Trash Cans in Front of Building

I remember reading an article sometime ago about some New Yorkers who call themselves' f'reegans' . These people are radical environmentalists who reject our consumerist culture and live on what other New Yorkers throw away. I remember being fascinated by the feature in Marie Claire at that time and managed to locate it - http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/latest/freegan-lifestyle-trash?click=main_sr

@uptowngirl That freegan pictured doesn't look as if she's living the healthiest lifestyle; just sayin'. My sister's ex used to be really into dumpster diving, though I don't think he ate anything he foraged - but it's a relatively common cultural occurrence.

@hhusted I went outside one day and found that someone - and I high suspect the garbage men - had scraped a nice chunk of paint off the side of my car. Since the side in question was closest to the sidewalk, it could only have been a pedestrian or the work of the inconsiderate garbage men.

Most of my neighbors don't put their cans on the curb, only the plastic garbage bags. And the garbage men do an alright job of leaving any cans as they found them. A windy day, however, will send those things rolling into the street - but my block is usually good at helping out neighbors when it comes to stray garbage cans.

You are lucky regarding your trash, BroadwayBK. I wish it were that way in all neighborhoods.

I love how my current building's methods of providing a place for us to put our garbage out for collection consists of the super's ad hoc directive to just kinda go over to the neighboring building leave our trash in their cans. (This is me shaking my head).

@BroadwayBK and uptowngirl None of the freegans in the photos and articles I've seen looked very rosy-cheeked...Also, doesn't it take a lot of TIME to forage like that? Isn't that equivalent to putting in some hours working in an office and then using the money you earn to buy fresh food? Just sayin'.

@uraniumfish I hear you but these 'freegans' like many other New Yorkers appear to be extremely devoted to their cause- a rejection of a wasteful way of life that we all follow...

@ everyone speaking of trash and garbage , I presume everyone also recycles? In my building we are warned that we will be fined if we dont and the building makes it easy by providing separate bins for glass,plastic, paper and general trash (which goes down the chute).

My roommate always leaves things/garbage that our landlord may be fined for in front of other people's houses because he and the landlord are buds.

@uptowngirl Buildings in Brooklyn who don't recycle are fined as well. We just have to have an extra can for recyclables, though, as nothing as convenient as a chute has been provided.

I often find when dumping my recycles that people throw the wrong stuff in the wrong trash can. The Super is usually outside going through the recycles, making sure everything is right.

@BroadwayBK Yeah, I've seen this a lot, where only one can is provided for all recyclable items. Do they really sort this stuff later, or is it some half-hearted attempt at recycling but we can all expect the stuff to end up in a dump somewhere anyway? I guess I'm suspicious that my recyclables aren't actually getting recycled.

@BroadwayBK That roommate of yours sounds like a winning character.

@Uraniumfish I'm hoping they sort it, or else what is the point? I've heard BK's recycling program described as one of the most ambitious in the country....

A "winning character"? I just LOLed so good. He is precisely that.

@BroadwayBK Okay, for some reason BK's program being ambitious makes me feel better. I've been quietly unnerved by the lack of recycling initiative in the US as compared to Europe...Anything to make me feel better.

I know grocery stores like the erstwhile Trader Joe's and Whole Foods offer paper bags but what happened to Bloomberg's proposition to impose 5 cent tax on plastic bags at the register? does anyone know?http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/taxing-plastic-bags-from-pennies-here-to-millions-there/

I don't know about plastic bags. Every store I go to, they are still using them.

I feel like a Big Dork being the only one in the supermarket who brings his own bag for groceries. The Europeans really trained me well. I get slightly hysterical when the cashier automatically dumps the ONE item I buy, like a little chocolate, into a plastic bag. The European trained me really well.

I have about fifty of those bags you can buy and reuse for groceries - I keep buying them because I never remember to bring them to the store with me. Though to be completely fair to myself I don't always plan on popping in the grocery store. I usually carry quite a big handbag, however, and can stock a lot of groceries in it.

On days where we put out our recycling (Sundays, as far as I know), people descend on our block to sort through the garbage to find aluminum cans. The noise keeps me awake ALL NIGHT. Anyone else experience anything similar or is my neighborhood just full of opportunistic poor/ homeless people?

As bizarre as the freegan movement seems, I think there's plenty of merit to the fact that there's a lot of useful, nice stuff that's just thrown away - when I was about 10, we found a gorgeous wooden dollhouse being thrown out. We restored it, and when I grew out of it we ultimately gave it away to a younger girl in my building. People really often don't think about what it is they are wasting.

@ajadedidealist The UES is my favorite place for trolling for furniture - it seems like folks up there are often throwing things away, so I'm not surprised that you found something that amazing on the curb. I inherited a really great old wardrobe from a friend who moved back to LA - she found the thing on the sidewalk, naturally.

The reason there is so much stuff thrown out that is useful, is because we have become accustomed to always buying new stuff. We have been spoiled by being such a wealthy country. Even though not everyone is rich, we do have credit cards and use them frequently. This is why we throw things out. Instead of hanging onto things, we just toss them, thinking we will just go into further debt and get another one.

@BroadwayBK I too keep buying these reusable bags but almost always forget to take them on my grocery shopping jaunts.

@Uraniumfish this trend is spreading to Asia as well on my recent Hong Kong trip not one grocery store til operator automatically packed my stuff in a plastic bag but each one of them asked if I needed a bag and if was willing to pay 50c for it . In NYC I have noticed that grocery stores like D'agostinos and Morton Williams have begun to limit the bags they issue for instance they no longer double bag stuff unless you specifically ask them to so maybe this is a start.

I do know that bags are not biodegradable. This means they do not decompose. This is another reason the city is considering changing the laws so that plastic is outlawed. This will help our environment immensely.