In a world where so few have so much and so many have so little, not to mention the impact of excess consumption on the environment, this is a particularly sad and disturbing story.

The current financial crisis, sparked by all those lovely sub-prime loans and our greed for acquiring stuff through credit, has left all sorts of damage. It’s not just houses people are walking out of, it’s all their belongings too. It’s hard to imagine the sort of pressure that would force someone to walk away from everything that they own, but it’s happening daily in the USA.

In some of the foreclosures, it’s not just junk people are leaving behind, they are walking away from big screen TVs, quality furniture, toys and appliances. Some are leaving basicallly with just the clothes on their backs.

While that is sad in itself, what’s happening to all this stuff is even worse. Companies are contracted to come into the house and quickly move everything out so the house can be put on the market as soon as possible. After what’s known as a  “trashout crew” has picked over what they want from it all (and they only have a small window of time to do so), the rest is going to landfill.

Here’s a report from SoCal Conected on the issue:

This simply shouldn’t be allowed to happen. If the government can spend so much cash bailing out the fat cats, they could spend a little on providing more support for struggling mortgagees, or in cases like these, ensuring that the goods they leave behind go to charities etc.

This waste of perfectly good furniture and appliances goes beyond disgusting, it’s a crime against the environment. We should be taking every step we possibly can to reuse, recycle or repurpose. Landfill should be the very last place waste should go; the last resort.