Have you ever been into dumpster diving?

Question

How much resellable junk can you expect to find in a major city from dumpster diving on average per day?

Answer 1

thats impossible to say, but you might find a good bit one day and nothing for weeks, a friend of mine used to do that a lot, he rebuilt tools with burned out motors, and so on, it was in a college town and every semester as people would move out they would put tons of furniture and such on the streets, much of it was salvagable to some degree, the less cool items he would clean up a little and fix legs and arms and give to people he knew that needed something or take to a homeless shelter . better things he would clean up and resell , he found tons of desks and chairs and acres of futons. rugs, curtians, computers, computer parts, fabric at an upholstry shop, carpet odds and ends at a carpet shop, he ate from the health food stores day old stuff, they would wrap it and put it on a table outside the door for anyone who couldnt really aford decent food. it was sometimes amazing the things he would find. he needed a huge barn to work in though and seperate it all, he often recycled materials he found as well, metals and such.

Answer 2

Always keep an eye on a dumpster at a major construction site. They are always hiring people with little knowledge and experience to keep the site clean - many times very good and usable materials get thrown away.

I once "recovered" a new 50# box of framing nails and several boxes of new copper pipe fittings from one site. Tools and other items often get tossed by the people who clean these sites because they are told to "throw away anything laying around - period".

Now, with the cost of scrap materials high, there are probably workers from the sites cleaning out the dumpsters, but you never can tell.

Also over the weekends, others will deposit items in construction site dumpsters - you never know what you could find then

As far as how much you can find in a dumpster, it all depends on who else is diving there, where the dumpster is located, and when you go diving. Sometimes you will get a good take, sometimes you get nothing, and sometimes you will hit the mother-load.

I hope that this helps you with your question

Answer 3

Yes, I've dove a few dumpsters in my time !!

In fact, my model railroad's "benchwork" was built with 50% recycled materials... and 80% of the scenery-foam was claimed from a furniture store's dumpster (huge sheets for padding sofas) and a construction site (huge sheets of insulation foam). Those finds saved me a good $500 in construction costs.

When I worked at Marriott's Great America amusment park as a theater-technician in the early '80s, I would dive the dumpster at the end of the season. I recovered theater lighting fixtures (ellipsoidals, PAR-cans, Fresnels) worth over $50K that I then turned over to my high-school.

From my apartment's dumpster, I have also recovered such delights as a 50 gallon aquarium, 100's of textbooks, lamps, tools, etc.

Interestingly, CBS 5 (Bay Area TV Station) JUST ran a report on the lack of recycling by construction and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area... and the loss of money and then cost of the additional landfill.

Answer 4

My favorite dumpster was behind the Office Max store in a Houston strip mall. For a couple of years we would stop by on the way to the movies and check it out. I think the employees were stealing ( as some very good new like stuff would end up in there) and planned on getting it back later. Also people would return stuff and it never got sent back to the main office or restocked, so amazing stuff ended up in the trash bin. We got a complete drafting drawing table and chair, a $400 la cross pen, all kinds of paper,pens, paper cutters, staplers, phones, notebooks,.... the list goes on.
Rent the movie Who in the XXXXis Jackson Polick. It is a true story of a $50 million dollar painting that ended up in a thrift store for $5. The lady who found it was a consummate dumpster diver and the movie told of the amazing treasures she found over the years. I think if you put out to the universe that you like to find great surprises in unusual places you can.
Also a lot of stores through out cardboard and it ends up in the large dumpsters at big shopping malls. I always thought that there was a great recycling opportunity for someone enterprising enought to make deals with the retailers.

Answer 5

Lot's. Dumpsters in upper scale apartment complexes are the best place to look. Also, dumpsters near dorms at the end of the semester are full of treasures. It is amazing the stuff kids with no concept of what it takes to earn a dollar will throw away. A good portion of the things you find on Ebay were once disgarded into a dumpster and recovered by a good businessman.

Answer 6

I used to pass with my brother and a few friends of his that labored at a close-by academy late at evening before spring harm and after graduation and we'd desire to discover all varieties of stuff from dvd gamers, cd changers or perhaps computers... the staff have because of the fact that gotten smarter and have began to take the stuff out now :( yet another widespread place is at my friends house complicated. human beings throw out a good type of neat issues there like pc areas and such

Answer 7

in nigeria you can get lets say a sag full.

Answer 8

ya back in the days when i was into drugs and tweaking.............pulling cans and other stuff