Dumpster Diving

whiteonion

Have you ever gone dumpster diving looking for food and other items that you may use? I myself have considered this to save money but I'm too afraid to get arrested?

What is your experience with dumpster diving?

Captain_Generic

whiteonion wrote: »

but I'm too afraid to get arrested?

I don't think the gardai will see it that way

Daegerty

Computer hardware and electrical stuff for components yes

But food, definitely not.

RichieC

God, me da and his mate made us pull over years ago driving through some fancy estate because they spotted a door in a skip they wanted, I'm still scarred for life by it...


the fact that there was a pair of them in it makes it better in hindsight, but sweet jesus at the time I was hoping he'd collapse or something just to stop it happening..

Willbbz

delta_bravo

whiteonion wrote: »

Have you ever gone dumpster diving looking for food and other items that you may use? I myself have considered this to save money but I'm too afraid to get arrested?

What is your experience with dumpster diving?

This isn't America. We call them bins.

jaffa20

Yuck

Pal

I've been muff diving

emeraldstar

whiteonion wrote: »

Have you ever gone dumpster diving looking for food and other items that you may use? I myself have considered this to save money but I'm too afraid to get arrested?

What is your experience with dumpster diving?

I know this is AH, but... seriously?

Food?

whiteonion

emeraldstar wrote: »

I know this is AH, but... seriously?

Food?

I see nothing wrong with salvaging perfectly edible food. People throw away too much. I am disgusted by this rampant consumerism.

Pal

you eat out of dumpsters much ?

Bruthal

Pal wrote: »

I've been muff diving

In Donegal?

eilo1

A friend of mine used to do this. I never got involved but it does make sense. I wish the super market would just put it on a table at the front door instead though. She used to pull out full bottles of fizzy drinks and canned foods etc. Nothing wrong with them at all. I wouldnt fancy getting fruit or veg out though. mouldy mouldy mouldy :P

red menace

whiteonion wrote: »

I see nothing wrong with salvaging perfectly edible food. People throw away too much. I am disgusted by this rampant consumerism.

There may be perfectly good stuff in it.
But there may be also lots of not perfectly good stuff dripping onto it.
I see you are also a fan of eating raw meat, these two enterprises will not work well together

RichieC

eilo1 wrote: »

A friend of mine used to do this. I never got involved but it does make sense. I wish the super market would just put it on a table at the front door instead though.

They cant do this because we are owned wholesale by the insurance industry.

yay insurance!

eilo1

bloody insurance :mad::mad::mad:

Gummy Panda

Maybe if I was a raccoon

FatherLen

no because i am not a fucking lunatic!

whiteonion

FatherLen wrote: »

no because i am not a fucking lunatic!

What is so crazy about free stuff?

dubtom

Saw a program a while back about people who get along nicely salvaging food from the local supermarket skip, mostly bread and damaged tin food I think, wouldn't be my idea of a tasty meal though. There are people who make a living from taking stuff from skips, I saw one time on the bottom of Grafton st a skip full of computers from a company who were clearing out,they didn't last long. Only a couple of years ago cleary's did a revamp and the stuff the threw out made some people serious money, there were vans queing up to empty the skips, office furniture, 8x4 slabs of veneered ply, all kinds of everything,as Dana would say,I wouldn't knock it,I'd do it myself if I had a van.

whatdoicare

No, because it's stealing.

