Anyone else a dumpster diver

nuclearwhiskey · Feb 6, 2014

So is anyone else here not afraid to get dirty? A long time friend of mine and I have been doing it going on 3 years now and we have found a lot of stuff and met some awful people in the process. We have had the police called on us, threats barked out, you name it. In the end we find a lot of good scrap and sometimes what we refer to as "treasure". Basically anything that is salvagable like computers, jewelry or things of that nature. We found $5000 worth of sewing equipment one year and a collection of 730 CD's with jewel cases and cover art another year. I was just curious what other stories were out there.

Frank1960 · Feb 7, 2014

I'm not afraid to climb into a dumpster if I see something that looks good. Haven't found anything worth money but have found some things that I can use

insontis · Feb 7, 2014

I don't think it exactly counts as dumpster diving, but I used to work at a construction & demolition recycling yard. Loads containing just about anything except for raw garbage were dumped and sorted there. Some from company dumpsters, some from storage/home cleanouts, etc. A pickers dream job, other than being a picker, if you ask me. In the center of the yard was a huge pile of C&D debris. Random mixes of items that were to be sorted on a conveyor belt. On breaks and any chance that I got to go outside (or if I saw a great drop coming in) I would check out the newly dropped items. A lot of times it was old junky furniture, sure. I've found my fair share of unique items though. Now that I've been bitten by the treasure bug I can't help but wish I was still there. A leather cowboy hat, a small vintage painting that I really liked, and some other miscellaneous that I can't think of right now are still in my possession. Heck, there were so many amazing drops that came through there. There was one 30yd dumpster that came in full of new office chairs. Another full of Victoria's Secret merchandise from a store that had flooded and needed to dispose of all product from within the store. There was so much coming in that if I knew even the little that I know now I could have profited a fortune.

Sigh... *day dreaming*

JunkShopFiddler · Feb 7, 2014

WOO HOO...Love to DD, just found out there is a forum for DDing here on T-Net, my favorites are the dumpsters behind all the new car dealerships, car parts, fenders, and lots of things that still work but only have minor scratches and so forth.

Bassmaster96 · Feb 7, 2014

Insontis, I have always thought it would be cool to look around there. Heck, I would love to go plowing through my local scrapyards tin pile just to see what all people have threw in there. They buy tin at around 12 cents a pound and buy computer towers at 8 cents a pound, so you know a lot of computer stuff gets threw in with the iron. I have saw big electric motors, and all kinds of things threw down there with it, so who knows.

insontis · Feb 7, 2014

Bassmaster96 said:
Insontis, I have always thought it would be cool to look around there. Heck, I would love to go plowing through my local scrapyards tin pile just to see what all people have threw in there. They buy tin at around 12 cents a pound and buy computer towers at 8 cents a pound, so you know a lot of computer stuff gets threw in with the iron. I have saw big electric motors, and all kinds of things threw down there with it, so who knows.

This was even cleaner than that my friend! The only problem is that the giant mount of debris is constantly being crushed by a dozer and lifted by an excavator on to a conveyor belt. Not a whole lot of time at all to view each load. They'd have truck loads from storage lockers, estates, stores, and everything in between! Heck, one time they hit something with a ton of loose bills in it and the money went everywhere. As I said, I was even more green back then than I am now.. I KNOW I missed out huge with that opportunity.

Bassmaster96 · Feb 7, 2014

Wow! I always thought it would be a good idea to have a scrap yard that salvages stuff too. The only problem with this would be storage etc., but if it could be done somehow, that would be interesting. I'm going to try to look around a little bit more at my scrapyard and see what is down there. Who knows, there may be a big dump of copper or something that I can bring back up to the top and sale that quick! I would have loved to look through the estate and storage unit loads. Did you happen to get a chance to see anything in them?

insontis · Feb 7, 2014

Bassmaster96 said:
Wow! I always thought it would be a good idea to have a scrap yard that salvages stuff too. The only problem with this would be storage etc., but if it could be done somehow, that would be interesting. I'm going to try to look around a little bit more at my scrapyard and see what is down there. Who knows, there may be a big dump of copper or something that I can bring back up to the top and sale that quick! I would have loved to look through the estate and storage unit loads. Did you happen to get a chance to see anything in them?

