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- rnwen2750, on 11/08/2007, -0/+28If you live near a college or university, go dumpster diving at the end of the year at their dorms. I've seen brand new clothing, computer games, and much more.
- VaporBro, on 11/08/2007, -2/+21Interesting read. I don't doubt that they made 12 grand by dumpster diving. It is astonishing what you can find in a waste receptacle. I have found fully working laptops, an Xbox, 10lb bags of Rice, furniture, stereos, etc.
One person's trash is another person's treasure. I live by that. - XBackstabberX, on 11/08/2007, -0/+19I dumpstered an unopened George Foreman Grill once. I still use it to this day.
- StudsTurkel, on 11/08/2007, -0/+16You pulled a bunch of sweet and expensive gear out of dumpsters and you question a $20 lamp? WTF?
- quaxon, on 11/08/2007, -2/+17I used to live by an entenmanns bakery and they used to throw out dozens of trashbags filled with donut holes, chocolate cakes, coffee cakes, and everything else they would make. All the stuff was still in the boxes and all the boxes were in trashbags so they didnt really mix with anything gross. We used to always get stoned and dank out there. There is also good dumpster diving at trader joes.
- thenativeraver, on 11/08/2007, -1/+16I guess you typed that while you were at the library taking a bath...
- tastypickles, on 11/07/2007, -2/+14Friends used to dive behind the local donut shop - every night at 11:35 pm, then pig out like crazy. I never ate one of 'em. Now they're fat, but at least they didn't pay anything!
- expertninja, on 11/08/2007, -0/+12I have found: one bicycle (party disassembled) that I sold for 60 bucks once I fixed it, one RooR bong (also needed fixing), two 300 watt kenwood speakers, and a LCD monitor all in the trash or sitting next to a dumpster. Hooray for the consumer economy.
- hansk, on 11/07/2007, -0/+11that was about muffin stalks.
- HHP2K, on 11/08/2007, -1/+12I'm not afraid to admit that I go dumpster diving all the time. I live on the 12th floor of an apartment building overlooking 2 dumpster lots, and I've managed to score a perfectly good office desk, a 21" Samsung SyncMaster 1100DF, two perfect working Philips 107T2 Lightframe monitors, routers, whole computers, hard drives, big working speakers, and tons of other things. I once recovered a working standing lamp with a halogen bulb - god knows why the heck someone would throw that out!
- offspring06, on 11/08/2007, -0/+9It looks like a lot of diggers are dumpster divers.
- Starfoxy7, on 11/08/2007, -0/+8I found a dollar in a dumpster. Just right on top.
- malaak, on 11/08/2007, -1/+9We prefer to call it "Landfill Rescue"
- AriaStar, on 11/08/2007, -1/+9If more people found million-dollar paintings, I'd be out there more. As it is, I accidentally fell in a few nights ago when I was taking my garbage out and threw the bag, opening my hand with my keys back into the building. I tried to reach, but it was an inch too far. Stretch, stretch, up on my toes...tipped in. Not fun.
- leif77, on 11/08/2007, -0/+8"Home is the 15th floor of a filing cabinet for widows and young professionals. The walls are solid concrete. A foot of concrete is important if your next door neighbor lets her hearing aid go and and has to watch gameshows at full volume. Or... when a volcanic blast of debris that used to be your furniture and personal effects blows out of your floor to celing windows and sails flaming into the night... I suppose these things happen."
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+8We've found some textbooks behind our college's bookstore at the end of the semester. Not mint condition, but perfectly usable.
- chaosium, on 11/08/2007, -1/+8This is reasonable, profitable, and far less disgusting than high-fiving others over tainted and rotting produce.
- violentvinyl, on 11/09/2007, -1/+8I used to feel the same way, then I thought about the types of things I throw away. It's mostly paper products, unfinished food, wrappers, etc. My garbage is relatively clean. If you're throwing away hazardous waste, you're doing something wrong.
- Paulk501, on 11/07/2007, -2/+8ive myself made about 4 grand doing it
- iherbivore, on 11/08/2007, -1/+7Is this correct: Most businesses use florescent lighting. The old ones tend to wind up in dumpsters where they often break, contaminating the dumpster with Mercury.
