Scavenging: An Art Form

smajor · Coal Joined: Aug 18, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Kingman, AZ

Excellent thread. Thanks FourOfSwords.

I've been diving for almost 20 years now, off and on, and it never ceases to amaze me how much perfectly good stuff gets tossed.

I would encourage you, Ebyss, to peek under a few lids just for the educational value.

Food. Jeez. There's tons of it. Still in the packaging. In cans. Milk still cold from the refrigeration unit. Fresh vegies with "unsightly" blemishes that don't degrade the nutitional value in the least.

Looking forward to participating more.

JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 436

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1762

There aren't many dumpsters out here in the sticks, but I"ve always hauled more home from the landfill than I ever took there. Until they stopped it. Now, I continue to prowl the steel scrapyard, the streets the night before trash pickup, and the garage sales, flea markets, and classified ads of every sort.

My daughter got a virtually new matress and box spring set free from Craigslist, and I got 164 concrete blocks there. Only a couple pieces of equipment in my machine shop are new; the rest is from auctions, private sales for cheap, and giveaways.

I recently found a disc cultivator for my garden tractor at the scrapyard, enough steel posts to build a chicken lot, and truckloads of useful steel for the shop at 12 cents/lb., compared to 65 cents/lb. and up, wholesale. My last score was enough NEW metal roofing for my proposed chicken house.

Having a shop at home to do repairs makes these sources even more profitable, since I can make a lot of throwaways serviceable again. Our first year in the shop business, I picked up about a dozen push lawn mowers at the landfill, and got 'em running again. Sit them in the front yard with a for sale sign, and it was quick money.

Been scrounging all my life, and it has paid handsomely.
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oowolf · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

An old guy down the road went to a nursing home and the new properety owners gave me 2 depression-era colored enamel Monarch cookstoves and a huge pressure cooker that weighs about 50#. O the joy!

drew · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:44 am Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

I only scavenge for old furniture, and occasionally bike parts of course. Most of my furniture finds come from a local charity which helps the homeless so I don't mind the pittance they charge me. As long as it is tasteful, easily repaired, or refinished that is!

I will not even consider anything using veneers. The old solid hardwood or pine stuff is what I'm after. I have 3 projects on the go right now: a walnut coffee table that needs sanding and lacquer for 10 bucks; an art deco cabinet with glass door inserts for 40 which needed a complete stripping, replacement glass, and minor carpentry; a settee bought from a local dealer which needs much more extensive repairs to the frame and then re-upholstery (I paid too much). All the stuff is between 50 and 90 years old.

Oh, I once bought a top of the line Manfrotto tripod worth about $400 for $69 from a pawn shop. 69 was the same price as the junk tripods in the same pile. Score!

Drew

gonfishn · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

Patience,do what I do. Get to know a couple of the crew at the landfill.I throw a 12 pack of soda in the pickup or just happen to have a dozen donuts with me, pass them around.
They will remember you quickly,now I just tell the guys what I need and they frequently stash stuff for me or even call me at work.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1762

gonfishn,

Hey! That could work! Better make a list....

As it is, I've got customers bringing me metal scrap to reduce their repair bill a bit. That helps, too.
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MadScientist · Heavy Crude Joined: May 19, 2004 Posts: 418

ki11ercane · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1323

I have found sources of materials which I can use which would otherwise be discarded.

The restaurant I work at when it is not closed due to a ~~hurricane~~ ~~tropical storm~~ ~~tropical depression~~ a little rain and a light breeze, offers food scraps which I feed the chickens. They get a diversified diet a couple days a week, and in no small quantity.

The chef cuts his own steaks, trims the fat off the NY strip, saves it for me in ziplock bags in the cooler. I render some for cooking, the rest gets chopped into chicken sized pieces. If I don't work that week, he throws it out. I don't dumpster dive for my food, I find such a practice to be a bit too course for my current palate.

My brother works with a contractor, does some painting, sometimes I help out. I get the paint buckets, clean them up, use them for food storage, hauling manure, around the garden, got one bucket full of nails, others loaded with hand tools.

I built a greenhouse from sliding glass doors which my brother and I replaced. I've got a couple dozen more leaning against my shed waiting for the greenhouse to be replaced and enlarged. I also have several windows, which we also replaced, to be used in other projects-solar oven, cloches and hot boxes, and a solar dehydrator for a start.

