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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Americans are often accused of producing excessive waste. This is somewhat true when you think of the plastic bag madness in supermarkets and the practically non-existent waste separation in rural areas. However, there is a recycling process here that I was not familiar with from Germany. (Informants from Berlin have, however, told me that it works similarly there.) You put old junk out on the sidewalk, stick a note on it that says "Free Stuff", and wait an hour or two.
On August 15th at 1:54 PM, we repeated the experiment, which I had already been conducted dozens of times, for the newsletter: An old plastic box with leftover items from the move was placed on the sidewalk in front of the house with a note attached. The box contained: two wire baskets for hanging in a shelf, a dish rack, an old telephone, and 50 ballpoint pens that I had once received as promotional gifts.
Approximately two hours later, at 3:49:33 PM, I went down again, and lo and behold: everything was gone, including the box.
I once put down a box of read German books and attached a large note: "GERMAN LANGUAGE BOOKS," since the contents were only readable by a small minority and not everyone else should have to reach into the box to find this out.
Shortly afterwards, the box was gone, and Angelika happened to discover a homeless man on the other side of the street, offering the books for sale on the sidewalk and demonstratively holding a German crime novel open as if he were reading it. Unfortunately, she didn't have the courage to photograph the scene.
If you have a lot of time and enjoy sitting on the sidewalk for hours, you can also get rid of old stuff through a "garage sale." You simply start a private flea market in front of your garage (if you don't have one, just do it on the sidewalk) and sell the items to passersby and curious occupants of stopping cars. This business is particularly popular on weekends, when you often see half a dozen cars parked haphazardly in front of some people with their junk spread out on the sidewalk. It's unbelievable what can be sold; some people probably buy the stuff just to resell it at their own "garage sale."
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