My Brother's Keeper

I confess to having a dilemma. As long I’m healthy enough to pick up trash and can make time in my schedule, should I pick up garbage that animals have gotten into after a neighbor puts their can out for the weekly trash pick up? It’s on my roadside route that I’ve cleaned up once a month for years. And this neighbor has had an animal getting into his trash for the last few months. The overturned trash is picked up poorly by the owner and ignored by the nearest neighbors.

Am I the neighborhood cleanliness fanatic? To quote Popeye: “I am what I am, and that’s all that I am”. I will clean it up. I am my brother’s keeper.

This problem may be solved with a solution I’m trying.  I heard about someone who had animals in their trash putting black pepper in a garbage can and it stopped critters from coming back. (They get sick and remember to avoid that can in the future.) I thought about going by and putting pepper in early on trash pickup day. Luckily, I caught the neighbor with his garage door open. I approached him and, after we had talked for a few minutes, got to the topic of his overturned trash can. He knows a neighbor’s dog is getting into it but failed to get any help - despite talking to the neighbor then calling the Sheriff’s department after the dog kept getting in his trash. I suggested putting black pepper in his trash. He said he would try it!

Hopefully, the problem will be solved with pepper....I’ve found that nothing in life runs smoothly, even something as routine as picking up trash.

What Happens to the Stuff We Drop off at the Salvation Army and Goodwill Stores?

For years, I accumulated stuff, now I’m trying to own less. For each item brought into the house, I try to eliminate at least one similar thing.

As I looked into the way the Salvation Army and Goodwill deal with control of bedbugs, I came upon information about how they sell or dispose of the clothing and other items they receive. Both have detailed methods for selling and what happens to items that don’t sell. I ran into some criticism of how the Salvation Army deals with merchandize they don’t sell in their stores and how both organizations end up sending too many items to the dump. I thought this criticism was harsh and undeserved but it’s worth reading for anyone interested in pursuing the topic.

I continue to bring most of my give-aways to the Salvation Army. I’m familiar with the organization since I volunteered at the local business several times in the last years. They provide what I’ve heard referred to as “3 hots and a cot” for individuals who would be homeless without this help. (The hots are warm meals.) More importantly, they have drug counseling for people who need–and are ready for–this service.

Goodwill provides job training programs among other needed services to the community.

The sincere, good people retiring from either the Salvation Army or Goodwill deserve a smile when they get to heaven’s doors.

I got information on how the two businesses handle donations they don't sell by looking under: the salvation army and goodwill stores, what happens to donated clothing they don't sell?
Here is one web address where I found interesting information:
https://www.one.org/.../what-really-happens-to-your-donated-clothing

Buying Recycled Clothing & Avoiding Bedbugs

I bought clothing from garage sales when my children were babies. These children have been grown-ups for years. Even before they left home, I started doing most of my recycled clothing shopping at Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. In the last ten years, I  shopped more at private resale stores. That is, until I had a friend who thought she might have bedbugs in her home. She and her husband paid an exterminator–with a good reputation for getting rid of bedbugs–to check their home. The exterminator agreed that they did have them in their mattress. The couple had likely taken home the bedbugs from the upscale motel they stayed in during their vacation. They just returned from the trip a few days earlier. Right after they got home, they noticed the itching and bug bites. From listening to my friend, I learned that you have to clean and treat the whole house to eliminate the bugs (as well as getting rid of your mattress and your comfortable easy chairs)! It's an exhausting cleaning job followed by an expensive exterminator fee.

Thinking about what my friend said about how they carried them home, I concluded that they could have got the bugs in their pajamas they slept in while at the motel. And, that led me to think about the possibility of getting bedbugs through buying clothes from places like the Salvation Army or the resale store where I shop.  I have to admit, I haven’t bought a piece of clothing at a resale store since hearing about how easy it is to get this problem in the home and how hard it is to get rid of the pests. I have plenty of clothing; I suffered no hardship from not shopping. But I did computer research and found that both the Salvation Army and Goodwill work hard to eliminate the possibility of spreading bedbugs through merchandise they sell. Both organizations sell the best of the donated items they receive at their stores.

Knowing this, I will still check over any clothing I get from the Salvation Army or Goodwill. I also plan to ask the owner of the private resale store  where I shop about how they minimize the risk of passing on bedbugs with their recycled clothes. And, after reading about how to eliminate bedbugs from clothes, I plan to wash any purchases right after I bring them home and dry them on as high of a temperature as the fabric allows for thirty minutes. This was recommended for eliminating bugs–put them in the dryer for 3o minutes at over 120 degrees.

Washing clothes and drying them at a high temperature when they’re supposed to be clean already seems to go against saving energy. The energy savings is in recycling. Sometimes different methods of conserving energy use other forms of energy. In this case, recycling clothing led to using water plus electricity through both washer and dryer use. If I had to take my mattress and my living room chairs to the dump to eliminate bugs, this would be more wasteful of resources. Even if I bought clothing from department stores, I would wash and dry the clothing. The new clothing is tried on by a number of people and could have the same problems as recycled clothes since bedbugs are a concern again.

Moving on to a subject other than bedbugs, I hope 2017 will be a year when more people think about how they waste energy. I’ll keep my eyes open for new ways to conserve energy and strive to be an good example of a concerned-about-my-planet citizen.

Grateful To Be Healthy Enough To Pick Up Trash

Yes…I do think it’s important to be thankful for health. When I get sick, I sure notice the difference in my life. Motivation to do the usual is really lacking when I’m sick.

Speaking of motivation, a couple of days after I wrote the blog about being grateful, I decided my monthly neighborhood trash pickup needed to be done. The weather was cold, dinner would be a little later than usual if I started right away…I had a number of excuses for why I couldn’t do the work. But, I ignored my excuses and forced myself out the door with my gloves and trash bag in hand.

Less than an hour later, after finishing my job, I went through my trash searching for recyclable items. It took me that long to move from the “have to do it” way of thinking to an attitude of satisfaction with my accomplishment. My surroundings looked better for my effort. I did something easy to do and made my planet just a little better.