never thought this thread would morph into a debate on dumpster diving for food...

anyways..heres some other dumpster diving finds.. these were from when Capital Comics was about to get demolished on Hillsborough St.







[Edited on January 9, 2012 at 7:48 PM. Reason : PAGE 2]

1/9/2012 7:44:40 PM

Quote :

""I think you're being ridiculous making statements like "eating out of a dumpster". Nothing wrong with taking packaged food out from the top of a dumpster.""

Quote :

""I used to get mad bagels from behind breugers. dumpsters back of food lion, for fruits and veggies, crushed boxes of food, etc.""

1/9/2012 8:08:39 PM

^^not sure what you're going to do with that stuff, but to each his own.

We have a dumpster diver in the back of my place. He's usually looking for recyclables mostly, and generally doesn't bother me. However, it's highly annoying when I'm trying to throw trash away.

1/9/2012 8:20:56 PM

I thought NCStatePride was above using hyperbole. I was wrong.

1/9/2012 8:26:27 PM

I'm glad you brought this up. I actually practice Freeganism.

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

[Edited on January 9, 2012 at 8:44 PM. Reason : just kidding i'm a middle class white guy that works at a bank. but this article is hilarious.]

1/9/2012 8:43:05 PM

Quote :

"After watching Dive, I now want to go to Trader Joe's and see what's up"

Don't waste your time. TJ's padlocks their dumpsters. I know because I used to work there. As a part-time employee, even I wasn't allowed access to the dumpster without a manager present. TJ's trash is srs business at the Cary location.

1/10/2012 1:21:05 AM

I think the only dumpster food I've ever eaten was from Dunkin Donuts. Some squatter punks showed up to a party in Greenville one night with a big cardboard box that had at least 75 of them. It was basically all the inventory left over at the end of the night when the store closed from what I could tell. They seemed no different than if someone had bought them right before closing time and the box looked clean. I've never been a fan of getting food that way, but I've known a lot of people who did it very happily. Much of the food that is easy to find is also the stuff that tastes best when it is at its freshest; so even if it's still safe to eat it's still a product I'd rather pay for most of the time.

I had great fun dumpstering back in the day when I had more time and less money. Off the top of my head I can think of a handful of things still in my house today that were trash finds...A desk, a Peavey 400w guitar head, a Jackson guitar (this had a broken neck that I replaced), a Yamaha Natural Sound turntable, a coffee table, and who knows what else. I'm sure I sold or traded thousands of dollars worth of stuff that I got for free back in the day.

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 1:12 PM. Reason : s]

1/10/2012 1:07:45 PM

And I thought everyone, including adultswim, could agree that eating out of a dumpster is probably not on the top of the "ways to stay healthy" list. I was wrong.

I mean, I know the job market and economy are bad, but for fuck's sake.

Eating.
Out.
Of.
A.
Dumpster.

Rly?

1/10/2012 1:43:58 PM

No one's eating out of a dumpster.

You take food from the dumpster, wash it, and cook it.

If the dumpster is gross looking, the food is spoiled, the package is open, etc. leave it. If people are willing to take the time to do this, who fucking cares?

1/10/2012 1:50:14 PM

Quote :

"No one's eating out of a dumpster. You take food from the dumpster, wash it, and cook it. "

Quote :

"I used to get mad bagels from behind breugers. dumpsters back of food lion, for fruits and veggies, crushed boxes of food, etc. "

1/10/2012 1:53:04 PM

You are using hyperbole to imply that people are literally eating from dumpsters i.e. grabbing a bagel out of a dumpster and eating it. Anyone who does that is a moron. This is packaged food. If it's not fully packaged, it better be a clean-ass dumpster.

1/10/2012 1:56:49 PM

I, for one, ALWAYS wash and cook my already cooked bagels when I eat them.

Quote :

"If it's not fully packaged, it better be a clean-ass dumpster."

I wasn't aware Krispy Kreme fully packaged their donuts before throwing them out. Same with any bagel joint. They must have a shrink-wrapper in the back that we don't know about.

1/10/2012 2:01:14 PM

well you don't want the bugs getting sick.

1/10/2012 2:07:19 PM

lmao at all the people retrieving food from dumpsters

what's the story with trader joe's? do they throw excessive amounts of packaged food away?

1/10/2012 2:13:02 PM

So when you're dating someone new, is taking her to Trader Joe's to rumage for food in a dumpster a date #3 thing or do you wait longer?

