It’s 5 am when Anna hits the streets of NYC. She’s on foot. Were she to be driving and subsequently stopped by police, there’s a good chance she would be detained based on appearance alone. Her signature lion’s mane of red hair is tucked into a watch cap. She is dressed in all black. Her tool satchel is filled with essentials: cut resistant gloves, a flashlight, zip ties, large, reusable tote bags. If not for the cherubic face, she could easily be mistaken for a perp on the way to a crime. Except, Anna is on her way to do something many find applaudable and many others find disgusting. She’s digging through the trash.
Like most US cities, New York City deems trash sitting on a curb as abandoned property. The owner’s rights are severed when the refuse bag hits the street. Anyone who meanders by can partake in a treasure hunt. You probably have a mental image of a homeless person digging for food. That is generally where our minds go. But this particular law of property has convicted many a criminal. The police routinely analyze the trash of suspects, finding treasures of DNA, notebooks where pressure points of confession letters were written, and even receipts that disprove alibis. That’s not what we’re here to talk about today. We’re here to talk about corporate waste.
On this day, Anna Sacks, aka thetrashwalker on Instagram, has her sights set on a particular CVS dumpster. Inside she finds almost $400 of pristine, unopened Similac baby formula with an expiration date nearly a month in the future. She finds cases of unexpired protein bars that have been sliced through as to prohibit resell. There are hundreds of dollars’ worth of women’s sanitary products inexplicably tossed. Boxes and boxes of toothbrushes are followed by 4 bursting bags of fall décor that went unpurchased. There are stationary boxes with enough Father’s Day cards to make the entire dad population feel masculine, and 25 unopened cartridges of gift wrap tape to make sure the envelopes stay closed. This is just one store. While Anna doesn’t really care about the where and why of that store’s P & L report, what she does care about is this: where’s the humanity in the situation?
Originally, I was going to pepper this article with hilarious anecdotes of my thrifting adventures. I wanted to entertain you with my shenanigans involving social media stealthiness. I keep a calendar with the trash days of my favorite Dallas neighborhoods. I know when to loiter on Swiss Avenue. I get up extra early to visit Hollywood Heights before the trash dudes even have the slumber wiped from their eyes. I smoothly cruise through Lakewood, consulting my notes on where recent estate sales were just held. I have found Victorian settees, midcentury dressers, ornate rugs with very few mystery stains, and the occasional burlwood coffee table. Books? On the curb. Record albums? On the curb. Christmas decorations? If you see me lurking around on December 26th, mind your business. That’s what I had thought about saying, until I uncovered the Columbia tragedy.
One of the most prestigious colleges in the US sits at 116th and Broadway. Columbia University has educated three US Presidents and dozens of Nobel laureates. Their acceptance rate is a meager 4%. Both the law school and journalism school have enough notable graduates I dare not start mentioning names. I would exceed my character limit for this column. In Anna’s world, they are mainly known for one seemingly incongruent fact, the move out policy. See, once Columbia says it’s time to go at the end of the semester, they really mean it. Students have 24 hours to leave. Most will board flights back to their states of residence until it is time to return for another academic session. Guess what you can’t take on flights? The answer is 99% of the contents of your dorm. Where do you put all that stuff? The answer is on the curb.
2 unopened cases of Yerba Mate. Designer bedding sets. Too many blankets and towels to count. Cases upon cases of unopened food, mainly ramen noodles, Pop Tarts, and oatmeal. Lamps. Designer clothing. 5 cases of unopened granola bars. Jewelry boxes full of jewelry. A wallet containing both US dollars and euros. This was all found within the time parameters of a 3-minute Instagram reel. Each dorm is surrounded by trash bags in a two-block configuration. Just like CVS, Columbia University says these items must be destroyed because of the potential for lawsuits should anyone be harmed by any of these items. They will not donate. They will not have someone from a homeless center or philanthropic organization who services encampments come and distribute these items. They are considered waste and are destined for some landfill, be that a foreign land or a sea barge. They simply don’t want it in their line of vision.
In a recent Steven Kurutz penned article for the NY Times, Anna laments on the unending cycle of corporate greed. She champions other activists who speak up in hopes of producing less to begin with, donating or heavily discounting these items rather than tossing them, and doing a better job overall with strategizing what can be done when no one buys the stuff you’re peddling. As we sit here contemplating the Christmas gifts on our purchase list, it begs a question. Why do we think we need so much? Happy Thanksgiving.
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