[HN Gopher] Dumpster Diving FAQ (2004)
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Dumpster Diving FAQ (2004)
Author : thisismyswamp
Score : 67 points
Date : 2023-02-27 13:31 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ranprieur.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ranprieur.com)
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| The dominant grocery store chain around here experimented with
| boxed meal kits for a while (since discontinued). These of course
| have expiry dates. I would buy them only on their last pre-expiry
| day, when they were marked down 50%. They were fun, and at that
| markdown, worth it for the ingredients alone.
|
| But they would often get left in the fridge for up to 4 more
| days, and they were still 100% OK. So it really galled me to see
| them shovel a whole bunch of just expired ones into a garbage
| bag. Wait!! I'd happily pay the 50% price for those (especially
| the super yummy Thai Basil Beef!) even one day later! No, sorry,
| into the garbage they go. Never been a grocery store dumpster
| diver, but that wouldn't go around here anyway, if those weren't
| securely closed, the raccoons (and worse) would have a field day
| and boy do they make a mess.
| reaperducer wrote:
| Everything I learned about mainframes I learned from dumpster
| diving at SUNY New Paltz and an IBM (submarine?) facility nearby.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| What did you find? Manuals or hardware? See my other post about
| finding a VAx 11/70 in a dumpster.
| Jun8 wrote:
| If you still go to the office then dumpster diving at your
| recycle/e-waste bin/room is a must! You can't believe the stuff
| you can find in such bins, not only new and perfectly usable
| things but also old hardware of all kinds. Restoring these than
| become great weekend projects.
|
| One danger that wasn't mentioned in the article and other
| comments is that you can get _hooked_ and turn into a thrash
| collector. Institute a policy of getting rid of stuff you haven't
| touched for N months.
| rnosov wrote:
| I guess it's really a layoff season in tech.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| > Even better are dumpsters for college dorms or other student
| housing at the end of the term when everyone's moving out. Rich
| kids will throw away items worth hundreds of dollars.
|
| Here in Boston, "Allston Christmas" has become a well-known term.
| It refers to the events of every June here, when people cruise
| the student-heavy neighborhood of Allston looking for good stuff
| thrown out by students moving out. (If you do this, remember that
| you need to be prepared to deal with bedbugs.)
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I think most college campuses have something similar. When I
| was in college, I did the same thing, and noticed quite a few
| other folks going around rescuing furniture.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Totally, I've seen this other places as well, it's just that
| with Boston having such a heavy concentration of colleges
| it's on a different level here.
| dekhn wrote:
| My parents are (well, were, then they got too old) dumpster
| divers. They live in a university town and at the end of the year
| the students all throw away lots of stuff. Some of it's a good
| haul- just pick up a box of jars of olives- and other times it's
| crap. My parents often try to keep the perishable stuff which
| often is clearly past its prime, and I have to go through and
| organize what is close to a hoarder's paradise in the basement on
| a regular basis.
|
| I have mixed feelings- obviously they're identifying stuff that
| would just be waste, but it frequently ends up just sitting
| around forever because who needs a case of olive oil when you're
| 75? There is also an entire closet which is filled with
| hydroflasks. Often the whole area smells like beer, because they
| collect lots of cans (I used to give them a hard time about this
| but they were making a few thousand dollars a year...)
| webdoodle wrote:
| Many years ago, I witnessed a local university professor stop his
| brand new Cadillac next to a dumpster, get out and start foraging
| through it. I went up and asked if he lost something, his reply:
| Nope, just shopping. I find all sorts of things in these downtown
| dumpsters.
| bityard wrote:
| Pre-pandemic, I used to go dumpster-diving with an acquaintance.
| This guy had a garage _full_ of stuff that he salvaged from
| dumpsters. Clothing, furniture, bicycles, phones, laptops, non-
| expired canned/boxed food, you name it. It was something of a
| hobby for him, he used what he could and gave away the rest to
| friends, family, or donations.
|
| One of the best times/places to go is university housing during
| move-out week. Lots of perfectly good stuff that people just
| didn't want to take with them for whatever reason
|
| We always tried to be respectful of the property owners, never
| left a mess. Very rarely, someone will come along and tell us to
| go away. We always apologized and did so.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > One of the best times/places to go is university housing
| during move-out week.
|
| Had a friend that would make a few thousand every September
| selling the stuff he scavenged in April/May.