1/10/2012 2:22:57 PM

"So Karen, how bout some dessert? I know a great little place behind Trader Joe's. Here, put on these rubber gloves."

1/10/2012 2:28:16 PM

I found a great write-up by someone who explains EXACTLY how you can and can't eat out of dumpsters.

http://producer.csi.edu/cdraney/archive-courses/fall07/engl102/e-texts/eighner-dumpster.htm is an author who graduated from U of Texas, worked for 8 years, then was thrown on out on the street for three years. He mentions a lot of the same things you guys have stated regarding "using commmon sense" and looking for unopened packaging.

Interesting that even with all of this experience, he still adds this:

Quote :

"No matter how careful I am I still get dysentery at least once a month, oftener in warm weather. I do not want to paint too romantic a picture. Dumpster diving has serious drawbacks as a way of life."

Also, a few hazards of dumpster diving that he commonly comes in contact with. If you have the ability to afford better, I guess you have to decide if it's worth it...

Quote :

"In the area I know best I have never discovered vermin in the Dumpster, but there are two kinds of kitty surprise. One is alley cats which I meet as they leap, claws first, out of Dumpsters. This is especially thrilling when I have Lizbeth [his dog] in tow. The other kind of kitty surprise is a plastic garbage bag filled with some ponderous, amorphous mass. This always proves to be used cat litter. City bees harvest doughnut glaze and this makes the Dumpster at the doughnut shop more interesting. My faith in the instinctive wisdom of animals is always shaken whenever I see Lizbeth attempt to catch a bee in her mouth, which she does whenever bees are present. Evidently some birds find Dumpsters profitable, for birdie surprise is almost as common as kitty surprise of the first kind. In hunting season all kinds of small game turn up in Dumpsters, some of it, sadly, not entirely dead. Curiously, summer and winter, maggots are uncommon. The worst of the living and near-living hazards of the Dumpsters are the fire ants. The food that they claim is not much of a loss, but they are vicious and aggressive. It is very easy to brush against some surface of the Dumpster and pick up half a dozen or more fire ants, usually in some sensitive area such as the underarm. One advantage of bringing Lizbeth along as I make Dumpster rounds is that, for obvious reasons, she is very alert to ground-based fire ants. When Lizbeth recognizes the signs of fire ant infestation around our feet she does the Dance of the Zillion Fire Ants. I have learned not to ignore this warning from Lizbeth, whether I perceive the tiny ants or not, but to remove ourselves at Lizbeth’s first pas de bourrée. All the more so because the ants are the worst in the months I wear flip-flops, if I have them."

1/10/2012 2:30:30 PM

When my sisters were in 4H, they raised lambs. They just as the produce manager for the veggies they were going to toss out. 2X/week my mom would pick it up. No dumpster involved.

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 2:39 PM. Reason : ]

1/10/2012 2:38:09 PM

http://www.hulu.com/watch/210883/portlandia-dumpster-divers#x-4,vclip,2,0

1/10/2012 10:31:29 PM

I was always surprised that Panera Bread doesn't have a bigger dumpster dive culture. Since they fresh-bake bread, bagels, and pastries EVERY DAY, and they can't always donate it (but often do), they toss out enormous amounts of good food.

I worked for Panera Bread in high school and I was one of the volunteers that drove the bagged bread to a local soup kitchen (well, there were a couple).

1/10/2012 10:54:09 PM

Not really a dumpster dive, but I got a 42" HD LCD.

I had one go out at work and they had to replace it. When I asked them what to do with the broken one, they told me to throw it in the dumpster. I took it to a TV repair man instead and got it fixed for $75. It is now in my bedroom.

It is proof that big companies throw away valuable shit all the time

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 11:46 PM. Reason : a]

1/10/2012 11:44:19 PM

We used to dumpster dive behind Office Depot all the time. We'd occasionally get a binder or some other type of office supply.

One night, however, we struck the motherload. We tore open 4 black trash bags and discovered them filled with Playboy magazines. I remember thinking that someone's wife was a real bitch.

1/11/2012 1:28:42 AM

i dont understand why more places dont send food straight to the soup kitchen as opposed to straight to the dumpster.

1/11/2012 1:50:39 AM

Quote :

"After watching Dive, I now want to go to Trader Joe's and see what's up"

My friend and I were diving at the Traders Joe's on Wake Forest road when an employee walked over to the dumpster while were were in it. He was cool about it ie; didn't call the cops, but when we went back to check it the next week they had installed locks on the sliding door. Doesn't really matter because you can still go in at the top but it makes it a little more difficult. The friend I dumpster dive with eats primarily of what he finds in the trash.

