There is of course a serious question buried here – how do we dispose of the truly hazardous wastes such as paint strippers, oil based paints, lead and lead shavings used to weigh cars (and I suppose very old solder if someone is still using lead based solder), the flourescent light bulbs that burn out, depleted rechargable batteries from our cameras, and a host of other stuff.
For the other stuff I am as much a packrat as the next guy, although at some point those slivers of styrene left over from a project are unlikely to find any further use and can be safely tossed (but naturally a week later the perfect use for them pops up). Following the late Art Curren’s advice I keep all sprues from plastic kits and have already made use of them in my modeling. Don’t ignore a scrap yard as an excellent destiny for parts of watches and clocks that no longer work, maybe parts from those digital clocks, and a host of other trash. A few thumps with a hammer and some spray can red primer and you’ve got yourself an open load for a gon.
I think of my workshop garbage can as a sort of “last call” scrap box.
In the NMRA Midwest Region Waybill, my “Frugal Modeler” column touches on these issues, most recently using deoderant, dental floss, motel shampoo, and styptic pencil plastic containers for modeling purposes. http://www.mwr-nmra.org/region/waybill/waybill20101spring.pdf
It’s largely domestic slackness. My partner and I make sure we keep the house tidy, but the garage isn’t really as ‘visible’. It’s mostly waste products like old paint tins, the wax backing off Woodland Scenics paving tape, empty cardboard boxes and kit sprues.
And the only reason I’m throwing these out is because I’ve already got more of them than I think I could possibly use - one wall of the garage is covered in cardboard boxes, to the point where the pile’s about to collapse on me if I’m not careful. There’s an icecream container full of sprues and other leftover kit parts.
I’ve just appropriated some of my partner’s hair curlers to make fuel storage tanks for the steam/diesel servicing facility, and a set of 4 structure interiors mostly out of the cardboard box that the Mariokart Wii game came in - and there’s plenty more where that came from.
I suppose what I’m getting at is even with all the stuff we can re-use/recycle, does anybody else feel like they’ve reached a point where they’ve held onto more ‘junk’ than they can use?
Despite being a pack rat, (aren’t we all), I still manage to create a lot of trash. Since I have a large basement, I have two trash cans, one at each end and when I fill them up, I take them to the trash barrel outside that Waste Management picks up every week, at least the weeks I don’t forget to take the big trash barrel out to the road. I go through a lot of newspapers, masking tape, and other disposable stuff. The only boxes I keep are for the pricey items which could have some resale value someday although the plan is for the executor of my estate to deal with that. I don’t save sprues but won’t throw them out until I’ve removed every last part from them. Experience has taught me that any part I throw out I will find a need for in a week. Of course the stuff I keep I probably won’t find a use for in 20 years. I have three drawers of miscellaneous parts sorted by small, medium, and large parts. I have seperate drawers for windows and doors, window glazing, roof parts, scrap styrene, scrap lumber, etc. Even with all the plastic drawers of various sizes I’ve bought to store all this stuff I won’t throw away, the layout room is a disaster with stuff laying all over the place. In the past, the unscenicked portions of my benchwork became gathering places for all the stuff I use and never bother to put away after I am done. I think if the folks from the Mission: Organization tv show stopped by my layout room, they would leave in tears.
Is it not a requirement of the NMRA master modeler program to have the big containers of useful stuff? Left over detail parts, bits of plastic and even the cork road bed trimmings come in handy for something. For what I have not figured out yet. Empty kit boxes? Where do you put all those plastic wheels from the trucks you put the metal ones on? I must have six or seven Athearn BB boxes full of plastic wheels. And at least three of horn hook couplers. As for some kind of organization this is my favorite saying. Organized people are just too lazy to look for things.[:)]
Seriously, there is a dilemma of what to do with paint strippers and other chemicals that our hobbies tend to generate. You should contact your city or county disposal office. If they don’t have a permanent place to dispose of harmful substances, then they SHOULD know of a facility that will handle it. In my county, we have a free hazardous disposal day about twice a year. People can drop off anything that meets a certain criteria and the materials are properly disposed of.
Now what to do with that barrel of glowing stuff in the garage?[swg]
I only have one of those small things usually found in bathrooms, and uses a wal-mart plastic bag. It’s mostly full of instructions for kits (BB and MDC) and scrap writings. It’ll take around 2-3 months for me to fill that up.
I pretty much keep anything else. Even the pastic wheelsets, X2Fs, talgo trucks, and kadee wannabes are saved. One thing I haven’t seen considered is strippiping the wires off of burned out bulbs before throwing them out.
Hold on to it so you can use it for weights later on.[:D]
That’s why I have pickup truck. Haul the waste to the dump in town.
It took only three loads and two hours to get all of the HO stuff disposed of. The rest of the small stuff went out on ebay and the revenue on that did not match the retail (Or discount outlay)
All things considered, this is one of those hobbies where you can strip a room to nothing and start over and do it right.
At home, I actually throw out very little. Nearly everything gets recycled in some way–clear plastic figure containers, for example, go out with the bottles and cans come recycling day. Cardboard kit boxes, except those for rolling stock, get cut up and recycled. Locally, there’s a charity that puts mentally-challenged people to work sorting paper, catalogs, and cardboard. I figure, if it helps someone else out, plus saves space in the landfill (not to mention my trash can!)…why not?
Kit sprues are another item I tend to hang onto. They have all sorts of uses–stirring paint, axles, plugging up holes in kits…and if you mix a few sprue shavings with liquid cement…a pretty good body filler
I am also one of the messy. A while back, everything got so bad, I had to go to Home Depot to get a specialized trash can. It was really a $5 bucket. Ive recently gotten two more. They are very useful, I must say