|
| Helped that he was an athlete and ran around anyway and could
| go back and forth running with a cart.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _This guy had a garage _full_ of stuff that he salvaged from
| dumpsters. Clothing, furniture, bicycles, phones, laptops, non-
| expired canned /boxed food, you name it_
|
| You can re-live these days by shopping on eBay, Amazon, and
| Walmart.com. Lots of people sell dumpster-scrounged goods on
| all three platforms. But now you can get it delivered!
| thro1 wrote:
| > where "diving" comes from
|
| I've heard about _container diving in Sweden_ long time ago, you
| had to jump in swimsuit only into container full of clothes and
| come out fully dressed.
|
| No need to _dive_ in Spain - you can simply ask " _?Tienes algo
| para reciclar?_ " (and recycling is ecologic).
| bluedino wrote:
| I thought this was going to be about dumpster diving for
| hardware, not food.
| don-code wrote:
| RIT back in the late 2000s was practically overflowing with
| hardware in the dumpsters. I easily made a few thousand dollars
| through daily visits over four years - enough to keep me eating
| well (not out of the dumpsters themselves, like the article),
| or at least better than I would have on a college budget.
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| When I was right out of college my first job was contracting at
| Microsoft and they had glorious ewaste bins that I got all
| kinds of computer parts and peripherals out of.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| I found a VAX 11/70, dumb terminals, associated cables and
| hardware in large dumpster at the Rochester Institute of
| Technology. It was around 1992, but possibly a year or two
| earlier.
|
| This was before e-waste recycling was popular.
|
| I didn't take it.
|
| My own college still had an VAX 11/70.
| marktangotango wrote:
| I wonder how this reads to Germans who have what amounts to a
| national holiday of tossing things out before tax time. I recall
| the first time seeing what appeared to be brand new furniture and
| electronics sitting on the side walk; it was quite a surprise.
| Can anyone from Germany comment?
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| My neighborhood in New Jersey has two "bulk pickup days" per
| year, where large items can be put out on the curb and picked
| up for free. It's a fun day to drive around - sometimes you
| find treasures, sometimes you get to wonder why someone happens
| to have something weird.
|
| And there's always scrap metal collectors, and other
| enterprising individuals, driving around as well trying to make
| some cash.
| merlyn wrote:
| I don't get those scrap metal collectors..
|
| Spend $40 in gas driving around all day to get $20 worth of
| scrap steel.
|
| Unless scrap steel goes for way more somewhere else other
| than the places I've taken it to.
| elcapitan wrote:
| I guess you're referring to "Sperrmull" - it depends on the
| municipality. From where I come in South-Western Germany, this
| was indeed the case, and I remember it being a fun day :) Now I
| live in Berlin, where this official day does not exist. If you
| want your stuff to get picked up, you need to ask the garbage
| disposal company to come take it. Many people just dump stuff
| of all kinds on the street with a sign that it's free to take.
| Often for absolute crap, which then stays there for weeks. You
| should definitely be careful if there's no note, because that
| could be just some random people moving who wouldn't be too
| happy :D
| skeyo wrote:
| I used to live somewhere where there was a grocery store that was
| positioned between a lower socioeconomic community and a higher
| one. It mostly served the lower one, but stocked specialty goods
| (think organic). I used to hit the dumpster every day after work,
| and found lots of good stuff in there. I too found a couple
| gallons of olive oil once. At one point my girlfriend and I went
| all February living off of nothing but dumpster dived food
| (except I think we bought some almond milk) and I remember eating
| fine (this was a year out of college so fine is relative). The
| takeaway I had was that there is all kinds of food that gets
| thrown out which is perfectly fine to eat. I never ate disgusting
| rotting food like one would picture coming out of a dumpster -
| everything was packaged and pretty much equivalent to what you'd
| take off the shelves. Also that not all dumpsters are created
| equal.
| owenfi wrote:
| As late teenagers a few friends and I dumpster dived a circuit of
| retail stores and got some good and interesting odds and ends:
| fishing reels, acrylic displays, partial set of wine glasses,
| various tools, a small aquarium...
|
| I worked in a grocery store so didn't have the need or gumption
| to dive for food (I was usually the driver...but all aspects were
| fun), except for one spot: the town Krispy Kreme. Sneaking around
| back was so much better than waiting in line, and often there was
| a fresh looking box nestled on top of pillows of old donuts in
| garbage bags.
|
| Sneaking them into the cheap movie theater was the next
| challenge.
|
| One day, my parents were having a party and we were playing video
| games in my room. My aunt burst in, indignantly shouting at us
| for eating out of a dumpster...we laughed and hatched a plan:
| sneak out my window so they thought we were still playing games,
| zip to town, grab some donuts and offer them to the party. Except
| one problem: when we got there the dumpster was bone dry. The
| cleanest we had ever seen it. Puzzled for a minute I suck it up
| and went to the drive through to buy a box of donuts at long
| last. But then I took the sharpie in my glove box and largely
| scrawled yesterday's date. We snuck back in the window, popped
| back into the party, proceeded to display the "expired" box of
| donuts, and I pulled one and took a big bite. My aunt was
| exasperated! We passed the box around and it was fun to see which
| of my parents' friends were willing to taste the "dumpster
| donuts".
