Anybody Dumpster Dive, Here?

[PILOON]

My last dive was for a TORO 2 stroke snow blower.
Cord needed replacing and electric starter was U/S.
Was able to fix the starter by simply adjusting the brushes and I had starter cord in stock.
So cost was $00.00 and it works great.

 

[Sprinklerman]

What if you drove the dumpster truck ?

 

[PILOON]

A friend and I go to the recycle depot and collect paint for our projects.
I have seen qts of tremclad that I swear have had one brush dip taken,
A fiberglass canoe with a broken seat, brand new tires, full propane tanks, 1/2 roll of frost fencing, etc, simply amazing as to the wastage that exists.

The dumpster truck that services my area usually has the driver's side heaped with copper wire as the driver checks the bins B4 he dumps them in. He admitted that he has had as much as $150. weeks of collecting. Nice side line.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have carpet in my basement, that was thrown out when only a month old, because a little bit got flooded, and it was all removed and replaced. What I took never got wet. Also have a desk, and a lot of wood pulled out of dumpsters, all with permission.
I grabbed a bunch of plywood pieces when our church was building a new building. I told the builder to just pile them up along side, don't throw them in, so it was easier to get. I have pictures from the security camera (that I put up) that shows me in the dumpster. :laughing:
One of my old coworkers was really good at diving, got a lot of good stuff.

 

[MossRoad]

The company that I worked for remodeled an old building next door, then tore it down a year later! I took a bunch of industrial carpeting and an electric water heater, light fixtures, wiring, etc... This was 25 years ago, so no push for recycling back then. But heck, it was gonna be tossed in the dumpster!

 

[Egon]

Our town has a fall and spring day where you can put your junk at the curb and they pick it up.

Stocks a lot of yard sales.

 

[Jstpssng]

My employer has periodic cleanup days, I usually go home with a truckload. Some of the things thrown out are just plain wasteful... Last year I got there a little late; my neighbor had given me an old rusted out boiler and I sold it on the way down. At the bottom of the dumpster were several big steel desks. Somebody quipped that the local yahoos would be after them for the scrap- I was thinking we had just thrown out a $100 bill.

Back around 1980 when a local bank got busy while processing a shipment of money they would put the bag into the trash can. One night nobody thought to take it out and $10000 went to the incinerater. The janitor was quoted as saying "If it's in the trash can, it's trash."

 

[japody]

Did anyone see Antique Roadshow this week? A lady found an oriental rug that was assessed at $125K - 150K. And that was only one of the four she found.

 

[MossRoad]

I remember back around 1982 or so my boss had me and another guy scrapping out a cast iron boiler. We used a forklift to put it on a 1.5 ton wooden flatbed truck. We drove to the junk yard, weighed the truck, went around back and then it hit us.... how we going to get this thing off the truck? They don't offer unloading services at the junkyard, ya know? The junkyard guys just sat there laughing at us. The two of us managed to tip the thing over twice to get it to the end of the truck and a third time off the back. Weighed the truck again.... something like 1000 pounds. Really jacked my back up good. I think we got about $40 for it.... and I was down for a week.... ever since, I've always weighed (literally) the value of my time VS the payoff of such tasks.