Um no thank you!! LOL

I've seen this before. It is strange for me. I had a BF years ago that was a dumpster diver.

I worked at a florist in the city market in K.C., Mo. and dumpster diving is common - the produce stands tossed very edible produce every evening and people of all statuses would go and get the stuff - there wasn't anything 'wrong' with it, except it didn't sell that day and bugs and rats probably had crawled in the dumpster.

I also worked for Pizza Hut years ago - they toss dough and partially used bags of sauce every day - it was common for people in the neighborhood to come and get it out of the trash cans. They now use locked dumpsters.

I see nothing wrong with it if one is willing to take the risk of sickness due to rodents and bugs crawling in the can, but it wouldn't be for me! For someone who is hungry, that's another matter.

I think I saw someone pulled over by the police late one night on recycling day. They had a trunk full of aluminum cans. Probably went around and took them to get cash at a place that pays you for them.

My brother once worked with someone the called the hamburgler, like the McDonalds charactor. He was known for getting partially eatten McDonalds.

No, and I pray to God that I never need to do so.

No thanks. I remember as a kid being so embarrassed when my Mom would pull something out of the neighbors garbage, usually a wonderful antique that she would refinish.

I have found two things out at the curb when I was walking. One is a cool old font, looks like it came from a church. Re-painted it to look like marble and put a flower pot in it in the summer. The other was one of those little donkey pulling a cart wooden lawn ornament. Repainted it and put flowers in it.

These aren't even homeless people.....they are saving money and reducing waste.

One person had a rotisserie chicken still in the package. I don't find them absolutely leak-proof, so can only imagine the buggies in there. Not to mention having to cook the heck out of it to get it up to proper heat to kill salmonella. Wow, what risk to your health, just for kicks and giggles.

I can't imagine doing so, unless I was so hungry and without other means and that was my only option. Of course there are many people sadly in that situation, unfortunately.

Not food, but I have dd'ed the thrift shop dumpster. They throw away better stuff than they have in the store. I don't do it any more though because so many people do it, and they leave a big mess. One of the rules of dumpster diving...never leave a mess. I have also, and still do, if I see something I want, picked up things off the curb that people put out for the trash. If I see someone, I ask if it is okay, and have never had anyone say no. I never rummage through the trash though to look for something. Often people will put out useful items a day or so before trash pick up. Last week I got a nice, antique oak office chair. It needs refinishing, but it is structurally sound.
I also got the cabinet that I will use for my kitchen island on the roadside, an antique walnut bookcase...weighed about 300 lb., and I cracked my rib when I was trying to unload it by myself and it fell on me.
Have many things like that. I am picky though, and it has to be solid wood, old and interesting. I have also flagged down a truck going to the salvage yard and bought chairs off of it and my husband bought me a cool old baker's rack.
It is very heavy...not like the modern ones. The chair I am sitting on, I bought at a recycle place, were someone was unloading it. Told them I'd give them $5 for it. It is like an old kitchen chair...wood and metal and many coats of paint.

Gee...I've gotten far from your original question. Food...no. :-)

Oops, maybe I should add that I get free pet food from stores that have ripped bags and donate to our wildlife rescue. But I don't take them out of the dumpster.

I saw that show. LOVED it! It was highly entertaining!!!

Me.....no, not food. I went grocery shopping for the week yesterday, spent $15.68 and the receipt says I saved.......$15.22!!! So I get my kicks @ the grocery store by shopping the sales, then using coupons. :0)

I love the idea of saving furniture from land fills tho....got his table @ a thrift store last week for $5, put a coat of poly on it....Yippee! & I didn't need any more furniture...yet I'm still thrilled...go figure..

I'm big on recycling. If I walk around my neighborhood and find something in the neighbors' trash I can use, I take it home. Last spring I saw a neighbor had put large pieces of vinyl flooring at the curb. He was out doing yard work, so I asked if I could take them. He said sure, but be careful, there are nails in it. I made several trips back and forth, but managed to get it all. I used it in my vegetable garden to make a path to walk between the rows. I gave him some heirloom tomatoes from my garden later in the summer. But no, I won't eat food from the trash. Once while visiting a friend in Toronto I saw a nicely dressed woman eating French fries off the sidewalk. Total gross-out.

