http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1891251,00.html
“Why the middle classes go scavenging in dustbins”
THE Thanksgiving holiday is over and the frenzied Christmas shopping season has begun. This is bonanza time for the tribe of rummaging Americans known as “freegans”.
The anti-capitalist freegans — the name combines “free” and “vegan” — are so appalled by the waste of the consumer society that they try to live on the leftovers, scavenging for food in supermarket dustbins.
While I would say that basing my entire existence on what I scavenge out of the garbage is a bit much but I would be highly suprised if ‘loyal readers’ have not, on ocasion, seen something that their neighbors put out for the garbagemen and taken it home. Many things that we of the preparedness mind would find usefull of nice-to-have many people find useless after a certain amount of time. Examples – lotsa of time people give away canning jars. My local newspaper carries a ‘to give away’ section and theres almost always chickens, rabbits, freezers, refrigerators, scrap lumber and that sort of thing. When I see homes being remodelled or repaired I always cruise the alleys behind the place looking for scrap 2×4’s and that sort of thing. Matter of fact, the shelves for my ammo cans in the bunker were made entirely from slavaged 2×4’s.
I do, however, draw the line at food. Sure, canned food would be ok if the cans are in good shape and their integrity has not been breached. But the rest Id rather not take my chances with. When I lived in NYC I did a short stint as a security guard at a McDonalds in Times Square. One of the jobs was to , at the end of the day, go out to the dumpster and poor bleach over all the contents to keep homeless people from rummaging through it.
Theres no shortage of websites to give ‘how to’ lessons and ‘success stories’ from people who have found _____ while dumpster diving. I only bring it up because for some things that you and I might find usefull, its worth checking out. Especially check out your local paper in the classifieds to see if they have a ‘to give away’ section
“One of the jobs was to , at the end of the day, go out to the dumpster and poor bleach over all the contents to keep homeless people from rummaging through it. “
What was the rationale for that? Were they making a mess? Liability issues?
During the hippie era, dumpster diving was an art, particularly for food. Many survived on it. For example, you could get excellent fresh veggies that were tossed for being misshapen or too unattractive to put in the supermarket displays, but were otherwise perfectly good and safe food.
I remember spending a day with a sandalmaker getting tutored on making a pair of sandals for myself. They invited me to stay for dinner, which was delicious and came in its entirety from the dumpster in back of the local Safeway.
One downside, of course, is that it took a lot of time. You had to know when they threw out what, what their stocking patterns were and all that. I always figured I could be working and making more money during all that time than I’d save dumpster diving.
Scavenging, on the other hand, is opportunistic and doesn’t require a constant time committment or a big learning curve, so I’ll do that when it’s interesting. My 150 feet of contractor’s power cable on a metal reel came from the dump, where it was tossed because the outer 100 feet or so of cable was falling apart from laying in the sun and getting run over and someone had run over the reel, bending it. I peeled the bad cable off, straightened the reel, and had 150 feet of useable cable left on the reel. After years of use it finally started to disintigrate, too, so I had to throw the rest of the old cable out and replace it with heavier cable I found on eBay. But I still use the same reel.
I also picked up a fairly new Hoover vacuum that didn’t work because someone sucked up a paper clip that jammed the motor. I quickly fixed that and used it for years until I finally replaced it this year.
I’ve added many components to my tool collection by picking up wrenches, socket wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, drill bits, sockets, boxes of screws, a heavy atamper, and even a 3/8″ Craftsman drill from the road when I take my walks. It’s easy – I don’t even have to go out of my way ;P
interesting that you mentioned chickens, as in yesterday’s La Crosse Tribune, someone had 12 laying hens & a rooster for give away
When I was stationed in Heidelberg, a local Turkish man and his son would scavange consumer electronics from the dumpster that serviced my housing area (Bachelor Enlisted Quarters). Based on my observations on what GIs discard, probably most of those electronics were still usable.
I hold dumpser diving aas a survival skill for urban terrains. It’s a survival skill, not something I’m going to engage in for my everday life.
Funny, those anti-capitalists (the ones mentioned in the article sound like anarchists, and I hold anarchists in the highest contempt), living on the discarded largesse of a consumer society—kinda like the WTO protesters organizing via the Internet.
Nothing wrong with free stuff. Check this out: http://www.freecycle.org/
Never used it, but I plan too in the future.
I’ve scavenged many things from dumpsters and trash through the years. It’s shame they had you pour bleach on the garbage at McDonald’s. It used to be one of the prime dumpster diving targets because most McDonald’s restaurants bagged their food before throwing it in the dumpster, and the food was often still wrapped in its packaging, unlike other fast-food places that just tossed all their food together in one nasty mess.
I used to work McDeath, and I did my fair share of closings.
Depending on the manager, we either tossed the un-sold sandwhiches, or I took them home with me (their cheeseburgers happen to freeze and re-heat in a nuker just fine for my taste).
We also had some nights where we had no sandwiches left because we switches to “build on demand”, in order to make the closing process go faster.
You could tell, too: the nights we have the second manager we rarely had anything longer then a 30 minute close time. (that’s the time between the resturant closing for business to when we left) the first manager never let us get out of there in under 45 minutes, and we hated it.
However, McD’s have changed things since I stopped working there in 1996, so this may or may not stil be the case…
I was actually thinking about much longer ago than that. Back in the early 80s we streteched our college students’ finances considerably by dumpster diving, especially at the local McDonalds.
+1 on the freecycle. I haven’t gotten anything from freecycle, but I’ve gotten rid of some stuff through the local group.
They tended to make a mess and just leave stuf strewn about.
I’ve dumspter dived from the time I first heard the term. Found many a usable piece of electronics or other useful hardware by crusing industrial parks on a Saturday or Sunday night, especially when I lived in more urban areas.
On a similar note, around here we have several small-scale hobby farmers who “discard” their surplus by simply placing it on a table with a “honor box” at the end of their driveway. They don’t actually offer the stuff “for sale” per say, but “contributions” are appreciated.
ah!
you worked as a gatekeeper safegaurding the treasure box with clorox. have seen others use soap, amonia, motor oil, and pestacide. it is amazing how Americans will guard their trash from being stolen.
after all, they claim poor and homeless don’t exist here, anywhere you go.
Re: ah!
It wasnt to keep trash from being stolen, it was to keep the homeless people from dumping the contents of the dumpster on the ground and making a mes so they could sift through it.
I think everyone admits that there are homeless people, they just dont care.