Attitudes towards "Trash Picking"

[card5640]

I live in a college community, after first semester and in May I score lots of stuff from their dumpsters, dumpsters are ususally too full so it isistacked aorund them, this year I got 11 sheets of plywood ( beer game tables!) 10 cement blocks, 4- 2x6s. Two unopened down comforters, tons of returnable cans. Clothes, everything, it was amazing cache. Yestrerday I got a brand new LLBean tote bag with tags still attached and a new set of Disney bath towels (5), great day.

 

[chipmunk]

Card5640!

Man, did you ever score big! It sometimes takes my breath away finding out what people throw away.

 

[hinkjc]

I've always thought one man's garbage is another man's treasure. lol

We put a lot of stuff on our curb (after trying freecycle and no one shows up). It is gone in seconds. Some folks even drive up to the house to ask how much and we're like.."just take it away". A lot of the time we're just cleaning out good things that are clutter or to bring something new in. So I'm happy if someone else can use it.

I also had some good finds out for garbage. We got lucky when we came across a house cleaning out a bunch of old metal closets. Some were still usable in our garage to store stuff. Others we patched up, doors removed and laid on their backs (with new legs attached for airflow underneath) and became wonderful chick brooders.

We stumbled across someone ripping down an old deck to put a new one up one time. Stopped and asked what they were going to do with all that old wood. They said if we wanted it, we could have it. We built a 12 X 16 coop frame with it. All we had to buy was the flooring, walls and roof. Saved a ton of money on framework. All of our coop windows come out of the trash too. We have a really neat antique door on our one chicken houses that we found in the garbage. I love it. It looks rustic and it is. Really adds a special look to the chicken house.

 

[MorelCabin]

Desperately seeking.....

Anybody seen this guy?

 

[boggybranch]

No other nation on earth is more wasteful than the good old U S of A....but as things tighten up, there just may be a change "in the wind"...although, I predict it will be "light and variable".
As long as people "have to have" new stuff and discard their perfectly good stuff, I will scarf it up, if it's something I need or can use....if it's not, I leave it for someone else.
I have, even, picked up bales of hay (mulch for the garden) and a construction grade wheel barrow that had fell out on the highway.
I'm NEVER in too big of a hurry to turn around and pick up a good find......and if you tell yourself, "I'll pick it up on the way back"....good luck.

 

[the+blessed+life]

My friends and I call it "trash mongering". We used to go to a nearby community (kind of rich neighborhood) on trash day so we could recycle! I have found the best stuff in the trash. I wish I had a truck and trailer to take around each week!
My husband and I flip houses (yes, even in this economy). Some of our finds go into our houses, and the things we are taking out of the houses go out to the curb with a FREE sign on it. 99% of the stuff gets taken, so we don't have to send it to the landfill. We are wasteful people in the USA!

 

[dntd]

Funny as this sounds my son who's almost 11 has ocd, one of his obsessions is garbage picking. Nothing wrong with taking good things but geez, he's brought home some nasty things. ||Some things he does bring home are useful like a old tank and a still working digital camara. Personally many people in my city donate there items as they would have to pay to have the garbage take them.

 

[Ohioann]

One of the things I love to "score" in the fall is bagged leaves. They make great bedding in the chicken house, chicken run or stalls. If you have good "stuff" you can't use and don't want to leave it at the curb, check your area for a Habitat for Humanity resale store. They accept all kinds of donations and resell at very reasonable prices. There is also a hospice resale shop that I take things to, especially household items. We don't have a garbage pickup in our rural area, but once every 2 months there is a dumpster at the township garage. So we really recycle and reuse a lot of stuff. Between the chickens and the compost I don't have any kitchen scraps, we shred all junk mail, news papers for use in the stalls as bedding. All burnables go to the wood burner. Glass, aluminum and plastic are recycled at our area recycle bins. Once a year there is an electronics/paint/chemical recycle day in a nearby town. So we have very little to take to 'dumpster day'.

 

[FarmerDenise]

since we live in a "city" we have garbage pickup. FIL pays for it. Our can is rarely full and we have 3 households put their garage in it. We are all into reducing, reusing and recycling. Even FIL, who is not very concientious about this sort of stuff, but he does hate to waste stuff and his wife does sort the garbage into recycling and garbage. My friend whose garbage also goes into our can is very good about recycling and composting.
Occasionally we have gone through FIL's garbage and found some very usable stuff. Books, jewelry and decorations etc.