At the dump a few days ago, I found a sealed and pristine container of Moniegold chewy tamarind candy. You can find money at the dump, and you can find gold and now you can even find Moniegold there.
My mind was racing, and I thought that would be a good name for the city dump, much better than the rather boring title 'solid waste management facility.' So let's call it the Money Gold Dump.
The city could put up a big sign for tourists: “If you have any money or gold you want to throw away, please take it to the salvage area.”
Because believe it or not, money and gold do turn up occasionally, along with a whole lot of other things.
Recently, a friend who is also a former neighbour of mine from Northlands found an envelope that was full of cash. It was in a box of junk in the salvage area. That’s right - someone threw away an envelope full of cash and the finder even posted it on Facebook to see if she could find the owner just in case it was an elder or someone who didn’t realize they had thrown it away. That is a wonderful thing to do, but so far no one has come forward to identify what the envelope was with and when they threw it out.
Believe it or not, finding money at the dump is not that rare. I have found smaller amounts several times. This includes coins that get mixed up in junk drawers. One day, I found a couple hundred pennies just lying on the ground. Pennies may not be worth much now but over time they will become rare collectors’ items. It would be interesting to ask a class of public schoolers to see how many of them have ever seen a penny, let alone ever owned one. And they are still considered lucky charms by some. So I salvaged a couple hundred lucky charms.
I picked up a book one time and when I got around to reading it, found a $20 bill in it which I suspect someone had been using as a bookmark. It would be the equivalent of finding a $50 bill today and that’s not bad. One day, I found several bills from different countries which I assumed someone had been saving or collecting but decided to throw out. I passed them on to a person who collects foreign money.
As for gold, I have found mineral samples with gold in them, such as a gold chain which was worth close to $100 when I had a jeweller look at it. I have found gold jewellery, gold leaf and, of course, gold in electronic devices. The dump is full of a whole range of valuable minerals. Maybe we should refer to our dump as a money pit covered by a money mountain.
The other day at the salvage area, I counted 14 barbecues being thrown away. Some needed a bit of cleaning or minor repairs and several were fine, but the burner covers needed replacing. That would involve buying replacement covers for between $20 to $50 to save spending between $200 to $500 on a brand new barbecue. Hundreds of barbecues get thrown into the dump every year. Someone really needs to start a mobile barbecue cleaning and repair business.
Think about it - people, the city, the GNWT and the federal government all claim to be short of money to do things, yet they throw away millions of dollars a year into the dumps across the country. Maybe they should hire a few salvagers to sort through the garbage to save the valuable stuff. In Canada, we probably have some of the richest, most expensive dumps in human history. Something to think about and I am sure someday, the dumps will be mined to recover all the metals.
If it can be composted, reused, refined or salvaged, it should be. I believe this will happen in time because it is the sensible, ecological and logical thing to do.