Dumpster diving

10 best things I've dumpster dove... One is a lie

1. Fresh deer head w/10 pt rack
2. Silver coins
3. Venison summer sausage
4. Prostetic leg
5. 4 cases of bananas
6. Antler handled knife
7. 7 bags of onions @ 50 lbs each
8. Brand new backpack still with tags
9. A glass eye
10. 5 car batteries that went directly to the scrap dealer and went for $25

William Bronson wrote:
I favor hospital and college dumpsters.

Thomas Dean wrote:Tool for divers: https://fallingfruit.org/
dumpsters, edible and non-edible marked.  
I've marked a few.  Out of fear of loss of resources, I have not marked some of my "best" sources, for fear of drawing attention to them and cutting into my ability to harvest.
Any other divers out there?  I'm a "semi-freegan" we still buy groceries because my wife won't fully "buy-in" to the philosophy of not buying things.  So, I just augment the table with things we would never buy.  Also, feed for livestock.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Every one of the waste transfer stations and recycling centres I go to has a "take it or leave it" area. People drop off stuff they don't want but is still good to use. It diverts an amazing amount of material from the landfill. And it's a lot safer than rooting through broken glass and bags of wet cat litter.

At transfer stations without a public drop off, people strategically leave good stuff beside or on top of the bins. I scored a very nice Bose speaker system that way, including power supply (it was made for iPods, but has a 1/8" stereo jack input as well).

My favourite dumpsters are metal recycling bins. Cookware, roofing tin, eavestroughs, quality kitchen knives, T-posts, you name it.

Thomas Dean wrote:

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Every one of the waste transfer stations and recycling centres I go to has a "take it or leave it" area. People drop off stuff they don't want but is still good to use. It diverts an amazing amount of material from the landfill. And it's a lot safer than rooting through broken glass and bags of wet cat litter.

At transfer stations without a public drop off, people strategically leave good stuff beside or on top of the bins. I scored a very nice Bose speaker system that way, including power supply (it was made for iPods, but has a 1/8" stereo jack input as well).

My favourite dumpsters are metal recycling bins. Cookware, roofing tin, eavestroughs, quality kitchen knives, T-posts, you name it.

In Rochester, MN, there was a "chemical room" where you could take anything you wanted.  You couldn't just leave stuff, but you could take it (I think that the drop-off was more complicated because they didn't want all kinds of nasty ick, just recognizable, useable products).  Cleaning chemicals, soaps, paints, etc.  I checked it frequently.
At my new home, we are very near the landfill - can see it when the trees loose their leaves.  They have a "no salvage" policy, but I've salvaged on community cleanup days when the workers weren't working.  SO MUCH GOOD STUFF mixed in with the true garbage. It hurts to see it.

Phil Swindler wrote:I made this from a piece of wood I pulled from the trash at work.
I made several and gave most of them away.

Thomas Dean wrote:

Phil Swindler wrote:I made this from a piece of wood I pulled from the trash at work.
I made several and gave most of them away.

What is it?  

Ted Abbey wrote:I dumpster dive every day.. for pig food. All of the restaurants and schools in my nearby town save all food waste for me, except for two “corporate” restaurants who shall remain nameless.. let’s just call them Benny’s and Rubway. The amount of perfectly good food they prefer to send to the landfill is shocking. Perhaps even more puzzling is the patrons. It appears that most eat very little of what they order, yet they seem fatter than ever? This is strange to me, as I never leave a scrap on the occasions that I eat out, and I can’t seem to gain weight. By the way, I did this all through the “pandemic”, and never got sick once, despite sorting through used straws and napkins. Bonus.. I have a HUGE collection of silverware and dishes that the waitstaff saw fit to include in the garbage.. Thanks!

Thomas Dean wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:I dumpster dive every day.. for pig food. All of the restaurants and schools in my nearby town save all food waste for me, except for two “corporate” restaurants who shall remain nameless.. let’s just call them Benny’s and Rubway. The amount of perfectly good food they prefer to send to the landfill is shocking. Perhaps even more puzzling is the patrons. It appears that most eat very little of what they order, yet they seem fatter than ever? This is strange to me, as I never leave a scrap on the occasions that I eat out, and I can’t seem to gain weight. By the way, I did this all through the “pandemic”, and never got sick once, despite sorting through used straws and napkins. Bonus.. I have a HUGE collection of silverware and dishes that the waitstaff saw fit to include in the garbage.. Thanks!

Ted,
The school that I work at allows me to put buckets out for the students to discard their food scraps into.  I am shocked by how many students will walk right past my bin to throw food away!  I dig it out in front of the students, little shame.  I tell them that I do it for the environment and for my pocketbook (chicken food).  A lot of the food is subsidized through gov programs... so it's my tax dollars being spent to fill the landfill - so irritating! I have several stops that I frequent when out and about, several have given me permission, a few I've not asked.  Recently a student caught me on video jumping out of a local dumpster.  I laughed when they showed me.  My wife knows my habits, but would be horrified to know that the students have me on film.
As for silverware... one of my sources supplies those for me as well.  I wish I had a good home for it.  It goes in the bin for scrap.  I don't need a million spoons, and they are not high quality anyway.  

