Someone I know recently tossed concert tickets into the recycling bin on recycling day. This would have been acceptable had the tickets merely been stubs.

They were not. These were tickets to a concert in April.

Of course this would never happen at OUR house. Ha!

Anyway, who hasn’t experienced that sick feeling of, say, fearing your diamond ring has gone out with the trash, your W-2 form was tossed with the newspapers or your concert tickets were carried far away thanks to the Recycling King?

In the name of research, I typed “accidentally threw out” into Google and ohhh boy

This from an ABC affiliate in Utah: “A Provo woman accidentally threw nearly $200,000 out with the trash on garbage collection day.”

What??? This from a Mom: “My daughter accidentally threw away her retainer. Does anyone know how much it will cost to have it replaced?”

Less than $200,000, I hope. And another from someone who accidentally threw out instructions to a new clock and couldn’t figure out how to turn off the alarm. Unplugging it was becoming such an inconvenience.

I’ve done my fair share of trash searches. Doing so before garbage day is so much better than chasing the trash collectors down the street.

Another side to all this is that there are things many of us can’t bear to throw out. A key to something –but we don’t know to what. A little piece of plastic that possibly belongs to a toy but more likely to an unidentified appliance that won’t work without it.

After all, concert tickets may be replaceable. But that little piece of plastic? Likely not.