Perhaps it’s a growing realization there’s something just plain wrong with throwing away otherwise usable items.
Or perhaps more people are taking to heart the old saying “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
But on top of the established garage sale culture, a true entrepreneurial expression if there ever was one, more and more people are seeking alternatives to chucking stuff in the dump.
Both the Terrace and Thornhill landfills now have specific places where perfectly good items are salvaged before they can be tossed away.
Want tools? Even a lawnmower that can be revived with a bit of TLC? Then pay a visit to the landfills.
And for those who don’t want to go to the landfills but who enjoy open-air shopping, it’s not that unusual nowadays to see hand-lettered “free” signs placed on small piles of items placed at the foot of driveways.
Call it a grassroots citizen’s movement, a human reaction to what has increasingly become a wasteful and throwaway culture.
While municipal governments all over the province are in an uproar over the prospect of a beefed up – and potentially expensive – system of recycling, it’s comforting to know the average citizen is finding a way to do much the same in a quiet and efficient fashion.