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I'm reading the Art and Science of Dumper Diving, and it's got me thinking about it. Anyone do it? We had a bunch of people that would go through dumpsters when I lived in the city, but now that I'm out in the relative suburbs, I'm pretty sure they're fairly unused around here. I'm imagining that when the spring semester ends later this month, there will probably be a lot of good stuff to be had from all the college students I live near.

If I happen to spot something cool-looking sitting beside a dumpster or whatever, sure, I'll check it out. Some people throw away the coolest stuff.

You mean picking up stuff that people have tossed out? Dumpster diving sounds like a derogatory term to me, even if people wear it with pride for some reason. Meh, where do you think my book shelves came from? I fething hate when people waste things needlessly, but I suppose that comes up trumps for those that have a use for that stuff and who just happen to be passing by. Case in point, building sites throw out a lot of wood. Now there's a pigeon loft sitting in my garden, and so on. Hell if I wanted to furnish a new flat I could just spend a day driving about here and I'd have a full living room and bedroom suite of stuff people have thrown out because its either not in style anymore or has a few nicks on it.

I guess people feel themselves about the whole idea. Its not a new thing, my dad got all kind of gak when he did it in his twenties. Pawn was more prolific then too though, so guess who had cash in his pocket. People want things to be brand new, and the concept of someone else owning something before them is apparently beneath them. Sure go waste money instead of making good on an opportunity. Hmn, I could say that its fine to buy clothes out of a "vintage" shop, despite that stuff having been bought en masse from house clearances and the like. That antiques programs make a big thing about stuff people just happen to find in bins and old houses as well. Eugh, point is that so much stuff which is perfectly usable is thrown out and eventually destroyed for mindless reasons. ...I volunteered in a charity shop's sorting center for a bit there. I've put that on hold for various reasons, but a major one was how demoralizing it was to see stuff being arbitrarily send to the cleansing sites. So talking about "bin raiding" and the like, check out what was in that place's. ...Not to go off on a tangent, but I'd assure that anyone could have gone into them and come out with something of value (wargamers would cry, antiquarians would call in hitmen), shame that they were locked and documented then. =P

Ah, so point being, on the part of people who throw stuff out, fine you may not have a use for that stuff. There's always going to be someone out there who will though, but its up to the circumstances and for them to have the inclination to act on that. ...just try and ask the site owner's permission before you start climbing fences and rifling through their bins though.

In college the adjacent bread store used to throw out anything they weren't going to turn into croutons in nice plastic bags, leading to the 10ish call of "Pillage the bread store!".

There is far too much waste and I think it's great that people can find a good use for the stuff. The wasting of food is one that's pretty incredulously done by food stores.

Taking stuff out of dumpsters/bins is considered theft though, here in the UK at least.

So don't get caught!

I dunno, I don't go driving around town to find stuff, but I do peruse various ebay-type sites for second-hand stuff I'm on the lookout for.
Also, there are over a dozen "I'm getting rid of this, best offer gets it" or "pick it up for free" facebook groups for my hometown alone. Can get some useful stuff that way...

If people throw stuff into a skip on a public street and I've got a use for it (or can salvage it for charity) I'll haul it on out

but if it's on private property I'd always ask permission and leave it alone if they said no

Taking stuff out of dumpsters? Isn't that for beggars and poor people?
I think it is gross.

Heck, one of my friends a very long time ago got a professional level Master Chief costume from the dumpster behind a video game store right around the time Halo 2 (I think) was coming out.

/When I went from a 1 bedroom apartment to a full house I was looking in alleyways and on Craigslist for free stuff to furnish the whole place. Most of the stuff was in great condition, and my sister is a professional cleaner, so I had her come and sanitize everything for a few bucks. Unfortunately I had to downsize back to a 800 square foot cube a few years later, so most of it ended back up on the curb, only to be gone the next day.

Now that my place is in an upper class neighborhood, we see $1200 leather couches and executive office desks in people's driveways. But my place is too small to bring the behemoth pieces in

I would do it at the end of the semester. University students would throw away things they couldn't bring home, and each dorm had a dumpster out side

I've done it. Granted, it's very hit and miss, but you can find some downright cool stuff

I've done it. You have to know where you're looking and what you're looking for.

I have done it. Half of our furniture is freebies found on the side of the road. "We threw it out because of that hole in the cushion." Okay, we flipped it over. Brand spanking new!

I've pulled furniture off of curbs and other assorted items I've seen in/beside trash dumpsters before. Also if I'm ever throwing away furniture, I make a point of putting it on the curb a few days before trash day so people can see it and have a chance to grab it. Never had a piece of furniture last until trash day like that.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I have done it. Half of our furniture is freebies found on the side of the road. "We threw it out because of that hole in the cushion." Okay, we flipped it over. Brand spanking new!

Furniture I feel is a no-go. Free furniture/thrown aways are the primary cause of the spread of bed bugs

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Taking stuff out of dumpsters? Isn't that for beggars and poor people?
I think it is gross.