- irvman21, on 11/07/2007, -8/+13I prefer having a job.
- objectcode, on 11/08/2007, -1/+6some find enjoyment digging through garbage
- charlieboyx, on 11/08/2007, -2/+6Hell yeah!! I got a new jacket!
- iherbivore, on 11/08/2007, -0/+4But what about taking and using/selling items that have been contaminated with Mercury? Seems problematic to me.
- halavais, on 11/08/2007, -1/+5Because most jobs suck. I had a fairly well-paying job when I started dumpster-diving, but was interested in living frugally. A friend, who was more serious than I was, pulled in an extra $20K one year, in addition to his teaching salary.
The rat race--work more to buy stuff and then throw it away--is a good way to get other people rich and waste your own life. - antistupid, on 11/07/2007, -2/+5Wasn't this a Seinfeld episode?
- fadeout, on 11/08/2007, -2/+6I used to dumpster dive in high school until the cops almost busted me for trespassing. Be care about where you go, if it looks like you're diving for credit card receipts they will treat you accordingly. Also, kevlar gloves and are probably the best investment you can make if you're going to try this. Ever get tasked with throwing out burned lights while working? Smashing the ***** out of those things are the only fun a 17 year old retail employee gets, the shards can get everywhere.
- BenKenobi88, on 11/07/2007, -1/+5A fully working Gamecube, just didn't have the power supply...which I actually owned because I had an extra cord from my GC I used to own. Found it in an alley as I was driving...I've got a Wii, so I gave it to a friend so we can Smash anywhere!
- o0adam0o, on 11/07/2007, -0/+4Well i live in a college town, every semester we will go by the campus apartments, dorms...and theres always great stuff in the dumpsters.....monitors, laptops, midi keyboards, printer....i usually go for the electronics...but its amazing what some throw away...i guess when u finish college and off to a career, you figure you can throw this stuff away...dunno...
- xero69, on 11/08/2007, -1/+5Best times to do this are when the college kids are moving out at the end of the semester. You can score dishes new in the box, clothes still in the dry cleaning plastic, etc
- chaosium, on 11/08/2007, -0/+3"still have about 200 copies of Winblowz NT and 2000, OS/2, DOS 6.22, Novell, etc all still in original shrink wrap....."
See, that's cool and all, but packratting is a bit unhealthy and O/C. - volitor8555, on 11/08/2007, -0/+3Yes it was, Elaine was dating the guy on welfare, and he took her for a special treat of dumpster donuts!
- BOFH139, on 11/07/2007, -1/+4I use to live beside a big industrial site and when dumpster diving all the time;
I got electronic, computer parts, phone, full desktops and servers (I even got a Server that was used as a Proxy-Server for a security auditing company :> which they had done nothing with except unplug it and put it beside the skip....) and still have about 200 copies of Winblowz NT and 2000, OS/2, DOS 6.22, Novell, etc all still in original shrink wrap.....
It's great fun plus your can hind some cool treasures...... - Matt2k, on 11/09/2007, -1/+4Don't touch that part
- BoneheadFarker, on 11/07/2007, -0/+3Yeah, but they're still muffin topping I bet...
- inactive, on 11/09/2007, -1/+4no but you can get something that will make you wish you had health care dumpster diving
- rarson, on 11/09/2007, -0/+3Do you not use trash bags or something? You just dump all of your food and feminine hygiene products directly into the dumpster? Your trash can must stink.
- jax9999, on 11/08/2007, -0/+3Local Mall did a renovation. It was like awesome. They were putting pretty much everything that was either damaged, or floor display, or they simply didn't sell in the rush before remodelling. It was closed for like 2 months and the stuff we pulled out of those dumpsters was awesome.
I had 2 shopping carts full of lamps. dozens of hatracks (those wooden screw togeather ones) garbage full of shoes, clothes, VCR's, toys. Almost everything in there was in the box, or still tagged. It was like candyland.
Around here in the spring we have what's called the "heavy pickup" which means that you can take whatever junk you accumulated over the winter and throw it on the side of the road to be picked up. Mountains of garbage. None of it is everyday rottin garbage, its all furniture, and appliances and stuff.