Bricks are easy to come by, get them from work. Gathering firebrick to build a brick oven, bbq, smoker. I also use them as sides for the garden beds.

I got a lady with a few horses, let me haul away all the manure I can stand. Another fellow with a few rabbits. Use the stuff in the compost heap.

The neighbors have learned to skip bagging their leaves when they rake the lawn. They gather it in a heap and knock on my door. I'll scoop the lawn waste into a wheelbarrel and drag it home-more compost.

I can probably come up with a constant supply of wood, palettes and lumber scraps in sufficient quantity to heat my house if I had a woodstove or a chimney that was not leaning.

There is stuff out there all over the place.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

smajor · Coal Joined: Aug 18, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Kingman, AZ

It's horrible to see that I'm not the only one who is aware of the waste (in other words, perfectly good food) that grocery stores put into their dumpsters.

In my town, Kingman AZ, there's only one store that has open dumpsters. The rest hide their waste (?) in compactors.

One of the stores here (that has since gone out of business, perhaps for this reason) was filling 8x6x4 foot dumpsters with milk, still in their plastic jugs fresh from the cooler. I never saw produce so I don't know what they did with that.

So, basically, there's no telling how much good food (Kingman az is a very small community) is being thrown away day after day.

What I find in the dumpsters of that one store keeps me, and some of the folks I know of, in food month after month.

The store I frequent gives food to the local food bank by the pickup truck loads and still I, and others, are able to meet our needs. So, obviously, there are serious problems with our food distribution system.

I'm afraid I have no sympathy at all for those who go, "Euuuuu, food from dumpsters." I know. I've looked. I've seen. I eat it all the time. I'm still alive.

I think the wasters need to be taken to task here... not me. Why are you throwing all of this good food away? For a buck you didn't get? That's not a very good reason in my book. Because you don't know what else to do? Give me a break.

Okay. I have a challenge. I challenge you to look under the lids of 15 dumpsters. And if you don't find something useful to you I will send you something useful to you from mine. I do, however, want some proof that you've looked under the lids of 15 dumpsters. Digital pics, whatever.

The bottom line is that there really is stuff out there. Stuff that you want. Stuff that you could survive on. You just need to get past the psychological crap that tells you you HAVE to pay for what you get. Or that, you're just a: creepy person, weirdo, loser.

You need to turn it around. People who waste our resources are wrong. The person who throws out a couple of plastic bags of clothes instead of taking them to a thrift store is... wrong. Soneone who throws out cans of food... is wrong.

Scavengers actually have a rightful place in the ecological balance... scavengers clean up the messes left behind. Okay... most people think they're messes... but if you think differently there's a lot to be had out there.
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One pair of hands working on a solution is worth more than a million wagging tongues.

dunewalker · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

Our local dump has an unofficial policy that "you can 'shop' until the next customer arrives. In other words, as long as nobody who might complain to the county sees anyone rummaging through the trash then go for it. I usually bring a full load home after taking 2 cans to empty. Here's the link to a review of an excellent movie:

The Gleaners And I
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mos6507 · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:39 pm Post subject: Re: Scavenging: An Art Form

People can be irrational about this sort of thing. When I was moving I went around to the dumpsters behind the stores to pick up boxes because brand new boxes cost a fortune. The last place I hit up was a recycling depository behind a church. There was a guy there who must have worked for the church who shouted out to me "you know that's stealing, don't you". I personally put tons of paper products in that very bin through the years. I have also given hundreds of dollars worth of really good stuff to thrift stores. My conscience is clear.
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bromius · Heavy Crude Joined: May 26, 2008 Posts: 143

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1762

Today I found a fine source of scrounge--workshop cleaning. A friend is in the process of cleaning out his shop, and invited me to dig through the pile before it went to the scrapyard. I came home with a pickup bed full of boxes full of treasures. Buckets of ball bearings, bronze bushings, bolts, all-thread rod, tie rod ends (my garden tractor needs a couple), two 10 foot I-beams (solar water heater gets put on those), nozzle for a gasoline hose, boxes of sprockets, and buckets of roller chain.

It pays to network with like-minded people! We have been trading our scrounge for years, but this was a haul. I owe him now, and will reciprocate when I clean house....
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