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _and often there was a fresh looking box nestled on top of
| pillows of old donuts in garbage bags._
|
| Fresh looking food placed like this is usually meant for the
| homeless to easily pick up.
| dingusdew wrote:
| [dead]
| soxocx wrote:
| > Fruit mold is toxic but bread mold is safe.
|
| Bread mold might not kill you, but _safe_ sounds like a stretch.
| Faaak wrote:
| European cheeses have lot of mold (penicillium roqueforti,
| camemberti, etc.) that is perfectly safe to eat though
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Bread mold is a crap shoot. Might kill you, might end up
| discovering an entirely new family of medicines. It's a your-
| own-risk we-disclaim-all-liability consenting-adults-only you-
| knew-the-risks-when-you-took-the-job thing.
| csdvrx wrote:
| The only mold that can kill is on dried nuts.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| TIL
| Neoshadow42 wrote:
| I would never do it, but I lived with a guy a number of years
| ago, and he would religiously dumpster-dive to the point where he
| never did regular grocery shopping.
|
| I rarely ate the fresh food he'd bring back, especially because
| the guy loved seafood, but he would often come back with boxes
| and boxes of perfectly fine food, drink & random things for
| around the house like cutlery, tools, whatever. Boxed & Canned
| food, cereals, etc.
|
| He once cycled home with what I can only describe as a pallet of
| Coca Cola.
| andai wrote:
| Same! (I think I lived with the same guy ;)
|
| You'd be amazed what perfectly good things stores throw away
| because it's past the best before date.
| doubled112 wrote:
| I can't be the only person who thinks the Coca-Cola is just
| fine a day past that number.
| sct202 wrote:
| There are salvage grocery stores that sell products like
| that. They're usually easier to find if you're near an
| Amish settlement.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| When I was a teen, my friends and I would dumpster dive the
| Pepsi distributor. We'd usually find stuff like Diet Dr.
| Pepper, but sometimes there'd be Pepsi or Mt. Dew. We'd usually
| load up my friend's trunk with Diet Dr. Pepper and take them
| out to his ranch to shoot them. Also I found some old Macs at
| my school one time, that was sweet
| Scoundreller wrote:
| I just don't understand why they don't drain them. Gotta be
| cheaper than landfilling/tipping fees, but maybe they're
| sending them to a recycler that does that part for them.
| bombcar wrote:
| Time. It costs the dude five minutes to dump an entire
| expired pallet and opening each can to drain it would take
| hours. It'll all be compressed in the machines anyway, even
| if they bother recycling ( they often don't).
| don-code wrote:
| I also lived with someone who did this - he called himself a
| "freegan". My roommates and I frequently worried about him
| unintentionally ingesting rat poison.
| c22 wrote:
| I once worked at a place where the owner would come by and dive
| our own dumpsters once a week, then he'd come in and chastise us
| if we'd thrown away something like a broken stapler he thought
| could be repaired. It was weird though because we rarely got the
| item back repaired. He still bought us new staplers.
| Teever wrote:
| I worked for a guy who did similar shit. He was an obsessive
| compulsive hoarder. Any idea what your old boss's personal home
| looks like? Those irreparable staplers go somewhere.
| [deleted]
| dguest wrote:
| > In any case, do not act guilty. Act like what you're doing is
| perfectly normal and legal.
|
| Solid advice for all aspects of life.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Hard hat, safety vest and clipboard.
|
| A suit underneath can help if you're going to act clueless, but
| may not help if you're going into a dumpster.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Over here the grocery stores keep their trash behind lock and
| key; I wouldn't be surprised if it gets disposed of in a secure
| fashion.
|
| Of course, on the other hand, they donate a lot of things to food
| banks as well. And before that it gets a discount sticker.
|
| This practice got pretty bad in the UK though, with people lining
| up and waiting for someone to apply the stickers before buying
| products - harassing the staff and other customers in the
| process.
| jesterpm wrote:
| I suspect the lock is more about keeping other people's trash
| out than keeping theirs in.
| sobkas wrote:
| > I suspect the lock is more about keeping other people's
| trash out than keeping theirs in.
|
| There are stories about stores/restaurants calling cops when
| they catch you "stealing" "their" food from a dumpster.
| Essentially people taking food from dumpsters are treated
| like overgrown rats... Because https://youtu.be/P7J384IMuMM
| csdvrx wrote:
| > There are stories about stores/restaurants calling cops
| when they catch you "stealing" "their" food from a dumpster
|
| Can be it be "stolen" if it's in a trashcan meaning it's no
| longer someone property?
