Extreme recycling: Food, furniture, diapers (Dumpster Diving)

CNN ^ | 03/27/2008 | Sarah Jio

[sauropod]

Jumping into a garbage bin may sound scary, but Nelson, 52, who lives in Brooklyn, says it's no big deal. Humans, she says, are "hardwired to be foragers."

Sounds like she'd really be a big hit at your next house party.

[Gorzaloon]

Years ago I worked with old Swamp Yankees who used to be teased by other people.

The janitor would say, "Hey, Ed..Goin' to the dump; anythin you want?"

"Laugh all you want-Last week, I got a lawnmoweh..Nothin wrong withit."

[ravingnutter]

I made oodles of extra money as a single mother dumpster diving in my spare time. The two kids and I would hit the apartment building dumpsters at the end of the month when people were moving out. We would clean up salvageable items and sell them at the flea market on the weekends, along with items we got from our evening job cleaning out VA and HUD repossessed homes for a Realtor. The Realtor also gave us the appliances which we sold to a mobile home park for their rental homes. The kids had a blast doing it and shared in the profits. They are grown and gone now and I am in middle management so I no longer need to do such things, but we all have fond memories of it.

[fella]

As Snuffy Smith’s wife once sais “Poor folks has poor ways.”.

[blu]

Go to the dumps in Fairbanks, and you can furnish a home with some really nice stuff! Up there, most folks just take their "leftovers" to the dumps, which are very nicely organized. It's recycling in its purest form.

/blu misses Fairbanks...

[Appleby]

Google “Second Harvest” for your answer.

There are also shops in our neighbourhood who will give away veggies and greens “for my rabbit” if you go in with your own bag and ask nicely.

[blu]

LOL! Between the dumps and ValueVillage, Fairbanks decorating can be pretty cheap!

[Centurion2000]

It’s not freganism. It’s called being a bum and a hobo.

[Red in Blue PA]

There was a story about 10 years ago about people who did this for computers. They did it for the gold on the chips/boards in the computer. Not a whole lot in one computer, but get a few dozen and it added up.

And that was before the price of gold hit 4 digits!

[Red in Blue PA]

Should have asked:

“Are you voting for Clinton or Obama?”

[Red in Blue PA]

Gotta love how CNN has the URL. The story is under “Living” “Way of Life” and “Free Commerce”.

Pretty much sums it all up about CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/27/free.commerce/index.html

[spotbust1]

Maybe we can put this person in contact with Lisa Nowak. I hear she has a few diapers left from her cross country treck.

[Larebil]

"What you flush down the toilet, I put on my mantlepiece."

[vpintheak]

You got that right!