I'm not sure if it would count as my most memorable dumpster dive. But just a few weeks ago I was at an SCA event called The Pennsic War.
These people throw out tremendous amounts of stuff at the end of the event. From things they never intended to take home like furniture, to Broken tents to coolers that had stuff spilled in them, tarps, cots, Etc.
There is a nearby food pantry that gets probably literal tons of dry goods from this event at the end as campers don't want to take excess home with them.
I have to be careful not to let my vulture eyes get bigger than my car can carry. I got a cooler, a folding stool, a stockpot full of car
canopy elbows, and a
milk crate.
The cooler that I picked up by this same method went missing last year. So it's a good thing that I found another Coleman cooler, slightly larger, perfectly clean on the inside but the plastic hinges are broken. These are the same type hinges that I replaced on the cooler I got years ago. So I know that for a few bucks I can buy replacements off the Coleman website. The cooler is perfectly clean on the inside and has partly rubbed off Sharpie marker on the lid that indicates it may have been used with sports team boosters fundraising. The lid is nice and snug even without the hinges.
The stool is a simple x leg folder, but taller. I used it several times to sit and take a break after I had folded up the camp chairs while packing.
The milk crate might not count, because it came from somebody else in my camp. But it would have ended up at the dumpster if no one in Camp took it. Milk crates are amazingly useful, college kid Lego furniture.
After I got the stock pot of canopy elbows back to my packing area, I took the time to lay out the pieces and determined that I had enough of the correct sections to make a two section canopy. I did not see the poles to fit these elbows in the trash. But I believe that getting PVC or other pipe sized to fit cut is pretty cheap, the money is in those welded elbows. I was thinking about using them for a tent, but they might be useful for a temporary Greenhouse. At this point I have not taken a close look at the stock pot to see if I would want to use it for anything. A quick glance when I unpacked and then repack the elbows did not show any obvious problem with it and it was clean. Most likely used for food but I want to inspect it more carefully.
If any of you all are near Butler PA, you might consider swinging past Cooper's Lake and working out a deal to access and recycle out of their dumpsters after big events.