Dale Says

I first met the Goddess of Garbage several years ago in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras. She sat next to me at dinner, during which she told me about the Goddess.

Her real name is Carol Tanzi.  She makes a living doing interior design for people in the Bay Area, but she has created an alter-ego that she calls the Goddess of Garbage.

Carol is in her 70s; a tall, thin, distuingished-looking lady with gray hair.  She is always impeccably dressed and extremely polite.  She would make a perfect grandma.  She’s not the type of person you would expect to be on TV and radio talk shows, and she’s not the type of person you would expect to see dumpster diving.

The Goddess is obsessed with trash and with recycling discarded objects into home furnishings and gifts. She has designed numerous objects from trash, and she has written a book that includes 100 of her favorite trash-recycle projects. Used toilet paper rolls become napkin rings; old shirts become napkins, trashed radiators become tables, and old cans are crafted into desks.

The Goddess travels with rubber gloves, boots, and a step ladder in her car. If she drives past a dumpster with interesting-looking items she stops, gets out of the car, and suits up. She climbs on her ladder, surveys the dumpster contents, and (sometimes) goes right into the dumpster to retrieve things.

Carol can’t resist a yard sale, thrift shop, or a pile of curbside trash. Her storage space and office are crammed with “treasures” she has dug up over the years. She is on a mission. Her goal is to educate people about re-cycling and to show the world a new way to recycle and reuse. “I get huge satisfaction from rescuing castoffs that would otherwise end up in a landfill,” she says.

She’s a little quirky, but in a good way. She has found her “thing” in life, and she loves it.