Dumpster diving
 

Who here goes dumpster diving? What do you make of this?

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Feb14_0010.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Feb14_0009.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Feb14_0012.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Feb14_0013.jpg

Ahhhh the Beatrice fake chocolate "milk" AKA dairy beverage.

i do! EXCELLENT!!!! enough chocolate there to keep me happy for YEARS!!!! MAYBE I NEED TO MOVE TO CANADA! reminds me of a halloween candy haul a friend of mine got around valentines day one year. we had chocolate til the following Christmas!

I say... Wow! What a haul! Do you always find this much good stuff?

A diabetics nightmare perhaps?

Are they close or past dated? I know that this truly doesn't matter, but I bet that is why they got tossed. It is a shame to waste food like that IMO.

In the states.... Big Lots or a dollar store.... this is the type of place you find these goods.

I am still using a mega "ziploc" bag score from about 2 years ago that we pulled it from a dumpster. We had rice krispie treats and lindt chocolate for about 9 months thanks to Big Lots, along with a TON of other unhealthy food like this. Some gets passed along to willing friends and family, some we leave for the next dumpster diver. I hate it when you pull up on a known spot and find another diver there already loading up ...

.. you know there is a whole forum for dumpster diving? Dumpster world... :) Although they can be a bit rough and rude over there, especailly with the "newbies"

Some finds of ours from a few years back
http://flickr.com/gp/14212156@N08/4DifK9

You even got dairy, we've haven't found any grocery stores that toss much other than some random produce and of course lots and lots of bread at the bagel shop.

Good finds, keep diving!

Yes, we do.

I do. Same username over there.

Pete

:)

I haven't been over there since change in "ownership", but just because we fell out of habit on the commercial route, still do residentail from time to time, but have lost out on those huge scores, although BIL found 11 guiness and 32 busdweisers today in residentail dumpser, we had some with dinner, it was good.

cheers

Man, I used to go dumpster diving all the time. Even did some Christmas shopping at a Pier One Imports dumpster and got some very nice wooden chests and stained glass lamps. Have also found rolls of 35mm film, tons of halloween candy, day old sub sandwiches, entire bags of krispy creme glazed doughnuts, day old bagels, and who knows what else. Have only been approached once by a crotchety old fellow who expressed his disgust that I would eat a bagel from a dumpster.

yes i do,,,,,when nobodys lookin. lol;)

Brought back a few memories.In the early to middle eightys we were broke flat out,all of us layed off from the two local factories.When my friend came buy one morning early and said look in my trunk.He had went behind the local grocery store and got more good food than we could use.Called other buds up swore them to never say a thing and started spliting up our find.We did this every Wed. at 5:00AM and got enough food to use that we were able to use that money to pay for our back bills.Each one of us had a certain job to do mine was to wash the produce off and to dry it, some sorted it out.We only took produce and cookies and cakes sealed from the deli.The scraps we fed to the chickens and in turn we shared our eggs.My best friend said after six monthes lets get a pig i said get two.Fed them out with everything we did not want and corn we shoveled up at local elevator that had ran out and got rained on.other buddy bought the paper and helped shovel corn and helped process.We split the price of the pigs.What a time.We now are near retirement and own our homes and most of the land we have bought,but still when it is just us in the garage we laugh and thank the lord for all he as blessed us with.Never forget were you come from because some one else is there and may need the help.The years were 82 thru 88

Ah yes pick up "outdated" food. Seems like a smart thing to do.
IU remember many years ago when I was in charge of a vending company placing candy orders etc.
We had quite a few "outdated" 3 Musketeers Case lots. like 350 bars each case and threw out 6 cases~!
The Candy rep. was there and after giving us credit for those "outdate cases, He Stood There and had to watch me Open up the cases and throw all the bars loose in the dumpster. they do not want somebody coming back and suing them for getting sick on what was a Outdated Product.
And that is why this dumpster diving as people like to call it is Out lawed in many states as it should be.

You seriously think it should be outlawed??! I wouldn't even think of eating anything I pulled from a dumpster, it's all for the pigs.

I can't even imagine drinking a can of coke that was thrown in a dumpster because one can in the case had a dent in it. I also can't imagine putting a diaper on my kids that was thrown in a dumpster because the cardboard box got dropped and was crushed on one corner.

Using that stuff could make you sick, and then I'd be forced to sue whoever it was that threw it out.

Pete

No and at all, You are correct as it should be be against the law, to do any type of dumpster diving for human consumption. Period. Sorry I worded it wrong in my previous post.

Most products are just as safe in the dumpster as they were in the food warehouse. You should see some of the stuff that is sprayed around, set out as bait, and spilled in warehouses.

Man, that's a haul and a half!

I guess it depends on how squeamish you are. Moving a product from the store shelf to a dumpster (as long as it's still wrapped) doesn't make it unsafe to eat.

I'd eat anything that passed the smell test, DH - that's another story...

I think I have to take exception to this. The problem is that people sue, not that the products get used.

When I was very little, my father was in school, and they lived on $3,000 per year. They did not live on a farm at the time - they were dependent on making things work. They did not receive welfare or assistance. One of the ways in which we survived (other than foraging), was to find the leftover produce that was thrown away by the grocery stores every day - tremendous amounts of waste.

