The Inside Story from National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore's Studio

Garbage night!

January 20th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Posted By: Katie

Hey folks — Katie again. I’ll be posting Joel-related items here from time to time especially when he’s out in the field. This one just came in over the transom and I thought it might be of interest.

—-

If Joel isn’t out shooting, he’s very devout about garbage night, when the still-useful dregs of our consumer society get piled on the curb. I’ve been along a time or two, and witnessed the aftermath on Wednesday mornings for years: truckloads of treasure in his driveway, ranging from rolltop desks to rusty, tetanus-laden piles of scrap metal.

He recently put together a piece for CBS Sunday Morning on his favorite hobby:

6 comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Rick Steffen January 21st, 2009 9:54 pm

    Just watched \Garbage Night\. Lordy, I could not agree more with what you said. The stuff that people throw out is amazing. When I was a kid, my brothers and I would ride our bikes down the neighborhood alleys and go \garbage pickin’\. The stuff we found was gold to us. We still laugh about it (My mother never did though!). Recently I had to throw out a big sectional couch that we had (really raggedy!) I watched from around the corner of the house as the guys threw it in the truck. I felt SO guilty!

  2. Tom Lynn February 3rd, 2009 8:39 pm

    Well put Joel. There is so much waste in our society. I’m glad to see your doing something about it and getting the word out.

  3. Ralph February 13th, 2009 5:30 pm

    Give you a call? LOL Good job on collecting but do you actually keep it or take it to the local salvation army?

  4. Katie February 13th, 2009 7:49 pm

    I’d guess it’s about a 50-50 split. Most of our office is salvaged goods — including the paint!

  5. John Freeman February 14th, 2009 8:46 pm

    After I saw this video, I thought about a SS kitchen sink and faucet we had sitting in the garage, waiting for our remodelers to toss into their trash truck next next visit. But instead of waiting for them, I hauled the sink to the curb and stuck a big “FREE!” sign on it. I live in a quiet subdivison with little traffic, but within 45 minutes it was gone! — Recycled to someone else who I hope can use it.

  6. Ann Berg March 16th, 2009 7:05 pm

    I was reading in the Journal Star this morning that May 16 is “curb day”…should be good pickins on that day…but better get up early for the best stuff! I have rescued some really cool stuff ‘dumpster diving.’ What I’d really like to find is an 18×24 Joel Sartore signed print (framed of course.) :) Probably won’t get that lucky…but you never know what treasures you’ll find!

Leave a reply