Are you a Dumpster Diver?

[Lorien]

My mom has been dumpster diving for as long as I can remember. It use to really disgust me (as a teenager, one hates to admit an item of furniture came from the trash), but as consumerism grows to new levels of absurdity, I now see the value in it. I've managed to find several great items in the trash; a beautiful, virtually unscratched craftsman style wood table, a stylish 1960s wood and leather chair (also in near perfect condition). Just recently my repug neighbor threw out three tennis rackets and a working fax machine. It's amazing what people toss these days!

If you're a "dumpster diver", what's your greatest find?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i did a lot in the 70's

now i just go to Savers or Goodwill or freecycle.com


best goodies? a beautiful overstuffed easy chair (just needed cleaning)

lots of bookcases, books and once a sheepskin car coat that was gorgeous (which didn't even need cleaning LOL).

[Lorien]

2. I had an idea for a yearly Freecycle "action"

get a few Freecyclers together and ask to dorm manager(s) of your local campus student housing if you can pass out special garbage bags with notes attached at the end of the school year. Students throw away piles of new and nearly new /gently used stuff when they pack up to go home. If an organized group of Freecyclers could pick up any unwanted items and either Freecycle them or give them to Goodwill (or both), we'd save quite a bit on resources and landfill space.

[kayell]

3. Here's a program like that

http://www.clemson.edu/cuec/lighten.html

"Each spring semester the Lighten Your Load Program works to reduce student waste by having bins available to collect unwanted items as students move out of campus housing. The program is a collaborative effort between the CU Housing Department and the CU Recycling Department, which collects and distributes collected materials. The items collected include clothing, household items, non-perishable foods and building materials such as lumber from lofts.

Oftentimes, as students leave the campus, they do not have space to transport their belongings. The Lighten Your Load Program acts as a link between the students and organizations within our community that serve those who are in need.

The program has many far-reaching effects for Clemson students beyond that of merely acting as a way to cut down on possessions. This program helps to make students aware of how their unwanted belongings can help those in the community who are less fortunate. It essentially gives students a way to give back to the community through this service learning opportunity.

The donated items are distributed to local charities such as the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and Clemson Community Care. These organizations operate within the greater Clemson area and serve to help those in substantive need.

The Lighten Your Load Program also benefits the local environment by keeping all donated goods out of local landfills. As a result, less of the waste generated at Clemson University is taking up space in local landfills!

Facts about the Lighten Your Load Program:

To date, the Lighten our Load Program has collected more the 6,500 lbs. of clothing.
In just 3 years, over 3,500 lbs. of food has been donated to local charities through the program.
Several truckloads of lumber have been donated to Habitat for Humanity for local projects."

[InvisibleTouch]

4. I can't pass up a freebie.

If I see a great piece of furniture set out on the curb, I have a devil of a time passing it up. :) Most of my plant stands and tables in my basement were freebies like this. If I can't use the item myself, I can often give or sell it to someone else. Can't stand to see something thrown away that still has good use left in it.

My greatest find? Probably the huge and monstrously heavy wood table that someone had thrown away because the top had broken off from the base. Somehow I managed to maneuver it into my car (the fact that it was in two pieces helped), hauled it down my basement stairs, and (this was the worst part) lifted the top back onto its base and tightened the ripped-out screws. It's not stable to the point where you could lean on one edge, so it wouldn't be useful as a dining room table - but it's fine for holding even heavy items if I keep them close to the midline. And it's been invaluable to me for my basement computer set-up. Amazing, what people throw out ... and what people pay good money for, instead of scouring the curbsides....

[Zorra]

5. You could feed entire third world nations with the food that gets dumped

in the grocery store dumpsters of America every day.

[lpbk2713]

6. They could still be eating the food that ended up being thrown out

by the grocery stores here in Florida after this season's hurricanes hit and killed the power to those stores and did all kinds of other damage to them where they couldn't open for business. Damn shame.

