Dumpster Diving Tool Kit

[Theresat]

My dh would kill me if he saw me. Guess he just won't get to catch me doing it!

[lisa10091963]

Our city just bought all homes a garbage bin and a recycling bin and has new trucks that come around with "arms" to dump the bins...in fact I hear the truck outside right now. I wonder if I can talk DH into taking a waling early ebery other Wed morning or Tues night(for our neighborhood) and looking in the recycling bins...someone did get stopped for taking aluminum cans that were set out (the old way, in a bag by the curb) we might get in trouble though...strange looks at least. Hmmm, he'll tell me to keep buying the cpns I bet. LOL

[xo101]

I keep reading about people doing this... but I'm a bit confused. Do you actually go through other peoples trash (or recycle tubs) that they sit out by the curb? I saw that one lady went thru the things at the recycle center, but I just wanted to see if this is something I might wanna try. I might be embarrassed digging thru someone's trash sitting by their driveway. Please let me know how you do this while on your walks. Thanks.

[fallenangel587]

do you do this in the morning or at night?

[mpesiao]

hmm isnt this illegal? i like to try it sometime but my husband says dumpster diving is against the law. maybe in just our place or what? i live in villa park, illinois.

[Benz1968]

ok...you guys are scaring me.

[Maura]

Our local paper delivers a free neighborhood edition to all non-subscribers on Thursdays, and it almost always has last week's Valassis insert in it... so on Thursday evenings we take a walk and pick them up from all the vacant houses on our street, as well as any other litter that's accumulated. We get some excercise, clean up the neighborhood, and get rewarded with 5 or 6 extra inserts every week.

When we first started it, my husband looked at me like I was crazy... but now that our grocery bill has gone from $250 a week to $100, he's all for it!

[Kyrthira]

I'm still too chicken spit to go out and root around in the recycling bins. I know I could probably get more inserts, but I dunno... (This assumes that the losers out here even bother separating everything and they aren't soaked in gods know what...)

[amyisheree]

Around here at least, I have learned it is perfectly legal to root through any dumpster you want, as long as you don't have to enter a fence to do it.

As I was at the recycle center one of the first times I did it, there was a man there rooting through the magazine bin at the same time. Made me not feel so bad. And I've seen him several times since.

Google dumpster diving laws (your city county or state here) and see if you find anything.

We don't have neighborhood pickup, so the center is my only option.

[mrsfloyd]

I think in some places it is legal to *dumpster* dive but not legal to go through recycling bins, the reasoning being that the recyclables are actually going to be used (and are therefore still 'owned' by someone not just public property/refuse) whereas the dumpster stuff is just going to be tossed into the landfill. I need to check out the laws in my area, b/c I would love some free coupons...