I got a solid brass wood holder for my fireplace one day, and on the next street over was the matching brass poker set. It was awesome.
antique steamer trunks, and desks. Having a truck rocks at that time of year. You know those metal springs that box springs replaced? the ones that last for like decades? I have a small collection in my basement. ;-)
I've got a knack for finding the good stuff.
Of course food.. thats the line I won't cross. - rarson, on 11/08/2007, -0/+3If you go to the right place, and you get it as soon as they throw it away, then it's usually pretty easy to find some food worth taking. Sometimes, if it's a shelf product and the box is damaged, they'll throw away perfectly good food.
- rarson, on 11/08/2007, -0/+2I've always wanted a Ferrari, but I've never seen one just sitting around, "thrown out."
- KizardLing, on 11/08/2007, -0/+2Back in the day, the USAF started doing what they called, "Facilities Excellence Inspections." Basically, someone had ready a study that showed that people were more productive in better-looking work environments. So the Air Force mandated certain standards that needed to be met, such as walls painted, office furniture matching, excess inventory turned in, etc.
The Thursday before the inspection, it got around that the base commander had called in all of the unit commanders and told them everything had to be ready to go before the weekend or everyone was going to be working the weekend. All excess inventory turned in, all furniture matching, all walls painted, anything hanging on the walls in frames. They even painted the back of every street sign on base brown, and tried to paint every piece of fire emergency equipment in the buildings brown as well.
By the end of the day on Friday, every single dumpster on the base was overflowing. Base supply had quickly run out of room for excess inventory, so people began chucking all kinds of things into the dumpsters. Practically new office furniture, office supplies, computers, monitors, computer memory - all kinds of stuff - just chucked into the dumpsters. It was insane. On top of that, we were reminded that if we tried to help ourselves to anything thrown into the dumpsters, we would be prosecuted. Some of it did get rescued, but it still looked like a lot of money just ended up going straight to the dump. - inactive, on 11/08/2007, -0/+2Or end of the month at a good apartment complex. I lived in one for years and some of the stuff that people would toss rather than take with em when they moved out was incredible. Lots of good furniture and electronics...
- rarson, on 11/08/2007, -1/+3Those grills are awesome.
- rarson, on 11/09/2007, -0/+2Yeah, when my company told me I had to move, I suddenly realized my house was full of ***** that I didn't need that I never used. Now I need to get rid of the stuff. I hate the whole consumer mentality, "get a career, make money, buy *****, fill up a big house with crap." No thanks, I'd rather just not work, or at least work as little as possible.
- inactive, on 11/09/2007, -4/+6It's surprising that I don't find trash like you when I go dumpster diving.
- sock2828, on 11/08/2007, -0/+2I once found 5 cases of strawberry's in a dumpster.
There siting in my freezer right now - rarson, on 11/07/2007, -0/+2I went dumpster diving once behind a grocery store. They had apparently received some big boxes full of cereal boxes and upon open the box, had sliced through a bunch of the boxes near the top. The bags inside were still sealed, but the boxes themselves were sliced open, so they got pitched. I had like a year and a half worth of cereal just from one dumpster.
Seems like that kind of thing happens pretty often. It would be best to check the dumpsters out the day they receive stuff, so that it doesn't get buried in trash. - cafman, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1My first year in grad school I lived right next to the building that was in charge handling all furniture for the whole campus, office furniture, dorm stuff, you name it. Their dumpster furnished my house. Bed frames, office desks, night stands, coffee tables, lamps, chairs. I always left the bed mattresses alone, that just seemed gross.
- FishRHuman2, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1If you have a Home Depot or equivalent major hardware/home megastore, check out their dumpsters the night before the trash is picked up. My uncle finds an average of 2 sofas and 5-10 Persian rugs a month, which he sells for about $200 each.
Also, shoe stores always have boxes of shoes out back. Some of them have two left shoes or similar problem, but mix-n-match.
Finally, make sure you aren't caught. Shoe companies will slash the shoes and everywhere else will spray paint the discarded product, to make sure you don't resell. - ripthefish123, on 11/07/2007, -1/+2this is exactly how i got my computer. monitor, mouse, keyboard, even speakers.
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