Dumpster Delinquent

nutnspecial

10 MW
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Messages
3,753
Location
PA
Yo, this is the story of my life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes
[youtube]QK8mJJJvaes[/youtube]

I WILL wear your grandpa's clothes. (listen to the lyrics lol)

But I also aim to be a mix of a Magnum PI, Macgyver (just a little, cuz he was a little soft :p ), and maybe some 'swiss family robinson' guy. Oh, and also some 'cold blooded' assassin from the movies, like the one that starred Natalie Portman as a kid. -Btw, suppressors are awesome (and fully legal) for anything the gun could be used for legally before!

Anyway, do you guys frequent the dumbsters?
Wholly shit what gets thrown away.
In the past 10 days I scored a 'truck bed rack' that I have preliminarily welded into a rolling multipurpose table

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(I saved the other section of tubing and something like >60$ in grade8 hardware for something else)

And like 500$ in 'fancy' dog and cat food, and hundred$ in random tools, food, and housewares/ kitchen items . . . . All mostly somehow 'defective' for the 'consumer' to pay full price, but WHY throw it away? Some people aren't as picky (read: smarter. ?) and some like to fix shit, and some know food doesn't 'expire' right on the printed dates lol.

So guess what, now I'm saving so much money that one pair of air jordans aren't expensive enough. I like to tell the sneaker-heads I bought 4 pairs and threw away on shoe of each. And that makes each pair worth double off-the-bat, plus you can do the math on how 'original' your sneakers could be :!:
I also tell them that my feet aren't identical, so why should my 'sneaks' be??? :lol:

pair one.jpg
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\
I'm just kidding of course, I found them along with another dozen brand new shoes. BUT NONE 'match' lol. They were apparently new from a display and I did manage to match those two/three pair in style and in my size. Since I haven't spent much on shoes for a few years it's nice to get some <better than walmart> ones FOR FREE, with the added bonus of telling people MY pair cost double lol. Oh such great fun- It's amazing how wasteful the Big Corporations arethough. Can you even imagine walmart lowes etc etc?

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I maybe should get pets now that I have 400 lbs of fancy dry cat and dog food?
But it's also good for survival during 'the purge' or 'zombie apocalypses' as well, though lol. Nah I'll try to sell what I can and give the rest away to hot girls @ the humane society or something heheh.
 
So would you consider North Carolina the best possibility to be known as "The Dumpster Diver State?" They were kicked out of the Carolina colony, thus did they become North and South Carolina. I believe the first actual usage of the term "White Trash" was used to describe the people of the Northern part of the Carolina colony.

Then there's Davy Crockett, the unofficial patron saint of American white trash. (And he'd be PROUD to be called that.) if he had a birth certificate it would read that he was born in Virginia. But here we go again, this western area was disowned, kicked out and called by nicknames such as "Squatsylvania," and became this volunteer new state. That's right, Tennessee. (There's some argument on EXACTLY what location, etc. as Crockett had no birth certificate in that uncertain era.) Sold at the age of 12, Crockett would become the first former slave to serve in Congress. His own FATHER sold him? Dang, those Hugenots, no wonder France kicked them out, eh? He wasn't even Slavic, let alone black.

Ah well, Tennessee also had an image compatible with dumpster diving. In fact, when areas first got settled, the people were pretty well ALL the type, if only they had dumpsters back then. So maybe this is pioneer spirit you're showing.
 
Interesting information. Crocket, king of the wild frontier (jingle).

Maybe our definitions/understandings are different, however I'd save the use of the phrase 'white trash' for the people ADDING trash to the dumpsters (which is typically illegal). Though that's less 'trashy' than general littering or bumming I guess, or maybe even being mindlessly wasteful of resources?
 
Haven't done that in so long. Last thing I got was yards of leather from a discarded leather couch. The material on the back was pristine. :D And when I want to get rid of something just put it on the curb with a free sign-poof - it's gone.
 
Spent 1/2 hour today. Got 'new':
100ft pvc airline in need of an end.
Large propane torch (for 20lb tank) with ignitor problem. 15min fix (or 0min fix using a lighter lol)
I had neither but can personally make use of both.

And a few other little broken or flawed things. Nice 1/2hr spent, and it will be some nice time finding uses for the stuff.

And I was wearing a pair of my new shoes lol. A woman today said I looked like a 'kicker' from football lol- She was trying to be kind/constructive I bet :lol:.
 
Best pickings I ever saw is move out day at the dorms at the U. Used to get a years supply of shoes there every year, as my job at the time was hauling off that pile of discards.