Ted Abbey wrote:

Thomas Dean wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:I dumpster dive every day.. for pig food. All of the restaurants and schools in my nearby town save all food waste for me, except for two “corporate” restaurants who shall remain nameless.. let’s just call them Benny’s and Rubway. The amount of perfectly good food they prefer to send to the landfill is shocking. Perhaps even more puzzling is the patrons. It appears that most eat very little of what they order, yet they seem fatter than ever? This is strange to me, as I never leave a scrap on the occasions that I eat out, and I can’t seem to gain weight. By the way, I did this all through the “pandemic”, and never got sick once, despite sorting through used straws and napkins. Bonus.. I have a HUGE collection of silverware and dishes that the waitstaff saw fit to include in the garbage.. Thanks!

I stopped at "rubway" and a local pizza place last week, both told me that company policy did not allow them to give me food waste.
However, I've made a good and legitimate connection with the produce manager at a local store, and a couple times a week, I get boxes of produce for the livestock.

Thomas Dean wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:

Thomas Dean wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:I dumpster dive every day.. for pig food. All of the restaurants and schools in my nearby town save all food waste for me, except for two “corporate” restaurants who shall remain nameless.. let’s just call them Benny’s and Rubway. The amount of perfectly good food they prefer to send to the landfill is shocking. Perhaps even more puzzling is the patrons. It appears that most eat very little of what they order, yet they seem fatter than ever? This is strange to me, as I never leave a scrap on the occasions that I eat out, and I can’t seem to gain weight. By the way, I did this all through the “pandemic”, and never got sick once, despite sorting through used straws and napkins. Bonus.. I have a HUGE collection of silverware and dishes that the waitstaff saw fit to include in the garbage.. Thanks!

I stopped at "rubway" and a local pizza place last week, both told me that company policy did not allow them to give me food waste.
However, I've made a good and legitimate connection with the produce manager at a local store, and a couple times a week, I get boxes of produce for the livestock.

The “rubway” dumpster is an occasional goldmine. Some days they will toss bags of 30 to 50 foot long loaves of bread. My pigs love it..

William Bronson wrote: My sister teaches at a place called La Soupe.(https://www.lasoupe.org/)
It exists to divert food waste away from landfills and into the mouths of the needy.
Vollenteers prep ingredients for the chefs, then they make a communal meal.  
It's a good time for anyone who likes cooking and community.
They get  good stuff from local grocery stores, and the meals are delicious.
They compost or recycle almost every scrap ,  right down to the food handling gloves.



I don't currently dive for food or feed, since I only have 3 chickens, but I do stop and grab the best bits out of construction dumpsters.
When I do dive for edibles, Aldi is my go to.
Since they've raised their produce standards, the pickings are better than ever, but they are still too cheap to pay for a compacting dumpster.
Trader Joe's is also good, but too far away from me.
I've noticed my birds don't care for whitehead, but I don't think it's them being smart, since they love themselves some styrofoam...

I've been tempted to dive a KFC dumpster, just for the bones.
Make bone char with them and grow a bunch of melons or squash
Even the paper would be useful for making fire, and the cups for starting plants.
Only plastic would be hard to use, and that could be returned to the dumpster!

John C Daley wrote:I can just imagine the scene William, belly balanced on the dumpster edge.
Body see- sawing as your centre of balance changes.
Ever shot down into a bin?

Rebecca Norman wrote:The talk of diving on behalf of chickens reminded me I wanted to ask this question. I get a bag of coffee grounds often from a cafe. It has a few pastries and cake in it. If I had chickens, would it be good to dump the sacks in the run and let them pick at the pastries among the coffee grounds? Or would chocolate cake and coffee grounds be bad for them?

Thomas Dean wrote:

Rebecca Norman wrote:The talk of diving on behalf of chickens reminded me I wanted to ask this question. I get a bag of coffee grounds often from a cafe. It has a few pastries and cake in it. If I had chickens, would it be good to dump the sacks in the run and let them pick at the pastries among the coffee grounds? Or would chocolate cake and coffee grounds be bad for them?

I'd give it to the chickens.  Cake is empty calories, but so is cracked corn... As for the coffee grounds, I doubt they will eat enough to matter.  I used to get coffee grounds and add them to my compost, which the chickens have access to.  That was pre-covid and pre-job change, both of which stalled collection of coffee grounds for me.  I even saw that TSC offered a bedding made of used coffee grounds.  I saw it once, then never again.   Reasonable idea.  Also, here's some info about coffee bedding, have not read it, but I think it's the same stuff I saw at TSC  https://blog.meyerhatchery.com/2022/06/using-coffee-grounds-bedding/

You don’t want to make your own coffee grounds bedding. Keep this to the professionals.