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| While I agree with you, it's pretty easy to claim
| ownership of an item from your store that you put into
| your trashcan on your property that you then hire someone
| to come get.
| reaperducer wrote:
| In Chicago, it's done to keep the alleys clean. There's a
| long history of people digging through dumpsters and making
| messes, providing homes and hospitality for rats. A previous
| mayor had a real phobia about rats, and made locking up
| dumpsters a pretty serious rule.
|
| https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5244/5362943269_f1d08c480c_b.j.
| ..
| [deleted]
| domtron_vox wrote:
| My family always hit the construction dumpsters. You can get a
| lot of decent pine lumber that gets tossed because it was cut
| wrong or stained with mud/ptty/etc. They throw a lot out because
| time is mor valuable to them then the wood. Even short end peices
| are useful for burning or turning into charcoal. Pretty rare that
| you get decent lengths for building though. Usually 6 feet and
| below are fairly common, with the rare 7-10 foot boards, and nigh
| unheard of 11+. And the builders are usually happy about it too,
| since they pay to have it emptied so everything you take is a bit
| less they have to pay, and no skin off their nose.
|
| We have built a number of animal houses and even a few sheds
| around our land with the salvaged wood. Saved us a lot of money.
| blauditore wrote:
| Note that not all dumpsters on a construction site are trash.
| The best example is metal, where a full dumpster brings
| significant money instead of costing to dispose of. When I was
| working in a construction company, on a regular basis some
| dudes came along "offering" to empty the metal dumpster for
| free.
|
| So it's always better to ask first, otherwise it's technically
| stealing.
| dsfyu404ed wrote:
| >So it's always better to ask first, otherwise it's
| technically stealing.
|
| This is textbook safe that is lacking in street smarts.
|
| You can't ask because then you're pushing the responsibility
| of you being there onto someone else. They don't want some
| ambulance chasing lawyer to come bitching at them if you get
| hurt so they have to say no. But if you're discreet can just
| pretend that you're trespassing.
|
| So just don't ask and know what is or isn't fair game.
|
| Additionally, scrap of the mixed random stuff variety that is
| worth picking through is cents a pound. They won't care if
| you're not taking serious volume.
| domtron_vox wrote:
| We usually asked with only a few turning us down, though we
| are fairly rural/small town so the builders we interacted
| with may not have been burned by people that are sue happy
| or maybe are just smaller and didn't consider that legal
| aspect.
| bityard wrote:
| Dumpsters in front of new construction are my favorite. Lots of
| good pine studs, OSB, and other stuff. I built a whole
| workbench (with a spot for table saw and storage) out of
| materials I pulled from dumpsters on the street when they were
| building a new subdivision behind me. Some of my favorite picks
| were unopened bundles of shingles (heavy!) that I will use for
| a shed some day, a bunch of brand-new pex tubing, and an entire
| case of caulk.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > bunch of brand-new pex tubing
|
| Be careful if it's been sitting in the sun. Lived in a
| building that had its hot water recirc lines fail one after
| the next like 5y after construction and I suspect that was
| why.
| nemo44x wrote:
| I'd be careful with this advice. First of all you don't know
| what else has been put into the dumpster. There could be toxic
| or hazardous materials. Especially if it's a renovation
| project.
|
| Secondly, be careful with the wood if you don't know precisely
| what it is. For instance, making charcoal (or even burning)
| pressure treated wood is a horrible idea.
| bityard wrote:
| Generally, there _shouldn't_ be anything toxic in
| construction dumpsters. Not a lot of home construction deals
| with anything highly toxic anyway. Plus, if the disposal
| company finds something in there that shouldn't be there,
| they will refuse to take it, or levy a fine, or won't work
| with that contractor anymore.
|
| Conversely, some randos see an open dumpster and think its a
| great place to chuck their old car batteries and whatnot.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Pressure treated woods scraps are generally thrown in
| dumpsters and they are toxic if burned. You never burn
| pressure treated wood.
