Dumpster Diving

[Flusher]

Hello-I am a newbee here, and I was just wondering if any one else is guilty of this. I dumpster dive. Where I live in Virginia, we have "convenience centers". These centers are about an acre of regular green boxes. The county also supplies one long narrow box for yard/garden/household waste. We have gotten a bike for our child, several nice chairs, a glider for the front porch, and an end table out of this greenbox. This weekend, we stopped and found a full size bed, a baby crib, a car seat, a wooden chair, and several other things. We took the wooden chair-we don't need any of the other stuff.

All of these items have needed TLC, but for relatively little cost, we have found some really nice things. Am I the only one who does this?

 

[patandchickens]

I did a lot of dumpster diving in grad school til the day I narrowly missed having the campus police turn several of us over to the, you know, 'real' police to be arrested.

I am still not clear on the logic by which dumpster diving is tresspassing or theft, although I can see how they might not want people doing it for *liability* reasons... but I have to say that kind of dimmed my enthusiasm and I've done relatively little since then. Only if I see something un-pass-uppable stickin' out and not having someone's rancid ramen noodles splattered all over it. And not at all during the years when I was a college professor - just did not seem like a good thing to be noticed doing

Still keen on curbside gathering, though

Pat

 

[Zenbirder]

Guilty as charged!
When I was in college the dumpster diving was great, people would move out and throw away the most amazing things. I still have some of them to this day!
In my town now there are not a lot of opportunities, and what there are are used by people a lot more hard up than I. They even take all the aluminum from the recycle bins and sell it.
The one thing I am still doing is: from my co-op I get the kitchen scraps for the chickens for free. Every bag goes to my kitchen first to be gleaned for our use before it goes to the hens. Heck it's all organic, and I don't mind a few blemishes or one small bad spot that I can cut off. We have had a lot more exotic produce this way than I could ever afford to buy. Now if I could just get the guys working there to stop throwing the coffee grounds in all over the produce.

 

[roosmom]

Hi, Welcome to SS,

Me too. and my Brother who does it in really ritzy neighborhoods. He brought me home an 11' x 14' wool rug. It WAS a little stinky, but not now. It had a few stains but nor now

 

[Henrietta23]

My husband will pick from the dump if no one is there to enforce the no picking rule. There's a swap shop too and he'll bring stuff home from that. Plus since he goes every Saturday morning the guys who work there will save certain things for him. (He's a tech ed teacher and one of his former student's dads works there). He's gotten a number of musical instruments and car parts that he didn't need and sold on Ebay. He's made a couple thousand doing that actually! He's never picked from dumpsters behind stores though.

 

[FarmerChick]

some things yup, I would take from our type of "convenience" center, other things I ain't touching with a 10 ft pole..HA HA


so yes, I got a few good things, others I pass by.

 

[punkin]

Earlier this year I asked the garden center manager at Lowe's what they do with the empty plant trays and pots. She said they just throw them away. I ask if I could have some. I have a hobby greenhouse. She said they don't do that. I said, "But, you're just throwing them away." She said "How many do you want?" (She had a whole buggy full that she was gathering up.) At this point, I'm getting the message. She ended up giving me 2-3. So, later that night, me, DH and DS went dumpster diving. Sure enough, there they were. I just brought them home, bleached them and put them to good use, again.

 

[RTRChick]

I've sorta dumpster dived... does it count if its a box of clothes near the dumpster but not actually in the dumpster? I probably wouldn't pull clothes out of the dumpster, but it was just near it and they were really nice clothes, I figured some rich girl that lived in the dorm nearby just didn't want them and didn't know to donate them.

Gahhh I just realized how low I'll sink for name brand clothes

Lol I work at Lowe's and I'm always having people ask us for the extra plant trays and I just give them to them.. I figure if we are throwing them away and someone can use them and the manager isn't around to tell me no, whats the big deal.

 

[MorelCabin]

A house down the street has been cleaning out...they have a huge container there that they are filling. They currently have wicker saucer chairs in there that I really really want! I was raised poor, so would have no problem doing this...but we live in a real prominant neighborhood and my dh would absolutely freak and divorce me if I ambarrassed him like that....Although it IS dark outside right now:>)

 

[miss_thenorth]

A house down the street has been cleaning out...they have a huge container there that they are filling. They currently have wicker saucer chairs in there that I really really want! I was raised poor, so would have no problem doing this...but we live in a real prominant neighborhood and my dh would absolutely freak and divorce me if I ambarrassed him like that....Although it IS dark outside right now:>)

Wear camou or black clothes--you'll blend right in tot he darkness