[Willy Lee]

7. I live for "Big Trash Day" in our town.

It happens twice a year, in Spring and Fall. You can put out anything (almost) on the curbside for the trash guys to pick up. Once the sun goes down the streets become full of slow moving vehicles with flashlights, checking the curb treasures. I have gotten a great antique sideboard, cool old wavy glass windows, a hand made coffee table, old milk jugs- lots of cool stuff.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Let's just say my husband won't let me go to the dump with him!

:evilgrin:

People throw out amazing things.

[CitySky]

9. one of the many times I tried to take up running...

I ended up jogging through chi-chi Beacon Hill on trash day. Big mistake. My workout ended up being a 20-minute jog followed by a 40-minute walk home, carrying a cute little table.

-Celeste

[Lorien]

10. OK, my repug neighbor is just plain EVIL

He's been in the process of moving (thank goodness), and has been stacking up piles of stuff on the curb every week. Two weeks ago I took some tennis rackets, a fax machine, and a new wooden folding chair with a screw missing (easy to replace). Others drove by and took lamps, kitchenware, etc. I'm going to give the stuff to Goodwill or list it on Freecycle. Anyway, last week, he puts out the body from a chest of drawers (in good shape), but no drawers. Now he's putting out the drawers THIS week. If he doesn't want it, then NO ONE can have it, obviously. :grr:. I randomly picked up a trash bag from the pile this morning. In it were brand new, unread books (I left "the case against Hillary Clinton" in the bag), folded, nearly new clothing, unopened boxes of golf balls,new towels, A full box of unopened packets of NFL trading cards. WTF is wrong with this guy? Is it so hard to pick up the phone and call a charity to pick all this stuff up? Well, I"LL be taking it to Goodwill. Ugh.

[InvisibleTouch]

11. Almost makes me wish...

...that I had a rethug neighbor like that. Almost. ;) Good for you, for salvaging the stuff....

[cally]

12. Many of the local charities won't take furniture

I drove around for a month with a trunk full of school and craft supplies, many new and all in good shape, that I couldn't figure out how to donate. I also had unopened chip bags and drinks from election night. Finally, I found a charity that helps folks who are homeless and just moving in residences. They were thrilled with the stuff. I had some old children's furniture that my kids had outgrown. None of the charities I called wanted it. It was nice furniture. I ended up leaving it on the street with a 'free' sign and it was picked up within an hour. That's what I do with boxes after I move. Someone picks them up.

I have dumpster dived. I've gotten some amazing furniture and bookcases. We need better ways to trade all this stuff. Well, we need less stuff but we need better ways to give it to folks who need it more

[Lorien]

14. Have you tried Freecycle?

It's an easy and efficient way of getting rid of stuff-especially larger items-that you don't want. Those who DO want it come to you, and they haul it away. :-)

[politicat]

15. Ugh.... I think he's moving in two doors down and across from me.

Not likely, but a similar type. They apparently brought all of their crap cross country and are sorting it... Fortunately, my neighborhood has a long tradition of "put it out 24 hours before trash pickup so everyone gets a chance to look at it first" so very little of their crap is going into the landfill. Not that they're happy about it. They've been on my porch twice to ask me to watch to make sure no one "trash-picks" their garbage. The first time, I explained that trash is considered abandoned property and so I won't. The second, I shrugged and said "what do you care? You're throwing it away."

Of course, they lost their plate of home-made cookies when the first thing that appeared in a window - on moving day, so we could know what their priorities were - was a pair of signs in the bay window: Jesus Bless George W. Bush and that horrid picture of a 70s miscarriage that the pro-fetus people use because a sanitary napkin isn't good PR.

It's gonna be a long 4 years.

PCat

[tilsammans]

13. Dumpster diver am I . . .

At virtually all the companies I've worked for.

My best finds are BRAND-NEW OFFICE SUPPLIES! It's a sin, the thousands of dollars worth of items that get tossed out.