Is it possible that we might have gotten sick? Sure, but I'd think you would be more at risk from the ingredients in your haul than where it was stored.

The amount of food that we waste in this nation under the name of biosecurity and health makes me sick. Seeing people waste a can of coke because it was dented makes me feel totally wretched. And if you think the ingredients *IN* the coke are any safer or better handled than in a dumpster, you would probably be very surprised.

Anyway - not sure what my point is, other than the fact that I don't think the answer is to outlaw dumpster diving, because that is a way for many to survive, and many more could if we'd stop being so stupid about food in general. Why don't we find better ways of harnessing that food energy into something productive?

'Course, a better answer entirely is to raise your food start-finish. Just sayin :)

I have never personally but we have an acquaintance that does from time to time. Last summer when we saw him a lot he would share his produce hauls with us. Lots of good stuff that I washed off and used.

I'm not bold enough to try it but I admire those that are!

I LOVE dumpster diving. First let me add I work in a mall and according to mall security anything in a dumpster is free game. I have gotton Revereware pot set retail $140 it had one broken pan. Brand new knife sets. Display shpes never worn, tons of bath and body stuff. I know people who have gotton cases of wine coolers from dumpsters, playstations ( that work) leather coats and on and on and on. When it comes to food if the food was stored in its original container with no alterations why not?

I watched a special I think it was on Discovery channel a few years back about people in NY who got most of their groceries out of dumpsters. These people were not poor. They lived in nice houses, had good jobs but they really enjoyed not having to pay for food and not wasting food in the process. It was a really good show.

I regularly get beautiful outer leaves of lettuce and bags of bagels and bagel dough for my chickens out of a dumpster from a bagel place. The local Food Lions used to package up and resale a lot of produce. Now they weigh it, charge it off and toss it in the dumpster and sock customers for their higher expenses. One Food Lion has a really nasty manager who will prosecute dumpster divers, another has a pig farmer who "recycles" this produce. One time last summer I uh just happened to be swinging by a dumpster when an employee came out. He had just quit his job, so he had no fear of losing it. Instead of throwing out all the imperfect food, he loaded it in my truck. He said it was a crime to throw out all that good food, it would feed 200 people! It sure fed me and my birds and some neighbors! Bags of apples, grapes, potatoes, heads of lettuce and cauliflower. Recently I paid 99 cents in the store for a single orange. I went around back and retrieved five more for free. Food Lion can't understand why people aren't buying like they used to. They have a greeter at the store with the mean prosecuting produce guy. Makes a lotta sense, don't it?

Wow, I've never dumpster dived before (well except for a computer someone threw away in our apt complex, sold for $100 on ebay!). I used to drive around my neighborhood the night before trash pickup and find all kinds of good, usable household items.

My mom visited recently and we were talking about how good things were when I was a kid. That's when she confessed that things weren't that great. She told me that she used to get produce and other food out of the grocery store dumpsters on a weekly basis to save money on food. I was shocked to say the least. We lived in a really nice home, my parents drove nice cars and both had great jobs. So it was shocking to find out my mom had to do that to help make ends meet.

I may just have to go check out some local stores around here, although I think most of them have their dumpsters locked up :(

Pete,

I don't dumpster dive. It doesn't appeal to me. I have scored several things in the past from the curbside trash.

Nice haul for you!!!!!! Congrats!!!!

The waste in the western world is amazing, isn't it?

On Saturday I curb shopped a wheel barrow load of landscaping type bricks AND the wheel barrow to boot !

I dumpster dived a gazebo from a wedding event planner who went out of business ..enough wood (both new ans used ) to extend my little back deck (the deck was the flooring of my neighbors dog pen that I hooked my truck to and drug over to my back step and pressure washed a time or two ) ...a half whisky barrel for my garden ..an umbrella clothes line that i use every wash day except when there is snow on the ground ..a concrete workers wheelbarrow missing a handel (used a bit of dumpster dived lumber to fix the handle ) ..made shelves in metal mini barn to extend storage upwards from dumpster dived lumber ..a patio umbrella for my deck that had a small rip on a seam that took a couple of stitches with a sail needle and some fishing line ...two childs red wagons (one needed 2 wheels and the other only needed one ..dear sweet neighbor has one and I have the other )a push behind old plow that is in my side garden ..a old rusted sycle that will be mounted on my side garden wall when the weather is a bit dryer ..
I curb shopped a beautiful burgundy leather chair with a small rip on the skirt ...a white platform rocker ..2 round wash tubs (no leaks ) that will be part of my container garden this spring ..a kingsize nickle platted iron head and foot board that is now a part of my side and back garden ...an oval washtub that will also be a part of my planting this year3 of those buckets that kitty litter come in for my container garden ...a black iron fence section that is used as a divider between my back yard and the neighbors on the next street over a cast iron and marble and glass end table that is still in use in my living room ... and so much more over the last few years that is still in use now or has been passed on to others who had a need ...

I got my dear sweet neighbor intrested in dumpster diving and curb shopping and now she keeps an eye out when she is out and about and comes and gets me so we can get the stuff ..LOL

I would post some pictures but dont want to overload those with dialup ...