Aishae

well ive gone skip dipping - you know when you see a skip with perfectly good or restoreable furniture scraps etc. last year i saw a neighbour with a skip - they were moving out so there was some major booty - but i DID take a peek when the estate was quiet. got a perfectly useable mop bucket. harhar. some football trading cards i passed on to someone else etc.

ive never been in a bin though. used to give out when my dad went through the crap i threw out of my room - in case there was anything he wanted in it - im sure he wanted an empty can of deoderant really badly(!) lol.

but as for full on bin pillaging - friend of mine from nz told me he did this saying the food was sometime good - not stuff that touched the sides of the bin, or veg etc. or food from the base of the bin. says theres often stuff thron out cos its only a few weeks past its use bu date (not fresh stuff - things like closed cereal boxes) and tins of food. i doubt very much he meant he went through his neighbours garbage. seemed to go to the supermarkets (snook in though) or in community bin areas and apartment bins (you know the big metal rolling bins)
said outback in business parks and offices could be a goldmine for copy paper thrown out - it was only partially printed on - he gave it to his nephew. sometimes picked up phones or parts for things etc
i can see the value but i still wouldnt hop in a bin for weetabix - unless i had to

CrazyRabbit

A friend in the UK told me that his girlfriend was always doing this and that one day she found a huge amount of cash stuffed in a drawer of some furniture. They returned it to the owner of the 'dumpster' and he gave them a reward of £500. They didn't keep the cash, and never kept anything they found. It all went to charity, or was resold and the proceeds given to charity.

Not bad...considering both of them are ex-addicts with long criminal records. They always remind me that some people can turn their lives around.

Jesus Wept

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

A friend in the UK told me that his girlfriend was always doing this and that one day she found a huge amount of cash stuffed in a drawer of some furniture. They returned it to the owner of the 'dumpster' and he gave them a reward of £500. They didn't keep the cash, and never kept anything they found. It all went to charity, or was resold and the proceeds given to charity.

Not bad...considering both of them are ex-addicts with long criminal records. They always remind me that some people can turn their lives around.

I do not believe this on many levels.

RichieC

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

A friend in the UK told me that his girlfriend was always doing this and that one day she found a huge amount of cash stuffed in a drawer of some furniture. They returned it to the owner of the 'dumpster' and he gave them a reward of £500. They didn't keep the cash, and never kept anything they found. It all went to charity, or was resold and the proceeds given to charity.

This actually annoys me.

CrazyRabbit

The-Rigger wrote: »

I do not believe this on many levels.

No big deal for me. Believe or not. I've nothing to gain either way.

Daegerty

whatdoicare wrote: »

No, because it's stealing.

Stuff thrown into a "dumpster" on public property is obviously abandoned.

Dangerous Man

I never did it in Dublin only because I don't own any transport. To those who do do it, keep doing it - fair play. It benefits everybody. The people who rented the skip can now put more stuff in it - the stuff removed is recycled, being used,and not going to land fill. It's all good. In the case of dumpsters / bins behind supermarkets - again - it's a good thing.

uch

I worked with a guy who couldn't pass a skip without having a look, he was the driver so nothing I could do, but he was a fecker for taking carpet underlay out of them and saying it would come in handy some day

brianthebard

freeganism is the (ghey/trendy) name for this. Its a good idea although almost all fresh produce is off limits, hence you become a default vegan. Some supermarkets spray their dumpsters with dye/bleach to ward off fregans, which is sad cause its not like they are using the stuff. If you don't want to go to the bother of dumpster diving then you need to go to the supermarkets in the last hour or so each evening that they are open and look for the good marked down because they are damaged, near their sell by date, etc. freeganism for people who don't like to get dirty!

chillywilly

robbie7730 wrote: »

In Donegal?

It was down south I believe.

emeraldstar

whiteonion wrote: »

I see nothing wrong with salvaging perfectly edible food. People throw away too much. I am disgusted by this rampant consumerism.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Eating out of dustbins wouldn't be my thing however.

bonzodog2

All for it, but I don't do it much recently. One supermarket in Co. Cork I used to frequent had some mighty treats in its skip. You had to get there at the right time. Yogurts,cheese,apple pies,shelving,patio table with umbrella,.....

Big Nasty

whatdoicare wrote: »

No, because it's stealing.

whatdoyoucare?

eilo1

whynospaces :D:D

phasers

No to food, yes to furniture and electricals.

