Hi All -
I had a brainstorm after watching an Oprah show about Freeganism (www.freegan.info). It got me all steamed about waste in this country and I was ready to don some coveralls, leather gloves and attach a light to my hat and start dumpster diving. But I realized that I'm too much of a wussy to dig in other people's trash. So then I started thinking about how you could liberate trash before it even gets to the dumpster -
Remember a few years ago when we had that city wide put your stuff out on the curb for other people to dig through? That was a load of fun, but I believe it stopped because it was too much for the city to deal with. Well, what if we did just a neighborhood one, the first Sunday of the month, perhaps May - Oct?
I was thinking I could make special signs that say "columbia city free stuff sunday" that participants could put out, and we could have a website. Or perhaps you have stuff that you don't want to give away for free, than you could have a garage sale.
I know that we can (and do) already do this on our own, but it would be kinda neat to have a day where a bunch of us do it together. Then you could have brunch at your favorite joint, grab your wagon, and ramble through the 'hood picking up treasures - it would be a neat way to meet your neighbors.
The one criticism I thought of would be that after Sunday was over and if there still was stuff out laying around, it could become an eyesore. So perhaps the agreement would be that if it doesn't disappear on Sunday, you are responsible for bringing it back inside for the next Sunday, or recycling it, or posting it on craigslist, or something like that.
So I was wondering - what do you think of this idea?
And would anyone be interested in organizing this with me, if there's no major law or code being broken or anything?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Post here or email me at karinbolstad (at) hotmail.com
Karin Bolstad
(owner of the giant irish wolfhound Oskar - you probably have seen us out and about…)