Yep, and I am definitely one of the latter.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
I volunteered in a charity shop's sorting center for a bit there. I've put that on hold for various reasons, but a major one was how demoralizing it was to see stuff being arbitrarily send to the cleansing sites. So talking about "bin raiding" and the like, check out what was in that place's. ...Not to go off on a tangent, but I'd assure that anyone could have gone into them and come out with something of value (wargamers would cry, antiquarians would call in hitmen), shame that they were locked and documented then.

It's tangential, but this is a very good point; charity shops are amazing places to find all sorts of cool stuff. Over the last couple of years I've made a point of checking the 4-5 of them in town every couple of weeks, and have found a ton of things at frankly stupid prices. Thousands of pounds worth of books bought for 50p to a pound each, brand suits and jackets for under a tenner, ties by the dozen, a good-as-new acoustic guitar for about £15.

And all the cash goes to a good cause. I dread to think how much I've spent in there in total over the years, but at the end of the day, both parties have got a good deal, so it's a win-win.

Can't think I've ever found anything on the street/in/by a bin that I'd want, but if I did and there was no use for it, you can bet I'd enquire with the relevant person.

No thanks I'm sweet.

I went through some bins in a side street from Covent Garden the other year and bagged myself a copy of a hardback of Dan Dare comics, was being sold on Amazon for £60 at the time. I left the 'making of Judge Dredd' book behind as I already had a copy. People throw some odd stuff away.

Some mates of mine used to skip dive around the back of Safeway when I was at Uni and used to bring back crispscand chocolates. One of their girlfriends drew the time at them bringing beef and other cuts of meat back.

Nothing wrong with being a skip rat and people throw perfectly good things away all the time. My uncle used to be a binman and, knowing about my hobby, saved a complete 2nd Ed 40K boxed set for me when he found it thrown out. Hell, I found three months of White Dwarf Weekly and Warhammer Visions not that long ago plus assorted sci-fi and gaming magazines.

The most disheartening is when, say outside a shop, things have been deliberately destroyed. I remember my old man talking to some fellas who were cutting up brand new rolls of wallpaper, the end of stock stuff that wasn't selling. They didn't like slashing a knife through it all but that was the policy; the boss wanted it sold at full price or not at all, the logic being that people would just wait for the cut price stuff. It's quite obnoxious to see a shop soiled three-seater leather sofa and two armchairs all meticulously slashed.

EDIT: just remembered, since we've just had Valentine's Day. About two years ago we found two boxes of chocolates and a Valentine's Card (which was torn in half) in a bin, obviously the chap wasn't too impressed and chucked the lot. Anyway, we ate them, they were delicious and I kept the boxes because they were quite sturdy for putting model bits in. Charbonnel et Walker, gourmet chocolates from London; just checked to see how much they are and a similar set of boxes on their website is £75!!! Crazy...

Finished the book. Personally, I've dug a bit of stuff out of the trash myself, but it's been stuff like broken LCD monitors I've fixed and stuff like that. This guy goes on to talk about diving for food. Talked a lot about even dented and bloated cans, which I've always heard is a huge no-no. Then he goes on to talk about how everyone thinks that, and that as long as you cook it and it passes the smell test, it's fine. He even talked about times that he'd eat fruit raw out of a bloated can.

I don't know if I'm quite ready for THAT kind of commitment, but it sounds interesting. Saving on a food budget and probably eating healthier than I do now is pretty intriguing, not that I really need the money.

Coming to Japan 10 years ago, Large garbage day was shopping day, as Japanese (then) threw away things that were perfectly good, buy a new TV throw away the last one.

I must admit this is not something I have considered. It doesn't sound very lucrative.

Did it with my mom in ye olden days. Never found anything valuable, but I found sealed edible food and pretty cool trinkets. Found a pack of magic cards once too. You do it for the adventure, not for thinking you'll make money out of it.

Dumpster pickups are also how I've amassed many comfy rolling office chairs for gaming group throw downs.

We (my group of friends when I was a teenager) picked up tons of computers and hardware back in the day dumpster diving.

Dumpster diving also led to a pretty amusing police and security car chase one time, but that's a different story.

I used to get a lot of terrain that way

Surpsing how much E waste people threw away back like 10-15 years ago.

I've found plenty of cool things being thrown out, in fact I've made money of said things. A couple power wheels that were tossed I fixed up and sold for $40 each, tons of baby toys and strollers a few couches and even refrigerator once. All free cash to me outside of cleaning them up.

Before I moved from an apartment into my new house, I decided it was time to pare down my thousands of Star Wars CCG cards. I kept plenty, but do you really need 120 Storm Trooper cards? No. The box I tossed must have weighed 20 lbs.

Anyway, instead of putting it in the apartment's dumpster, I sat it next to it, with the lid open. On a later trip down, I saw two kids walking it back to their apartment. I'd like to think I put two more kids on the path of nerd-dom. Maybe.

My brother in law is in the removals and clearance trade and has come back with fully working PS3s, Xboxs, TVs, Laptops. People do throw away some crazy stuff.

I don't go trawling through bins in the same manner as he has but if I spy something nice looking I do have a look. Going to do a tip run and staring into the masses of electronics I sometimes wonder to myself why the fnarp did that get thrown away. A lot of times electrical stuff is easy to fix.