumped out and tossed some old dumbbells and weights into their truck. The weights were from the 1980s, with crumbling plastic coating, and I’m still pondering why he wanted them. Who am I to ask? The trash pickers have their own agenda, and it’s fun wondering what trash they will turn into treasure.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.