In my school a couple of years ago there was an electronics recycling thing and the amount of working mobiles/laptops they were given was unreal

LambsEye

delta_bravo wrote: »

This isn't America. We call them bins.

"Dumpster Diving," is actually the slang term for a part of the practice of freeganism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster_diving

It is actually ridiculous the amount of food that gets thrown away by large shops purely because it's a little bruised or superficially damaged.

I've read a few books and seen some documentaries on it. Personally it's not something I've done or plan on doing but I don't see anything wrong with it. It's not a practice where people eat obviously manky or gone off food. It's about salvaging food and opposing the wasteful ways of our society. I don't think it deserves this whole "ewwwww grossss" reaction it's getting..

Alter-Ego

In the underground carpark in an apartment block I lived in for a year I got:

A TV
Fussball table
Desk
A chest of drawers
A thomas the tank engine lunchroll sandwich with only a bite taken out of it.

Good times.

Tar.Aldarion

My old housemate got amazing things from dumpsters, full computers/monitors/keyboards, tvs, music keyboards, tents, books, clothes (brand new) etc. Can't even remember half the stuff.

rosebud93

i started a similar thread recently and just spotted yours today! heres my thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056130825
got a bit of a similar response as yours... people seem very offended by the idea that you'd eat this 'disgusting' or 'mouldy' food, when in reality most of its ok. it's just the 'best by date' or any damage that means the supermarket have to chuck it. of course you have to be sensible about it though if you choose to do it, like anything!

Dudess

Non edible stuff like equipment seems reasonable to me (although you're hardly gonna find good stuff - that tends not to get thrown out).

Food - even if it's in airtight packages and no doubt perfectly safe to eat, I wouldn't dip my hand in for it in the first place, because of the rats and dirt and stuff. That hardly makes me a rampant consumerist.

OP, you seem like an "anti establishment" teenager...

the groutch

always worth a glance in one outside a house, one man's rubbish, etc.
would never do it with food, my health is too important to risk just to save a few quid

Daegerty

Dudess wrote: »

OP, you seem like an "anti establishment" teenager...

You seem like a conformist "pro-establishment" old fogey :rolleyes:

Dudess

Because I don't eat food from bins? Clearly...

Although you're right on the "old fogey" - to little kiddies here anyway, who think 20 is old...

Daegerty

Dudess wrote: »

Because I don't eat food from bins? Clearly...

Although you're right on the "old fogey" - to little kiddies here anyway, who think 20 is old...

Why do you feel the need to apply a negative stereotype to this lad just because he wants to save a few bob?

I wouldn't be into eating from bins either unless it's out of pure necessity but taking non-edible stuff can only be a good thing

Usually in towns scraps of wood and what have you are considered waste that need to be recycled but to me they are a valuable source of fuel so I will always take them if I have the car nearby

itsallaboutheL

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

My old housemate was a shoplifter

I see.

Dudess

Daegerty wrote: »

Why do you feel the need to apply a negative stereotype to this lad just because he wants to save a few bob?

The OP regularly posts stuff lecturing people for their capitalist/conformist ways. I too would certainly advocate not wasting, but it doesn't make a person a consumerist to not collect stuff that's dumped.

OutlawPete

I bought food from the 'reduced/almost-out-of-date' section in Tesco.

Aishae

does anyone remember the tv prog a few yrs back - with jamie oliver, i think... they went around supermarket bins and community bin areas and so on. only chosing food that wasnt in gross bin piles etc. they had enough food for hundreds. from something like 2 hours going around the town (i think there were a few teams though)
the expensive stuff doesnt end up in the bin for us - but theres plenty with more money - or even less money who dont 'repair and make do' etc - just chuck out a coat missing a few buttons etc. so you never know what you'd find.

the groutch

OutlawPete wrote: »

I bought food from the 'reduced/almost-out-of-date' section in Tesco.

and you're still alive?

Dudess

the groutch wrote: »

and you're still alive?

That's rich coming from someone who lives in a bin, Oscar... :pac: