"Free" + Curb Is the New Dump

You can tell it’s almost summer because people are gleefully filling the sidewalks with the trash of a consumer society and, in a enlightened spirit of philanthropy, marking "free" on it. There was a time, not so long ago, when putting out a lightly used item you no longer needed was a kind of urban recycling. Who among us hasn’t grabbed a chair or desk from the street? Who?!

But now, it’s out of hand. With rising garbage collection and dump fees (it’s now $27 to take a carload of junk in), and old electronics requiring more fees and/or special trips, it now appears "free" is an invitation to take out the trash.

To make things worse, Seattle’s spring is a notoriously fickle time to place a sofa or exercise machine outside. It’ll be months before any "free" sofa left out this week recovers from the other day's monsoon. So remember: garbage in = garbage out, "free" sign or not.