Most recently, scored a decent queen size mattress. Cleaned up easy with some oxy clean on the surface stains. Bed bug treated just in case. I would not have brought it home if it failed the dog test. Walking past the apartment dumpsters, neither dog wanted to smell it or piss on it. So it was not piss soaked, just looked like somebody drank coffee in bed.

Bikes is what I look for mostly in the freecycle piles back at home. Or other metal that can be used somehow on projects. Sofas always tempting, but nearly always some cat has been pissing on it for years. Furniture almost always a bust, since its all particle board junk.

As for white trash, my brother said I was the only person he ever knew that wanted to be an Okie. In fact, it was more like a lifetime of refusing to work for a holes. I was out of work every three years or so, unable to stand that boss another minute. So then I'd do weird shit to make ends meet for awhile, like the grapes of wrath. Then back to working for another a hole.
 
"Hillbilly Elegy" is a great read and gives a rich and sympathetic view to the this way , one that we often miss.
 
Go behind sportsman stores and see what you can find, lots of great stuff.
Chain grocery stores tend to be enclosed compactors, but the smaller stores with normal dumpsters like Shoppers Drug Mart have good stuff sometimes. In the winter the food stays fresh. I find bicycles all the time, I think my theory is that the riders are drunk and something minor happens and they ditch them, then forgot where they ditched them.
 
Decades ago, I used to do a lot of salvage of usable items, until the city made it illegal (and enforces it) because of all the idiots that would empty dumpsters all over the ground and not clean up the mess they made. The risk is too high now so I don't anymore.

When I am already out there taking out our trash, I do still save an item now and then from the dumpster behind work, that was illegally put in there (probably by people from the apartments in the area, judging by the contents). Maybe one thing every year or so. Not much ends up in there on top that's usable to me, and being at work I can't climb in there after stuff.

Lots of stuff we throw away at work I wish I could use, but like most companies it's considered theft, and I won't risk my job over any of it. On average we probably throw away enough expired or infested food to feed my monsters well, but the company does check up on stuff like that (remotely-accessible cameras, etc) so instead I spend a few hundred dollars a year on their food instead, when we do the clearance stuff--it's still only about 1/4 or less what it would cost otherwise.

Nowadays I use Freecycle.org for recycling stuff. More complicated, but generally less messy. ;)

I also do still check the quarterly curbside bulk trash piles now and then, if I'm looking for something specific, as those aren't covered by the dumpster-diving law.
 
So in California if you're near a recycling center, this would be the area that certain ambitious homeless or seeming like homeless set up a headquarters. (You might take the homeless out of the street, but you might not take the street out of the homeless.) A guy will find a place where there's more than one dumpster, empty on into the other, set up a shell underneath for his "Stuff" (I'm using the George Carlin context here) and put some of the trash on top to make it look full. A public storage facility might cost a grand a year, right? So dang, he's got to get over there before the trash pickup or they'll dump his stuff. Or somebody else figures out where his stash is and he loses it.

I doubt you have the recycling centers we have in California, but I'm sure there's people doing this all over the country. They have amazing stuff, indeed you wonder what they might have welding equipment for since they can't use it. But when people tell me they found stuff beyond belief (Except at the dorms, I've been hearing that one my whole life) I assume mostly they've found someone's stash.
 
Latest finds!!!!!! I get such a smile, especially like today when it was in the middle of the day running errands and I unexpectedly get a bunch of usable stuff.
Not counting my actual errands, I literally went less than 5 minutes out of the way and spent less than 5minutes scavenging.

I end up laughing out loud for like an hour whenever I'm unloading and going thru scavengings hehehe. I didn't even bother picturing the dozen bags of various chips (not even expired), the lumber and metal steps, 'pet' pillow, and whatever else I can't even remember lol from the past week or two.

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New 11x20' tarp, missing eyelet -
New 'sports' chair -
3 big clamps (returns) -
Opened coil air hose kit with all fittings!
Aquarium Kit, New. Missing lid !!
Receiver mounted Winch frame/plate !!!

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10 cans coke from an open case -
2 salad 'kits' and 2 vegetable trays - one day past 'sell by'

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Grade 8 Hardware- several pounds in several sizes, some custom

8) It's almost ridiculously unbelievable what gets thrown away . . . . . and I'm just talking about the stuff in unposted unlocked ungated dumpters!!!!!!
 
With the weather getting colder I've been getting some really good perishables!

Besides a BUNCH of whole wheat and multi grain breads, yogurts, icecream, and pork roasts last weekend- I counted 24 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, about 100 protein bars, 8lbs of 'fresh salsa', 3 gigantic thincrust 3 meat pizzas, a case of orange soda, some weird chocolate and random single items, AND that's only a bit of what was there!

