Treasure hunt

People throw away really nice things all the time. I have found cases of frozen pizza, boxes and boxes of prepared pizza, working bicycles, clothes of all shapes and sizes, blankets, rugs, perfectly edible produce, etc. To be honest, somewhere inside of me it hurts when I think about all of the great things people are throwing away that actually make it to the landfill and slip through my grubby little fingers.

Today I was brooding over this very worry while walking downtown so I veered towards the alleyways. First dumpster I found a stock pot full of a tomato based bean stew with a 1/4 measuring cup inside and the lid atop. The next dumpster I found a throw rug, a set of plastic drawers, a blanket which I used to wipe out the stock pot and a stack of canned soup.

As I was approaching another set of trash receptacles I saw a tenant of the building throwing his refuse away along with a University of North Carolina basketball hoop and a small foam filled ball. He first set the ball and hoop next to the bin then after throwing everything away he decided to set the hoop/ball carefully on top of everything inside. I wondered why. Why move them from the ground to the bin? Why throw the hoop/ball away at all? How do good things find their way into the trash? Is there a name for the liquid that inevitably settles at the bottom of every dumpster, because the smell is ubiquitous.