I did on a bunch of occasions, but to a kid with no eye for true value (other than the obvious), old paintings, furniture and other antiques hardly mean a thing!

Some things I remember finding and pulling out off hand are a ruby or garnet gold ring, a bunch of bamboo sticks, a glass display case (don't remember why that never made it home with me), an aluminum drinking glass set (shot glasses, mixers, etc) in a case, some poker chips (not much in value), various pocket knives and keychains, andddd probably a lot more, but I'm a little fuzzy. I know people have found gold watches (which may or may not have been genuine) on the conveyor. Also the guys in the yard never seemed to have trouble pulling a playboy out of the pile. :P

Bassmaster96 · Feb 7, 2014

Wow, I wish I could find stuff like that! :thumbsup:

insontis · Feb 7, 2014

Bassmaster96 said:
Wow, I wish I could find stuff like that!

I'm sure that you will have even better finds than I did! i didn't and still don't have half a clue about what to look for..

uni1angel77. · Feb 26, 2014

Hmmnn, sounds like fun. I now have a backup plan if I don't find anything else mding!! Haha

bobby5 · Mar 2, 2014

There is a Forum for Dumpster Diving on Tnet here Dumpster Diving

ScrapperChad · May 9, 2014

We have a town clean up dumpster that I scavenge every day. Sometimes I find a gold mine and others nothing at all.

The town here has told me off for getting into the dumpster but I keep on going into it. Had the cops called on me but since there's no sign stating I'm not allowed in their by the city then there's nothing they can do. So I continue on going in there. Even a guy who works for the city goes through that dumpster.

I saw him yesterday and he just waved at me. lol

Chad

ScrapperChad · Jan 14, 2016

An update. I moved out of that town and moved back to my old hometown. The town I now live in doesn't care whether I go into the dumpster and remove stuff.

It has a sign saying not to put metal or appliances in it. But people do anyway and I'm actually thanked by the town for removing the metal and appliances.

Not long ago I pulled out 3 window ac's 2 of them work but one had a bad compressor on it.

One of the working ones had a melted plug that I believe was due to a faulty outlet that the person had the ac plugged into.

I put a new end on it and it runs without getting the cord hot.

Just about everyday I find a good load of beer cans in that thing. It's seems like as soon as the dumpster is emptied out then I go take a look and there's usually lots of beer cans for me to get out before other trash is dumped over top of them.

My parents live right down the street from the dumpster and my mom always says. Isn't that embarrassing? People are gonna think bad about you for going into that dumpster digging out those cans and other things.

I tell her I don't care what others think of me. They can stare if they want and gossip all they want.

A true friend wouldn't put you down for it or anything else.

ARC · Jan 14, 2016

Dumpsters aren't deep enough...

Not worth me getting out the dive gear.

:P

ScrapperChad · Jan 15, 2016

AARC said:
Dumpsters aren't deep enough...

Not worth me getting out the dive gear.

:P

lol. That's funny.

griffith 90 · May 17, 2017

I'm in the dumpsters about every day. I average about 60 lbs of copper a week. plus aluminum

Getter · Jun 4, 2017

Hell yes, frequently. My best find was 2,867$ at a car wash dumpster. Gold on 4 occasions, lots of silver and to much more to waste bandwidth on. Everything under the Sun. People look at me like I am crazy for digging in the trash. I look at em crazy for not!

billjustbill · Jun 4, 2017

Getter said:
Hell yes, frequently. My best find was 2,867$ at a car wash dumpster. Gold on 4 occasions, lots of silver and to much more to waste bandwidth on. Everything under the Sun. People look at me like I am crazy for digging in the trash. I look at em crazy for not!

What does a dumpster look like at a car wash? How is it used? Sounds great and a better return than with a detector!!

Thanks,
Bill