Throwing Away Money

Who throws away money? And I don't mean in the figurative sense such as "flushing money down the drain" or "burning a hole in your wallet," I mean literally.

I had the opportunity to head back to the Atlanta area a few days ago, and I was lucky enough to be there during one of my favorite times of year - move out time. My friend and I dutifully went dumpster diving to see what we could drag in, and part of my haul was a container filled with change. I just counted it to see, and it is well over $10 in change. Perhaps that's "chump change" to some people, but for me, that's a couple of meals, no small matter for a student living on loans.

When did change become so useless that people just throw it away? Is it that hard to go to the grocery store and get it changed by the Coinstar machine? Then again, perhaps I'm the weird one. I pick up any loose change I see on the ground. I also hate seeing things thrown away - right now, I'm even wearing a pair of boxers with a hole in the perineal region because they're so old. You can see why I become so flustered by the fact that change actually gets thrown away.

What are your views? Do you stoop and pick up the penny or do you not mind when you drop some change here and there?

Tags: dumpster diving