The people who know me best know that I don’t have a problem rummaging through trash, to either make sure something recyclable is not headed for a landfill, something plastic is not in the compost bin, or to save something that shouldn’t be trash at all. I can’t help myself. I just can’t stand waste, and if I feel I can do something to prevent waste, I will climb into a dumpster if I have to. Here’s a picture to prove it!

On Wednesday, I had gone into our son Theo’s school to help the 5^th graders with their recycling in their special lunch pavilion. I was setting up the recycling area before the kids came out and opened up the blue bin to make sure there was enough room for the kids to put their milk cartons, cardboard lunch trays and juice bottles. I was horrified at what I found in the bin. I pulled out about 8 children’s books of different levels that had clearly been rejected from a teacher’s classroom library. I ran down and stuck them in the Little Free Library outside the school. Then I rummaged some more and pulled out about ten packs of playing cards that were presumably missing some cards. They were in really good shape so I could only surmise that the teacher who had dumped them didn’t have the time to sort through all the packs to create several complete sets. Neither do I, but I couldn’t stand to see them all go to waste, so I loaded them all into my bag and took them home. While listening to the news, I sorted them out so that I had 5 complete sets and then threw the rest reluctantly (they’d be great for an art project, I’m sure) into our recycling bin.

Then I posted on Facebook that I had these packs of playing cards available for a community center if anyone wanted them. A lovely friend Pauline, who I see at yoga on Fridays, contacted me to say that her mother’s independent living community could use them. I gave the cards to Pauline this morning, and although they were not originally mine to give away, I am including them as my Giveaway today as a reminder to us all to think before we discard – pun intended.