Dumpster-Diving 101: Where & when

There's some good books you can read on diving, most notably JOhn Hoffman's The Art & Science of Dumpster-Diving. A pretty entertaining read even if you're not interested in applying John's lifetime of knowledge, but you probably will be after reading it! I'd like to offer some basic, quick lessons I've learned so far. I'm still an amateur at this, hopefully to one day gain the rank of Master Diver, but I have learned a lot quickly.

Where: Well, depends on what you're looking for. For us, we like food & books (more on food saftey later). So we target local markets that don't have the big trash compactors that I don't care to try to get into. I think that might count as breaking & entering. So smaller chain stores, and health food stores often have regular dumpsters. But whatever you're interested in or like to shop, shop their dumpster! It's usually a good idea to scout your location during the day.

When: After store hours, preferably at night for me are the best times. You could get away with looking through a dumpster during daylight store hours, but you risk being hassled by employees or managers. If they see you, you risk having them lock the dumpster or something. My favorite place is next door to a bar, and often employees come out the back door & can see me. I think they called the cops on me, but the cop didn't care that I was lookin'. Still, I don't like the hassle risk factor. Sunday evening they're closed, so I pick at my leisure that day! Ideally, I would go out after midnight every time, but I do work a 9-5 job. Gotta sleep!

Last night was good (Sunday!) Got 3 half-gallons of milk, 1 chololate!, lotsa yogurt, but some turned out skunky, 4 boxes of donuts, a little ice cream, broccoli, a few bunches of bananas, a few dozen small quickly-ripening tomatoes that I made yummy sauce out of today! Nummy! 6 cases of discarded books, too. Some light reading!

New jobs, and comic show

Hello friends! Lately I've been preparing for a comic show in Akron, Ohio. June 28th. come by and say hey and get a high five! I've been practicing some sketches to do while there, check out the Hulk above. I'll also be selling some books from my buds at Crashland Studio. Can't wait!

I had decided to get a part-time job, seeing how the money situation was going to look soon. I put in 8 or so applications for easy things like pizza delivery, but who is the only place that calls me? You guessed it: McDonalds. I worked for McD's for 6 years after high school, 2 years as a manager, and swore never to go back. I usually don't even eat there. So I swallowed my pride, and worked there for 2 weeks before I quit! Not as easy as when I was a younger man.

Around the same time, we started getting interested in Freegans. Freeganism includes vegetarianism, living off the land, dumpster-diving, etc. Basically living an anti-consumerism lifestyle. I respect that. I like free stuff. As a kid we always picked through the trash, and always loved it! After reading more, I became more aware of the waste that we have in America. The average store throws out hundreds of pounds of usable and edible items that are at their "expiration date" (just a "better safe than sorry" date), simply unattractive to buyers, or slightly damaged, or even nothing wrong at all!

So I thought I'd try this out. I targeted one of my favorite bookstores, and found 100 one pot sample packs of coffee. good coffee, too! I couldn't believe it! I peeked in the neighbor's dumpster at work and found a microwave that looked brand-new. Are you kidding? It was missing the turntable plate, but you don't really need that. Turns out the thing is possessed or something, it beeps strangely occasionally, and we had to unplug it. Oh, well. It still cooks, someone might want it in a yard sale.

Encouraged by these great finds, we've gone out several nights, and found the following:
4 loaves of bread- there was lots more than we wanted in 1 find
2 kolochie (probably spelled that wrong) pastry loaf things
4 bananas
2 bunches of grapes
4 rolls
1 pack of dinner rolls
bag of apples
2 lemons
8 tomatoes
3 green peppers
2 dozen donuts (2 trips-there was more, don't take more than we'll use right away)
several boxes of books- only took 1
golf bag
bags of restaurant chips
3 bottles of dish soap- tops were cracked- messy but almost full
bottle of hazlenut creamer-goes good with my free coffee & donuts :9
a CD radio
2 board games
old records & direct TV reciever (thought these might have high value, but not really)

All the food we kept after inspection was mostly mixed with a few bad ones, lightly bruised, whatever. Perfectly edible. Meats I've stayed away from so far. Maybe winter diving would be safer for meat.

Being newbies, we did a lot of scouting to find out what's good, and what's not. Trial & error. I think the value of what we've found so far has been more than the time spent working a minimum-wage job. It's addicting, too. Even though it's not quite illegal, there's still the thrill of it. Plus I'm being green, saving the landfills, and providing for my family at the same time.

I'm going out tonight! I'll let you know what I find!