Winter is without question the best time if you're going after food. The perishables don't perish because of the cold outdoor temperatures. I usually don't dumpster dive at all in the summer. Its just too fucking nasty.

I can't tell you how much GREAT and PERFECTLY CLEAN and USABLE stuff people throw away.

1/11/2012 5:07:29 AM

I'm telling you folks.... Its like a Christmas adventure. You never know what you're going to find but you know you're going to get something. Food Lion is where its at most frequently. Once you hit a certain store a few times you get an idea of their pickup schedule. One Food Lion I hit up regularly always throws out bakery stuff on Monday. So I know that if I go up there on Monday I can get all the baked goods I want. IE; pies, cakes, bread, bagels, doughnuts, etc. Last winter I got a whole case of packaged chicken breast and a whole case of beef ribs. At least 300 dollars worth of meat. Deep freezers come in handy. The people who turned me on to this have been "eating out of the dumpster" for 15 years and have never been sick on account of it.

Another thing I see pretty often is entire bags of potatoes, apples, oranges, or onions being thrown out because one or two are bad. I'm talking two bad ones, 13 good ones, and they throw the whole bag away.

1/11/2012 5:27:26 AM

As far as donations to food kitchens.

When I worked at HT we through out anything that required refrigeration/heating, or was obviously spoiled.

That pretty much just left bread. Sure they passed laws to help not get sued, the problem is you can't transport it in such a way that it stays safe. The laws still require you to make sure the food is safe.

1/11/2012 8:45:48 AM

TragicNature says...

Quote :

"I'm telling you folks.... Its like a Christmas adventure. You never know what you're going to find but you know you're going to get something."

From my previous link...

Quote :

"No matter how careful I am I still get dysentery at least once a month"

1/11/2012 10:37:40 AM

i hope to never need to resort to this kind of thing

1/11/2012 10:51:02 AM

My dad used to do this some when he bought/sold antiques. Made money off quite a few things. Never did it to get food though

1/11/2012 11:03:23 AM

^^^
You're going off of one anecdote, but you ignored his anecdote. Pretty dishonest.

Quote :

"The people who turned me on to this have been "eating out of the dumpster" for 15 years and have never been sick on account of it."

1/11/2012 11:59:43 AM

Dishonest? At this point in time its one anecdote over another. I honestly found an anecdote from someone who wrote up their experiences and said dysentery was a common problem. That's pretty damn honest.

If you really want to know what's dishonest, it would be trespassing on private property without the business' permission to rummage through their trash. Maybe some of the anecdotes in here include people who had permission to be where they were, but if they wanted you there, I doubt the businesses would install locks on the doors. What's dishonest is going through that garbage even after the owner has expressed his desire to not have his garbage rummaged through.

I'm still not sure why you are arguing this. Plenty of alternatives to randomly going through dumpsters have been brought up: asking a place what they are doing with their trash (such as the example with the oil taken for biofuels), organizing with the business owners to reduce waste and set up donation programs, or any other means of getting your free food without trespassing on private property and digging through a dumpster.

About the only reason I can figure these alternatives haven't been appealing to people is because its a lot more fun to just jump in a pile of filth than it is to actually put in the work to set up something more permanent with the business owner that would actually have a significant affect on the community and the environment.

1/11/2012 12:40:09 PM

Quote :

" its a lot more fun to just jump in a pile of filth than it is to actually put in the work to set up something more permanent"

This is true. It is a lot more fun...

1/11/2012 4:09:18 PM

i can't wait until the day comes when a business gets sued because someone ate something out of their garbage and got sick from it.

1/11/2012 8:51:48 PM

1/11/2012 9:07:27 PM

^ already posted the YouTube clip, bro

1/11/2012 9:29:49 PM

Thanks, brah

1/11/2012 10:19:25 PM

You can sometimes find great stuff in the dumpsters next to Goodwill stores. I've perused the one by my parents place often. It's also worth going to Goodwill in the morning before they open and see what sort of stuff people have chucked next to the donation door. I asked a Goodwill employee once if the store cared if people took that stuff and he said no since people weren't following their rules about dropping off donations during store hours.

