I Want Your Garbage
This morning I was driving my bike along the canals in Amsterdam. It was garbage collecting day so the sidewalks were filled with trash.
Now Trash is a concept that isn’t clearly defined for most people in Amsterdam. One persons trash is another persons new furniture. This morning I noticed one man tying a chair to his bike and another one was sizing up an old Sony triniton television. I have a habit of looking at trash too, much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, and regularly drag old stuff back to my house.
This morning I came up with an idea. But first I must explain something about garbage. There are two kinds:
1: Trash you generate while cooking and living: Empty cans, used coffee, onion skins and other disgarded food. Filled diapers, collected hairs from your shower and empty deodorant canisters. All the stuff that no one (ok, except a few freaks) would want or have any use for. Real dirty, ugly and smelly Trash.
2: Stuff you no longer want or need. That one chairs that doesn’t fit your style anymore, an old sweater, a chipped coffeecup and that Mac Plus which still works and was really cool in 1995.
Once (or twice?) a week the city collects both kinds in one sweep. They throw everything in one big container and burn it.
Good riddence…
But with all the Category 1 trash they also destroy the Category 2 trash that some people would be quite happy with.
My idea: Why don’t we have a monthly Category 2 Trash evening where we all put the stuff we no longer want but which is still working outside for everybody else to collect?
This once a month event would be like a free second-hand market on a city wide scale. Families could go shopping for free new tools, toys and furniture. Second-hand shops could drive through the streets and collect everything which has value and sell it in their shops.
Lets assume that the event would last from 6 until 8 in the evening. After this the city picks up all the stuff that has been left and destroys it, as they normally would.
Think of all the stuff you have in your basement or attic? The shirts, shoes and skirts you no longer wear? The old PCs that no longer have any value for you? The toys your kids played with years ago and are now collecting dust somewhere?
Lookign forward to your comments, and garbage…
;) great idea!! …and while doing that make a picture of your personal trash (category 2) collection and upload it to http://www.category2.nl/yourstreet (or zip code) So i can see what my neighbours or fellow residents are offering!
Very nice concept! It would greatly improve the social coherence of a city and also it would be of great value to people who can’t afford to buy everything new. As a kid I always was a real trash (Category2) scavenger. I still have an old Pioneer amplifier that works just fine and I use it very often.
@Bram: I frequently were late for school as a kid because I used to find stuff and just HAD to bring it home first.
@Joost: A website about the idea would be nice but posting photos would be a bit detrimental to the idea of removing any barriers for people to join. But a general category2 photo collection of all things found would be pretty cool!
They pick up the trash here (Prinsengracht) twice a week.
On Thursday and Sunday :).
Although they were quite late today.
Boris,
I live on the Egelantiersgracht and started a Marktplaats Handelspost called http://www.verkoopwinkel.nl a year ago. It is a real store north of Amsterdam in Zaandam, with all the valuable stuff also on Marktplaats.nl. I sometimes can’t resist the stuff on the street and bring it to my store to sell it.
One of the kringloopwinkels (thrift stores) in Amsterdam is even called the “Beach Combers Dock” -> http://www.juttersdok.nl because their trucks started by picking this stuff up off the street.
As far as I can tell everyday is Category 2 day. People in my area even put stickers on the stuff, like “Tv works fine, unfortunately without remote control.”
@Ansgar: thanks for the story and links! I agree that potentially each day is Cat2 day. Bit this is only true for the trained scavenger eye who can easily distinguish between Cat1 and Cat2 trash. For the rest of the world a separate day would be very convenient…
That’s a pretty neat idea. I’ve used http://gratisoptehalen.nl/ a couple of times, but of course just leaving it in the street would be so much easier…
Hi Maaike, I agree. To make this successful you should remove as many barriers as possible.
Dag!
There is a website aimed at sth similar what you proposed, but only in France, United Kingdom and Germany at the moment. Maybe more countries will follow.
http://www.freecycle.org/
Greetins,
Manca:)
Great tip Manca! Now if they could only add a monthly event so I would know when to put out my stuff I would be completely happy…