Last summer, the industrial-size squirrels that live in my neighborhood chewed through the top of our Rubbermaid garbage cans, presumably to get at the great stuff inside.
I figured we could just make do with slightly eaten lids, until Scott clued me in that rain and melting snow was now leaking into our trash. He wasn’t the least bit happy about having to drive to the transfer station at warp speed, so that the ice in and around the bags wouldn’t melt and settle into our carpet en route.
I checked a few stores and learned they don’t sell just the lids. (which I immediately related to the Story of Stuff video and began ranting about planned obsolescence to retreating sales clerks) I didn’t want to shell out $30-$40 for new trash cans with lids. I mean, really, is there any fun at all in that kind of purchase?
I tried to tackle it from a green angle. I should make something instead of buying something! But alas, absolutely no ideas came to mind that would replace the lids and be practical.
My next step was a ”Hail Mary,” but without the crowd-cheering touchdown. I drafted an extremely optimistic wanted post on the freecycle board. Surely someone had extra trash canlids to fit my trashcan bottoms. Perhaps their trash can bottoms had met an untimely demise and they were waiting for my post to reunite lids with bottoms trash cans. Not surprisingly, once again I was disappointed.
A few days later, on the Northway, traveling southbound somewhere between Lake George and Clifton Park, I passed one of the lids I needed in a snowbank on the side. Scott woke up as I was slowing down. He did not share my enthusiasm at all, and told me in no uncertain terms that we were not going to stop on the side of the Northway in rush hour and walk back a quarter of a mile to find somebody’s old lid to bring home. He tried to scare me by saying the lid could be covered in maggots, but I doubted that trash cans, since it was frozen into a snowbank. In the end, I reluctantly agreed to keep going when he pointed out we were already running late.
After a bit of searching, my happy ending drew closer. I tracked down the right person at Rubbermaid online customer service, who offered to sell me two replacement lids for a somewhat reasonable price.
Sometimes this getting greener thing is just exhausting.
