The economy and the state of dumpster diving

[Mantikore]

Anyone bring any specific tools for their dives?

Normally, i have a multitool on me, where the screwdrivers come in handy and the pliers are good for dangerous objects. I sometimes carry a small length of tool steel thats good for prying things.

[Kwinnie Bogan]

Bogan Goes Mental At Woolworths - YouTube

Bogan Goes Mental At Woolworths - YouTube
Video: click to display

[ratfrink]

Originally Posted by Mantikore

Anyone bring any specific tools for their dives?

Normally, i have a multitool on me, where the screwdrivers come in handy and the pliers are good for dangerous objects. I sometimes carry a small length of tool steel thats good for prying things.

Gas cabinet key for opening locked bins. And trainers/gloves for climbing, although I've skipped wearing brogues and a suit.

[Spatula Tzar]

Someone threw out a big three-CRT video projector at my school. It's beyond repair, and far too big anyway, but I'm going back later today with a screwdriver to remove the huge lenses. Maybe I can make my own projector from an LCD.

Edit:
Someone already took the nice lenses, and what I thought were more lenses were actually concave plastic filters. Also, apparently CRT projector lens assemblies are filled with a liquid. A liquid which promptly drained onto my hand and the floor when I removed the filter.

It's only a type of glycol, but it prevented me from taking the other two filters. At least I have an interesting piece of hemispherical red plastic to show for it.

[SHARP]

A mate of mine found 14 working cell phones plus their respective chargers all neatly bundled up, he said it looked like someone had gotten the latest new and better phone the second it got released, and simply dropped the old one into a cardboard box along with its charger.
At some point they got tired of collecting "old" phones that wasn't fancy enough, and just threw 'em out, my current phone is from that hoard.

Not especially surprising, he also found a laptop+charger in the same spot, he started it up on the spot and it immediately logged on, on a couple of sites like Facebook and so on...
Before anyone asks how he abused all the info he got, my mate is a decent person and wiped the hard drive of any and all PI.

Back in the days when I was a teen I went dumpster diving occasionally, perhaps one should take up the hobby once again, people throw out tons and tons of perfectly good stuff all the time...

[Beavis]

I found TV's, VCR's, computer equipment, video games, dumpster diving is a hobby of mine.

[The Greek]

Originally Posted by Das Troll

Generally they don't if you're looking through curb trash and don't make a mess. That all changes when you dive business trash. A lot of places like Radio Shack throw away items that are returned because it's more expensive to send it back and have it repackaged than to buy a new one. So a lot of cords, power strips, small things ect get thrown away. Also floor displays get thrown away a lot. A normal person would think since it's in the trash anyway that they wouldn't care, but to a business that's a sale lost. A lot of places have gone as far as to padlock their dumpsters so people can't get into them. Lazy employees also throw paper work, passwords, accounting information away in these dumpsters without shredding them from time to time too. I got seen diving in a dumpster that was behind Radio Shack and left before the cops came. Next time I came back the dumpster was locked.

...No. Well, mostly true, except for this bit " A normal person would think since it's in the trash anyway that they wouldn't care, but to a business that's a sale lost." Right, so shit that gets taken out of the trash is considered a lost sale? No. Not at all. They don't want homeless crack addicts going their garbage because first off, its a liability. If the crack head breaks his neck on the dumpster, they are liable. Secondly, its not good for business to have people going through your trash. It also makes a mess, which an employee must clean up on company time. Its a potential threat to customers, who may be robbed by said heroin addicts, and its a threat to the employees, who may be attacked while throwing out garbage. So essentially, they don't allow it because nothing good will come out of it for them and because it is a liability and because its not good for business. Not because they consider a battery in a trash can a lost sale.

[Kwinnie Bogan]

You niggers would love 'council collection days' that they have here. Mainly in the inner city suburbs where they don't really have great access to landfill sites or places to unload unwanted or obsolete belongings.

[Beavis]

Originally Posted by Mantikore

Anyone bring any specific tools for their dives?

