2009 may be the year that I once again embrace dumpster diving. My sister gave me an out-of-print book "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving" for Christmas. After a quick read through, I realized I was already thinking about which of my local dumpsters might contain a treasure-trove of things me and my family can use. You could even say I was fantasizing about it, the way Ralphie fantasized about Black Bart and his Red Rider BB Gun.
I even briefly hatched a plan to drive by the Steve & Barry's when it closes, because I suspect they will be throwing away the store mannequins now that the entire retail chain is going bankrupt. I could use those mannuqins in my craft business, I uttered under my breath.
You must think I am crazy by now. Let me preface by saying I am not the kind of gal who will cut open trash bags and sift through people's old credit card statements. No siree. But if you leave a chair on the curb, watch out. I'm might just grab it.
When I was in college, my roommates and I didn’t think twice about picking sofas, coffee tables, and housewares out of other people’s trash. Don’t get grossed out. We always gave them a good scrubbing and disinfecting when we got home. We were definitely tried and true dumpster divers, mostly because we were too broke to buy what we needed. You couldn't beat the price tag.
I used to never pay for anything I had even a remote chance of getting for free on garbage day, especially when I knew the city's semi-annual big stuff pick up ( a primo time for furniture) was around the corner. Then something happened. When I started making even a little bit of money, I started buyin things instead of waiting until I could dumpster dive them. I fell prey to our natural American tendency for instand gratification, and I lost my patience. It's easier to go buy what you need than look through the trash for it. And, you guarantee you get something closer to what you actually want instead of relying on what you happen to find.
Sadly, looking back, I feel like I lost something in the process. Maybe I lost the thrill of the hunt. But I think it's bigger than that. I lost patience and I have indeed fallen prey to instant gratification.
Now that I am trying to come full circle back to a financially simpler, ecologically more sustainable, and more "Christmas doesn't come from a store" mentality, thoughts of dumpster diving have once again entered my mind.
I had a roommate when I was 19 who was a hard core dumpster diver. She was a freegan, meaning she didn’t pay for anything unless absolutely necessary. She would search for bags of discarded donuts and bagels in the dumpster of the local bagel shop. She would pull boxes of perfectly good, unspoiled pasta and fresh produce out of the dumpster behind the health food store three blocks from our apartment. She once salvaged a CD player from the dumpster behind an out-of-business electronics store, working except for the pause button, and reams of paper from behind a defunct office supply shop.
I’m still pretty skeptical of salvaged food. I've seen the inside of too many food dumpsters to eat anything outside of a safe, hermetically sealed tin can that I can wash off in the sink.
But can I take a page from her playbook and apply it to my current, not-broke-college-student and now mid-30s-homeowner-mom-career-gal life?
I admit I never truly stopped dumpster diving, I just toned it down a lot. In the past 5 years I have salvaged a lovely skillet from a can in the Garden District of New Orleans and a magician's illusion box complete with wooden swords (don't ask...) from the garbage after an estate sale. But could I do better?
Can I take a page from the freegan playbook?
After some thought I realized freegans and frugals have a lot of common ground. They don’t spend any money they don’t have to, and they deplore waste. Maybe it’s time for us frugal folks to think about incorporating some freegan-inspired (or freegan-light) ways into our lives. For example:
Dumpster dive: It doesn’t have to be for food. You can pick usable household items out of other people’s trash. Rental properties, college dorms at the end of Spring semester, and people who are moving are great spots for this. Or, like my friend, you could look through dumpsters behind major retailers looking for usable throwaway office supplies and housewares.
Get as much as you can for free: If you want free stuff but don’t want to dig through trash to get it, turn to Craigslist and Freecycle to fill your needs at no cost. On the flip side, post your unwanted items or discards on Craigslist or Freecycle, and keep it from going into the trash. I like getting and giving things away for free.
Freecycling has half-salved my desire to dumpster dive. I have given away a lot of things through local freecycle groups, but I have yet to actually get anything back. It seems like I am never fast enough to reply to the posts. Some folks must be poised over their keyboards waiting for those new messages to pop up.
Intercept food before it goes into the trash: At my last office job, there was always a pot luck or a birthday cake somewhere. I noticed that half of it just ended up in the trash, so I started stashing Tupperware in my desk. After everyone was finished eating and the clean-up began, I’d ask if it was OK if I took something home and would stash it in my container. As long as you ask, most people are happy the food is going to a good home.
Swap: Get all of your friends together and host your own swap meet. Ask everyone to look in their closets and on their bookshelves for things they no longer want or need. everyone brings a box of stuff, and hopefully ends up trading it for something they need or will really use. Send any leftovers to charity. Swap parties sometimes work better the more people you have. Swap parties work really well with plants and garden items.
Recycle: Yes, that’s part of the freegan ethic and it should be part of yours too. If you are frugal and hate to waste, it’s logical to expect you not to waste, as in perfectly good recyclable paper and packaging. So please, hand over your leftovers to the recycling center. If you need more incentive consider taking your aluminum cans to the metal yard. It’ll net you a few dollars for your effort.
Go to or host a “free” market: This is just like what it sounds like: a market where all the goods and services are free. San Francisco, Flagstaff, AZ, and Carrboro and Raleigh, N.C., and Philadelphia are all home to free markets. If your city doesn’t have one, consider organizing your own. This is a variation on the personal swap meet, only on a community-wide scale.
Participate in a community garden or plant your own garden: In their effort to reduce waste, Freegans often grow their own food in community and personal gardens. What better way to save money, reduce the number of miles your produce has to travel from farm to table, than to grow it yourself? Some freegans also plant guerilla gardens, where they plant veggies or flowers on either abandoned overgrown lots or on public medians, to make use of otherwise wasted spaces.
My best friend, Becca, whom was one of my broke roommates and has helped me heave more than one throw-away chair and rug into the back of a car is still growing things, she has a few pots of seedlings on her balcony.
The truly freegan lifestyle isn’t for everybody, but we can all learn something from freegan ways. Isn’t it time Americans stopped sending so many perfectly good items to the landfill? With the current economic crisis and many families feeling the pinch of falling home values, rising energy prices, and job loss, it may be time to revisit the idea of salvaging everything we can.
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