Dumpster diving? It sounds much worse than it is. Some of my best friends in college were close to being classified as 'Freegans'. They liked living under the radar and outside of the influence of capitalism. Lets admit it, most people are wasteful. Why shouldn't there be a subculture that thrives on the waste of others?
On the way home from a late night at the library my roommate asked me to stop at Zingermann's. But they're closed at 2am, aren't they? Yeah, exactly the point. We parked the car and went around to the back. We grabbed two large, tied bags of bread from the dumpster and carried them over our shoulders - the bakery equivalent to Santa Claus. Feeling in the spirit, we crept into the co-op homes of few friends and left several loafs for them to find in the morning. We stopped at a park near our apartment to share some bread with the homeless folks that stayed there. By the time we got home we still had too much bread for two people. We stuffed the freezer full and immediately started slicing up some bread to go with soup. Maybe you think that sounds ridiculous, but the bags were tied. The bread was only a day old. I ate the bread out of the freezer for at least a month. It was good enough.
Another friend asked me for a ride up to Trader Joe's late one night. Those dumpsters are virtually a gold mine of perfectly good 'expired' produce, baked goods, can goods, and even bottled wine. Thats right wine. We recovered two cases of Charles Shaw Merlot from certain doom. Not only did we get free food and spirits, but we made sure to recycle the bottles. Good for the budget and the environment! Even during my dumpster diving experiences I remain modestly reserved. I didn't like to dig -- I'd usually just go for sealed goods up at the top.
Some more pointers came from a traveler I cross paths with. Check the dumpsters of Little Caesars just after closing time - free Hot N Readys are right on top. Or maybe the dumpster of McDonalds as the menu changes to get left over breakfast sandwiches and hash browns. These things might be a little extreme (and unhealthy if you're going to McDonalds, yuck) but they aren't unreasonable. Especially if you're low on cash.
I think about going back to Trader Joe's sometimes. I'm all for reducing waste and saving money, but I'd hate to take the goods from other divers that might need them more. What do you think?
An afterthought:
Dumpster diving for food may be an extreme measure of frugality. We're all probably familiar with those trash hunters that find goods such as furniture and electronics by the side of the road. Whats wrong with that? I still live in a college town. The things you find by the side of the road here may actually be in better shape than what you have in your house. There are people that actually make a business out of collecting student trash in the spring then selling it back to them in yard sale form the next fall. Right on. I personally have more respect for the trash collectors than those that leave the goods by the wayside. Come on... at least donate it! There are at least 6 second hand stores in a 1 mile radius from campus. And at the very least, if you don't have a will or a way, please list your items on Craigslist under Free so that we can take them for you!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
College Memories: Dumpster Diving
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I think this is fascinating - I live in a relatively small town, so we don't have as much access to this process. Plus we have a hyper-aggressive police force that is sort of scary...
But anyway, we do have an University in my community - and you wouldn't believe the crazy awesome stuff they take to the curb, when the semester ends in the spring. It's a variable heyday of electronics, furniture, clothing, etc. It is so fun to go "shopping" up by the dorms after finals are over.
I think you should go back if you want - why not? It sounds like there is enough stuff to go around!
Furniture, carpeting, electronics, and other perfectly good products that people throw away seem like a better target than food to me. Maybe I'm just squeamish.
A friend of mine worked at a dump one summer in university, and made a lot of extra cash rescuing broken electronics, spending a few dollars on parts, and then selling them.
Yeah, I probably should mention that all of my furniture is used. Some lamps and tables came right out off of the side of the road in April when my college town empties out. Definitely more appealing than food!
Just wanted to point out that people do it and I have a heck of a lot more respect for that than I have for wasteful people.
I tried to dabble in the dumpster diving in college after reading a book called Evasion, but all the food dumpsters in my small college town had those dang trash compactors. No free stuff for me.
One of my favorite Christmas presents was 4 signed and numbered prints that someone had tossed into the dumpster. My ex husband rescued them and gave them to me for Christmas. Go Figure!
@ Cindy - That is awesome! He's got good taste and he's resourceful. Good catch :)
How funny! We used to do that in college. Boyfriend had found a day-old bakery that dumped all the tightly wrapped two-day-old bread in a big trash bin that was never used for anything else. Hey. Two days after you've bought a loaf of bread, it's two days old, right? Are you gunna throw it out?
In graduate school, a friend -- who was married to a tenured faculty member! and so didn't have to do this -- told me that she and her husband used to raid the trash bins outside a nearby grocery store on certain days & times. The store would throw out even slightly damaged produce -- lettuce that had been in the produce bin a day or two and fruit that was, by the time it got tossed, actually ripe. She insisted that there was nothing wrong with the stuff and it was often better than the underripe produce sold inside the store.
I live in a college town too and the United Way makes good use of 40,000 students' items left behind in dorms at the end of the semester. Each year we have a huge "Trash to Treasure" sale where these things are sold (along with actual donated items) and I look forward to it all year.
I remember the time I lived in an apartment and my brother was taking out the trash. He brought in more than he took out. We got a new fireplace poker/brush type set, a new set of Gap perfume, several beanie babies and a cat water dish. Someone was nice enough to leave them outside the dumpster so it was more of a dumpster pick up than dive :)
I didn't realize there's a Free section on Craig's List. I like the yahoo groups Freecycle too! There's one for the city I live. yahoooo!
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