|
| You just never know though. For instance, it could be
| thought that there isn't any asbestos in the home being
| renovated. But maybe there were a couple pieces of drywall
| or pipe insulation that happened to have asbestos and it
| wasn't noticed. It happens.
|
| There is also a very good chance that there's lead dust and
| chips from old paint or pipes that's being thrown in as
| well. Probably don't want to make charcoal or anything out
| of that or any new SPF/Doug tossed in there that maybe got
| some of it on it you don't notice.
| hanniabu wrote:
| Isn't new pressure treated wood safe to burn because they
| no longer have the nasty chemicals they used to put in
| them?
| waldothedog wrote:
| There are a range of treatment methods, some of which
| have fallen out of mass production but none are
| recommended for burning
| domtron_vox wrote:
| Good point. Never ran into anything problematic myself, but
| we are fairly rural so construction is usually houses with
| occasional apartments. But definitely be wary of other stuff
| that may be in with the wood.
|
| As for pressure treated wood, it is pretty obvious what has
| been treated and what has not, at least in my experience. Not
| sure if it's the process, or if they intentionally dye it,
| but treated wood has a strong green tint, though could
| probably have other colors too depending on the treatment
| method. But fresh untreated pine has a pretty obvious color.
| klibertp wrote:
| This and some other essays from Ran Prieur had a huge impact on
| me when I first read them. The idea of "dropping out" of the rat
| race is nothing new, but his writing and his take on it was
| strangely persuasive. If I remember correctly, I've seen him
| comment here on HN that some of his essays should be categorized
| as fiction and others taken with a grain of salt. I don't mind at
| all, to me, the reading itself was so impactful that the question
| of whether he really did dumpster diving or not became
| irrelevant.
| greyface- wrote:
| > whether he really did dumpster diving or not
|
| Ran responded to this in his blog today
| (https://ranprieur.com/):
|
| > February 27. My 2004 Dumpster Diving FAQ has just been linked
| on Hacker News. There's a comment about how I later declared
| some of my essays to be fiction. That would be more like 21
| Stories About Civilization. The dumpster diving stuff is
| completely true. I haven't done it for years, because I have
| more money now, and I assume the good dumpsters are harder to
| get into. But the other day, I ate an apple I found on the
| sidewalk.
| klibertp wrote:
| Yeah, I'm sorry, I couldn't recall the exact wording of that
| comment, and I definitely didn't mean this in a negative
| sense. It's been decades since I read the essays and many
| years since I spotted his comment here on HN.
|
| My memory may be spotty, but the profound impact that reading
| his words had on me is unforgettable. I just wanted to thank
| him for publishing his work, because reading it back when I
| was going through some hard times gave me a whole new
| perspective on what I'm going through and where I want to be
| in the end. Ran, if you happen to read this: thank you. You
| helped me a lot when I was struggling, and I'll be grateful
| for that forever :)
| somewhereoutth wrote:
| Probably all left over / slightly out of date / cosmetically
| damaged food should go to food banks (by law?) - to reduce waste
| as well as to help low income people.
| uoaei wrote:
| This is law in a few places, e.g. parts of California and the
| whole of France.
| winphone1974 wrote:
| I think there are a lot of companies that would do this but for
| the liability.
| xsmasher wrote:
| A shame. California has a "Good Samaritan Food Donation Act"
| then removes liability except in cases of "gross negligence
| or intentional misconduct."
| pubby wrote:
| I've been dumpster diving several times. Dumpsters with food tend
| to be awful - they smell, have flies, mold, and grease
| everywhere. If you want free food, just go to a programmer meetup
| and eat their free pizza.
| ff317 wrote:
| Or Costco for really cheap food, even if you're not a member (I
| am one, FWIW). They don't require a membership card to go in
| through the out-door (because this is how you reach the
| customer service desk to sign up for a membership), and at busy
| times walking in through there is completely painless. The food
| court is in that same (post-checkout) area near the out-door,
| and also doesn't check membership. Most of the food is a decent
| value, but in particular you can get a huge all-beef 1/4lb
| hotdog and a fountain drink for $1.50, or their "chicken bake"
| for $3. I don't know why more non-members don't take advantage
| of it. They'd probably change things if too many people did,
| because they can't be making any money on those two items in
| particular.
| winphone1974 wrote:
| Costco tend to be located in areas not conducive for someone
| to go grab fat food though. It's not really worth the time
| and effort if you need to drive and take an hour to get a
| cheap hotdog
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