Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ
As a means of survival, I've literally eaten garbage. As a means of just being cheap, I've salvaged "expired" food from dumpsters. In fact, there was a whole group of people "caught" doing so behind a grocery store local to me. That grocery store now locks up their trash bins. They actually got mad, saying that "if we let you take our garbage, you'll just wait for us to throw it away." They pressed charges on several people for theft by unlawful taking (of garbage).
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What is garbage, anyway? At what point does something cease being something and suddenly become garbage? When it touches the inside of the trash bin? When it drops to the floor? When someone decides they're not going to eat anymore? Is an untouched piece of pizza, sitting on a plate at an empty table in a restaurant garbage? Does it already have cooties? Will you get sick if you touch it? How is it different from 10 minutes ago when its "owner" was still sitting at the table?
I've given these questions to people who commented my opinion about eating something that's hit the floor ("5 second rule") or sticking my hand into the garbage bin. Things I pull out of a trash can were in someone else's hand just an hour ago and they weren't disgusting then, were they? Well, what happened in the can, some super-fast chemical process? Geez, for most people the trash bin is a black hole - anything that goes in can't come out. But the garbage bin under my kitchen sink is just as clean as a box on the shelf. I wash it every now and then, so there are no biological microcultures living in there. Even if there are a few bacteria, and they somehow make it to my intestines, then chances are slim that it will do me any harm. Most likely nothing will happen, at best my body will be that much richer.
In my opinion, garbage should be public the moment it hits the curb. If its owner doesn't want it, then let someone else have a look before the truck comes to get it.