Spent the day making a bangin pizza, cooking a 3lb fresh caught salmon fillet, and roasting 4lbs of the chicken. Mushrooms olives green pepper salsa spinach spices and more as additives toppings and garnishes. Some cooked on a firepit from an old stainless grill lid and washing machine drum in the yard and fueled by 100 yo wood i'm ripping out of my new house.

Gave away about half of the latest find to others that need it more than me as well.
 
This thread led to an interesting song. Ode to the all thrifty moped, lol.

[youtube]JGhoLcsr8GA[/youtube]
 
Funny you mention the giving away half. Thanks to you I've been giving away ALL that I've found and just couldn't bring myself to keep. Somebody knocked over a trashcan in a parking garage where the ground floor is stores and there's apartments overhead. Lots of canned goods, especially Vienna sausage. There's a warren in the side of the parking garage which regularly houses someone, though they get chased off fairly quickly. I figured one of them would wind up with it.

And there's been more. Much as you say, bread/baked goods, produce. I wonder if the cans are past date but I don't look for it. I guess stuff is still good a little while past date.

But why don't they ever have something I could use. If only I could trade all the Vienna sausage and stew for a moped. Or if they'd just throw a moped away. But I have one serious obstacle when it comes to eating even canned goods from a trash can.
 
Today I snagged 2 big ass hams, 2 large pizzas, 2 blocks cheese, chocolate, 2 bags tangerines, guacamole, watermelon, pork roast and chops, girls boots, robotic vacuum (return), 2lbs mixed salad and spinach, 2 lbs salmon filets. and more.

Jeese. And I met the store manager lol while I was perched on top the 6ft high dumpster. Sje was super cool (I'm guessing single as well) and we had a little convo. OHHHH and I grabbed one of three chocolate cakes- Got the cake, not sure about eating it :p Gotta eat something tho hah

Life has just too much potential not to always branch out. God I am so full of energy- I just wish there was like 10 more of me to make use of this limited time special we call life.

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No food

I found an abandoned K2 fs bike with 2 flats good nobs with XT components the rear spring was funky, almost looked digital. I may just snag it tonight for the wheels and seat. Useless area above the crank, yeaaaaaaa one of those fs bikes. But darn it was light and bright yellow.

Yeah this is it right here, though the K2 I found had double crown fork.
https://images44.fotki.com/v450/photos/6/1423836/10350825/DSC_0511-vi.jpg


:shock: This feller wants $1K
https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/731593/
Others list same bike for $500+ usd prices :shock:

https://www.bicyclebluebook.com/searchlistingdetail.aspx?id=78857

Yup Im gunna snag it tonight, dump it in my storage bin if no one else takes it today/tonight.
 
Wow, you seem to have better dumpsters than I have around here. In San Francisco, you have to fight off all the homeless people to get close to one.
 
I'm amazed myself that I get to be the lucky one. There's evidence of others but we're outside of 'bum walking distance' from the city.

I watched so many utube vids and that's what made me want to try it. 'Craigslist hunter' was really useful. But the honey holes I'm finding the best stuff in I've never seen anyone dive on utube, so maybe that helps too. Mostly they do gamestop and salvation army etc.

For the last several weekends I take part of a day a cook up a bunch of stuff for the whole week. I bet right now there is anywhere from 20 to 50lbs of good stuff at the grocery place and I'm surprised none of my friends are into it. They're not very successful with money though. . .
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/us/trash-pickers-san-francisco-zuckerberg.html

SAN FRANCISCO — Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg’s $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash.

There’s a child’s pink bicycle helmet that Mr. Orta dug out from the garbage bin across the street from Mr. Zuckerberg’s house. And a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a coffee machine — all in working condition — and a pile of clothes that he carried home in a Whole Foods paper bag retrieved from Mr. Zuckerberg’s bin.
 
So in the driveway behind the gas station/convenience store appeared a sign: "My shoes walked away, sure need then back." This hung on a trash can. There is a small reservoir just beyond, a habitual camping spot for whatever transcients.

So I'd just guess the trash can was some guys storage. Why they expect it to be safe I don't know. But if it WAS another homeless who took them, he might get them back. If it was nutspecial, I guess he's out of luck
 
Nutspecial hasnt logged in since mid April 2019, 4 months ago.
Nor the beaver hatted Chalo since a few weeks ago. Perhaps too busy slapping together African-bound bicycles.
The hammer or a split, who knows.





Dauntless said:
nutspecial
 
I dont pay attention to sentence styles, words/slang used. But his unique style wouldn't surprise me of a multi-account holder. Gotta keep the online rep up and the ego living large!

Dauntless said:
Are you sure Nutspecial isn't just using a different name?
 
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