When I worked for Starbucks our manager has some sort of mental block on being able to order the proper amount of food and we would always have TONS of food go past the sell by date. But rather than donate it to the soup kitchen he would just throw it out. My coworker friends and I started just collecting the food and bringing it to house parties since the manager wouldn't let us donate it. Made me the most popular party person in high school showing up with cases of muffins, scones, and chocolate cake lol.

1/14/2012 7:25:08 PM

you know there is a "sell by" date for a reason? jesus how many people did you put at risk for food-borne illness?

AND you steal from fucking goodwill??? I don't care how you justify it, you are taking things that people leave FOR GOODWILL.

[Edited on January 14, 2012 at 9:13 PM. Reason : ]

1/14/2012 9:07:43 PM

Ehh I drop off so much stuff at Goodwill and buy plenty there. If people are going to leave their shit to the elements when they're told not to so be it. I'm amazed when I see people leave a pile of clothes or books on Goodwill's uncovered stoop in the middle of a rainstorm. Might as well just chuck it in the dumpster at that point.

And yes, I'm sure a bunch of people dropped dead from eating a scone the final day it was to be sold.

[Edited on January 14, 2012 at 9:40 PM. Reason : a]

1/14/2012 9:38:53 PM

^if the things that you took were "ruined" you wouldn't have taken them, and they could have been of value to goodwill.

1/14/2012 9:50:41 PM

Goodwill throws out a surprising percentage of what they get. They may receive an item that is broken, so it's useless to them, so they throw it out. But a DIY sort of person could repurpose that item. I'm not going to be a dick and take something like a TV (although Goodwill does not accept TVs and throws them away I found out when I tried to donate one).

1/14/2012 9:58:20 PM

This thread has me dyin'

1/14/2012 10:06:24 PM

^That's pretty dishonest of you. You're not really dying. Do you have dysentery? No, you don't.

1/15/2012 1:52:34 AM

Quote :

"you know there is a "sell by" date for a reason? jesus how many people did you put at risk for food-borne illness? AND you steal from fucking goodwill??? I don't care how you justify it, you are taking things that people leave FOR GOODWILL."

Obvious troll is obvious.

1/15/2012 2:13:28 AM

100% not trolling. Taking items left for a charity (even if they didn't leave the stuff according to some policy) is just plain wrong.

Same with handing out food that has gone past it's expiration date. 9 times out of 10 it won't make anybody sick, but there is a reason for the expiration date, and a reason why stores DON'T donate that food. (liability)

1/15/2012 8:37:50 AM

Quote :

" and a reason why stores DON'T donate that food. "

Meals on Wheels and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle takes that food all the time. One of the most proactive companies about donating their food is Panera Bread. Many supermarkets in the area do the same. Talk to some of the soup kitchens and homeless shelters in this area.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/care2/54/food-expiration-dates-what-do-they-really-mean.html
http://knox.villagesoup.com/place/story/mlk-food-drive-benefits-thomaston-and-cushing-food-pantries/479180
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/01/second-life-what-happens-to-old-and-expired-supermarket-products/251052/


[Edited on January 15, 2012 at 2:01 PM. Reason : s]

1/15/2012 1:59:01 PM

In high school we used to dive in the dumpster behind blockbuster, got lots of shitty movies

1/15/2012 3:41:05 PM

Quote :

"100% not trolling. Taking items left for a charity (even if they didn't leave the stuff according to some policy) is just plain wrong. Same with handing out food that has gone past it's expiration date. 9 times out of 10 it won't make anybody sick, but there is a reason for the expiration date, and a reason why stores DON'T donate that food. (liability)"

I totally agree with you about Goodwill (it's fucking stealing), but the reason that they throw the food out isn't necessarily just liability. It's also a matter of they just don't care to go through the process of food donation. Often when local franchises have the option made available to them, they break from that cycle and move towards donation, usually because they find out a local soup kitchen will come and box everything up for them, so they don't actually have to do more work. Et cetera.

1/15/2012 5:03:34 PM

I was in greensboro last year with some friends and we stopped at the krispy kreme to get some doughnuts.

They were taking the hot doughnuts right off the conveyor belt and boxing them up. However, every once in a while, there would be a deformed doughnut that they would throw in a plastic bag. The guy behind us asked what they were going to do with those deformed doughnuts. The lady said they throw them away. The guy asked for the bag and she gave it to him. There had to be at least 50-60 doughnuts in that bag.

1/15/2012 6:56:30 PM

Wow. He left a lucky man.

1/15/2012 7:03:31 PM