Normally, i have a multitool on me, where the screwdrivers come in handy and the pliers are good for dangerous objects. I sometimes carry a small length of tool steel thats good for prying things.

Just my car to put stuff in, and gloves if needed

__________________________________________________ ___________
BEAVIS: Hey Butt-head, what's that?

BUTT-HEAD: Uhhh ... It's a hoe.

BEAVIS: Yeah I know but what's that thing she's dragging behind her?

[RDProgrammer]

Originally Posted by The Greek

...No. Well, mostly true, except for this bit " A normal person would think since it's in the trash anyway that they wouldn't care, but to a business that's a sale lost." Right, so shit that gets taken out of the trash is considered a lost sale? No. Not at all. They don't want homeless crack addicts going their garbage because first off, its a liability. If the crack head breaks his neck on the dumpster, they are liable. Secondly, its not good for business to have people going through your trash. It also makes a mess, which an employee must clean up on company time. Its a potential threat to customers, who may be robbed by said heroin addicts, and its a threat to the employees, who may be attacked while throwing out garbage. So essentially, they don't allow it because nothing good will come out of it for them and because it is a liability and because its not good for business. Not because they consider a battery in a trash can a lost sale.

While this all may be true, the legal justification is largely due to a lost sale. Imagine you had a donut shop that closed at 2pm. if at 2pm you gave away all the remaining donuts what motivation would people have to purchase donuts at say 1:50pm?

RDP

[Kwinnie Bogan]

He makes a good point, but in more important issues pertaining to rodrat and RDProgrammer...





....Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooklaaaa-hooohhh-maaaaahhhh

[The Greek]

Originally Posted by RDProgrammer

While this all may be true, the legal justification is largely due to a lost sale. Imagine you had a donut shop that closed at 2pm. if at 2pm you gave away all the remaining donuts what motivation would people have to purchase donuts at say 1:50pm?

RDP

Although that may legally true, its retarded logic. What if you dumpster dive with no money? How could they lose a sale when you were incapable of making one in the first place?

And then theres also the common sense that garbage is mother fucking garbage. If they don't want people to eat the dumpster donuts spray them with oil or bong water. Smash the electronics with a hammer. Problem solved.

[Kwinnie Bogan]

RDProgrammer is correct though, almost scarily for me. I spied a box of fucked up donuts (misformed undersize and ugly) at Donut King near the airport and asked how much they were. I was told I couldn't buy them, they were going in the bin. I said what's wrong with them? They said they were just mal-formed, and when I insisted that I save them from the bin and even offered them ten dollars of money they declined.

But I saw those fuckers eating them

[RDProgrammer]

Originally Posted by The Greek

Although that may legally true, its retarded logic. What if you dumpster dive with no money? How could they lose a sale when you were incapable of making one in the first place?

And then theres also the common sense that garbage is mother fucking garbage. If they don't want people to eat the dumpster donuts spray them with oil or bong water. Smash the electronics with a hammer. Problem solved.

Unfortunately there are places that to mangle the trash before they throw it out for just this reason.

RDP

[BaconPanda]

This was brought into court in California, or so I've heard. It was ruled that since whatever it was was thrown out, the owner relinquished ownership of it and the picker was within their rights to take it. Dumpster diving, in most places, is legal so long as you aren't trespassing anywhere while doing it.

[Freegames&movies]

Originally Posted by Habanero

Every piece of furniture in my house has come out of the dumpster.

I have a problem with that. How do you know your furniture doesn't have bed bugs or dust mites? This has always scared me away from taking furniture ou of a dumpster.

[Spatula Tzar]

Preventing bugs can be easy. If it's cold enough outside, simply letting them freeze is the easiest. Failing that, disassembling pieces and putting them in a freezer for a few days works. Or you could put everything in a thick airtight plastic bag, along with a few blocks of dry ice to asphyxiate them.

[Kwinnie Bogan]

Spat, you're a fucking scienciopath!