171: Curb Appeal

One listener’s curbside treasure

Whether you call it “Dirty Christmas,” “Move Out Season,” or “Driving Around Scouring The Sidewalks For Free Stuff,” some of us can’t help but inspect the things other people leave behind. But what’s the difference between curbside recycling and straight-up litter?

Also, why hasn’t some startup created a way to recycle mattresses yet??? Like, if I can get a mattress delivered in a box, why can’t I get my old mattress taken away and turned into something more useful than a soggy pile of gross?

Anyway, this week as promised, we chatted about the Circle of Curbside Crap, whether or not it’s OK to leave certain things behind (orange peels: trash or compost-to-be?), and what to do when someone’s left something (LIKE A BLUE TOTE!!!) on your property.

Watch here:

We also heard from our listeners about some of their best finds and talked about where to draw the line. Plus, hear me tell the story of the object my entire family still calls “the Dead Girl Blanket.”

And we shared some resources for your own potential curbside problems. Solutions like…

Also! I mentioned the Adopt One Block project. Find more info about that (get your very own reacher-grabber!!!) here.

Hanna Brooks Olsen