Anybody Dumpster Dive, Here?

[chad22]

Yep. I sure do. Finds lots of scrap metal in one and some good stuff as well. I'm amazed at what people will throw away.

I've got plenty of vacuum cleaners that should last me a lifetime and maybe more.

Most of them just had clogged hoses. Found some good fans, a new roll of romex 12-2 wire 250ft with maybe only 5 ft cut off of it.

Found a bundle of conduit with only 2 missing from the bundle.

Found some new pieces of paneling. I guess they bought too much of it and instead of returning it they decided to just toss it. lol

 

[mikehaugen]

The total retail value of these items comes to $10,182, meaning that Malone estimates he will earn $5,091 in sales. This adds up to more than $2,500 for each night out, which, despite a good deal of downtime answering my questions, is a pretty good haul. At that rate, if he were to work 240 days a year—a five-day workweek with four weeks of vacation—he would earn over $600,000 annually.

This is so misleading. Anybody knows that the managing and selling of the stuff is what takes time. There are so many things in the past that I would like to have sold but many times it just isn't worth the trouble. By his math, he w ould collect $600,000 worth of stuff, but wouldn't make a dime.

Oh, and btw... I used to check dumpsters but haven't in a really long time. This article/thread has reminded me of a forgotten hobby.

 

[texasjohn]

I pick out lumber from construction dumpsters all the time . If I have my pick up I throw in anything metal for my scrap metal pile .

I've done a lot of that myself, not so much lately...but need to start again, have about used up my stash of stuff.

 

[Travelover]

My neighbor tossed out some boxes full of stuff that appeared to be from a teenager's room. I took the boxes home and rummaged through them and found over $25 in change, plus a number of music CDs are were unopened. I returned the boxes before dawn.

 

[mjarrels]

Would love to dumpster dive at the Pentagon!

mark

 

[zing]

I hope I never get thrown into a dumpster full of doughnuts. I would never leave :laughing:

When I was a teenager our parties (especially outdoor parties and bonfires) sometimes included someone making a run out to stand behind the local Tim Horton's donut shop just after midnight. When the new day starts they empty every donut, timbit, and muffin out of the trays into new clean garbage bags and then toss them, then replentished them with new stuff. Sometimes three or four garbage bags worth of donuts.

Someone would grab the bags and drop them in their trunk and drive back to the party. You can just imagine the donuts that dozens of drunken teenagers could put away, until it devolved into a massive donut fight. I won't even pretend it was sanitary, or that we cared. :thumbsup: :laughing:

 

[RedNeckRacin]

When I was a teenager our parties (especially outdoor parties and bonfires) sometimes included someone making a run out to stand behind the local Tim Horton's donut shop just after midnight. When the new day starts they empty every donut, timbit, and muffin out of the trays into new clean garbage bags and then toss them, then replentished them with new stuff. Sometimes three or four garbage bags worth of donuts.

Someone would grab the bags and drop them in their trunk and drive back to the party. You can just imagine the donuts that dozens of drunken teenagers could put away, until it devolved into a massive donut fight. I won't even pretend it was sanitary, or that we cared. :thumbsup: :laughing:

Bingo, I did this at a local sheetz one time (fancy gas station) and scored a garbage bag of krispy kreme doughnuts that were in a clean bag there were just thrown out. We had as much fun eating the food as we did throwing the one bite doughnuts at everything we passed!

 

[Capricious]

I have a snow shovel that came from one neighbor's trash; a couple of garden hoes that came from another's, and am currently welding together a 3 point hitch lifting boom that will have stays made of 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 angle from a bed frame from a third.

I always wait until after dark, but I do have to get it while the getting's good, as there is a guy who drives around the neighborhood on trash night looking for scrap metal.

 

[Travelover]

I scored some nice T slot aluminum at the metal recyclers at $1 a pound - not free but almost compared to the retail price on this stuff. Makes great roof racks and light bar mounting.

 

[MossRoad]

My sister-in-law and her husband used to pick up all kinds of stuff on trash day in their neighborhood.... furniture, snow blower, lamps, lawn equipment, exercise equipment.... the people were too snobby to call Salvation Army or other charities to pick the stuff up, but it was showing off to just throw it out! :confused2:

 

[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.