Heavy metal

4/6/10 Random scrap metal, trashed

I feel bad about the amount of downsizes I done that involve throwing items away. As of today, forty-five days have been devoted to tossing stuff. To assuage some of my guilt, I need to express the fact that it's not easy to trash things.

First, I sort of feel like I'm betraying the planet. That's bad enough.

But then, there's the actual logistics of tossing stuff, which are often tricky.

For example, at the Casco/Naples Transfer Station (aka "The Dump"), the paper/plastic/glass recycling and household garbage area is a simple drive-up affair. I pull up to the bins, throw in my stuff, and I'm off.

But, the Bulky Waste area is another story. You need to drive into Bulky Waste past a little guard station, where your car is weighed. When you leave, your car is weighed again, and you're charged based on how much weight you left behind. What complicates it is that there are different charges for different items. Most items cost $20 per ton to dispose of. But, brush and branches are half that, and metal is free.

If you drive in there with a mixed load, you literally need to go back to get weighed (which also means waiting in a car line as if you're on the Garden State Parkway) every time you drop something from one category. That's such a hassle, that it's only worth taking one kind of bulky waste per day.

Today was metal day. I'd been collecting various nuts & bolts, broken fasteners, giant springs, old fence posts, and the like in a corner of my shed. Today I took them to the dump and finally rid myself of them.

As I took the above picture one of the guys who works there came up and asked me, "What's that picture for?" They always act like everyone is trying to somehow scam the dump.

As usual, I gave my enthusiastic explanation of the Downsizing Challenge. I've been doing the challenge for more than eight months and I've explained it a hundred times. The response is almost universally supportive and positive.

The dump guy scowled, as if he had a sudden bowel cramp, and then just turned and walked away.

Guess that's what you call getting dumped on.