In my post above, I am not putting down Toronto, merely stating I saw a woman eat off the sidewalk there. Toronto is a beautiful, clean, modern city I've visited many times. I just am slightly "prejudiced". When I was growing up , my Mother frequently told me not to pick up and eat anything from the ground. And she didn't believe in the five-second rule. 'Nuf said.

I admit to being a dumpster diver. It's a genetic thing. My brother is the same way. I remember my Grandma complaining that my Grandpa would go to the landfill and come home with more than he took. I built this cabin on our lake with recycled materials. The only items purchased were the insulation, stove pipe, and some paint.

{{!gwi}}

But, food? No, I'd have to be awful hungry to cross that line.

Ron

No. not food & actually not non-food objects either as to DD.

We've certainly done the freebie curb pick-ups though. I guess our biggest "treasures" were an expensive commercial vaccum cleaner that only needed a small repair, a nice old redwood settee & a barely used sewing machine.

For several years our city used to have two set days a year when people could put out bulky stuff for pick-up, so the day before cars would be cruising the neighborhoods picking up whatever stuff would be useful to them to keep or even sell. Even got to be traffic jams. The city discontinued that a few years ago, & now will make one pick-up per address per year with a call & and an appointment. Seems inefficient to me frankly.

The "dream story" along these lines was from a woman I worked with years ago. For several years her husband worked as a garbage collector for the City of Beverly Hills, CA. Along his route were mostly movie stars & Bigs Wigs in the movie business. She often regaled us with stories of the great stuff these people just threw out. Once at the dump, he managed to keep a lot of the best, & they later opened a small antique store, presumably with some of these cast-offs.

I don't think so.... unless like Ron said.... if I was very very hungry.

When we lived in Florida... there was a homeless family that lived in the woods in back of a fish store... and the fish store owner saw them rummaging in the dumpster for food... when he went to speak with them, they all ran in different directions... this went on for about a month. He didn't call the authorities because they never hurt anything that he could tell...

Then he left a package of fresh fish wrapped up nicely and placed it in plastic.. with a note on it for the man to come to the fish store .... He watched for them and they came almost immediately after he placed it in the dumpster... read the note and disappeared again...
The next day, the man came by himself... and just sat by the dumpster... the store owner quietly openned the door and motioned for the man to come in...
Anyway to make a long story a Reader Digest version... the man ended up working the for fish store and then got a job working the fishing boats in Tarpon Springs as well.... The family was given a small apartment near the fish store to live in and in return the man was to mow the grass and do some small repairs... anyway, it all worked out well for everyone...

One never knows why someone does this, but we must be careful not to judge harshly as we just don't know their circumstance..

This all still makes me ask: Why don't more grocery stores and restaurants take their slightly-overripe veggies or the rest of the day's specials to a central location for the folks who need food but aren't going to food kitchens? I'm sure that there are some who donate, but I also know that cities have a lot of regulations that either prevent this, because of health concerns, or put up a lot of hurdles to it. I'm not really sure what health concerns there could be: Restaurants aren't tossing food that they would not have given to paying customers, right? It's not like this is stuff that was not properly refrigerated during the day.

I have done what Marilyn_c and some of the others have mentioned but would never eat food from the dumpster just to "save the environment" or recycle.I say that because I have never,and never hope to be in a situation that would call for something that drastic.Now if my children or grand children's lives depended on it,I have to say I might.And even then it would have to be a really,really,really drastic situation!

I wouldn't, but it reminds me of a story my Mom told me from when she lived in Germany right after the war.

Mom said every morning she'd see a young woman and her small children come down the alley looking through the garbage cans for food. Mom couldn't stand the thought of that, so she started packing food for the woman and her kids. She'd put the food in a paper bag on top of her garbage can for the woman to find.

If we lived in town, I'm pretty sure my husband would be a dumpster diver. He loves finding things and bringing them home.

I was thinking the same thing as pammyfay. It would be nice to have a few locations around a city to take unused food or have some churches pic it up to distribute.

Like a lot have said above, I'd have to be in really dire straights to crawl in a dumpster for food. I'm not opposed to recycling furniture or any other useful item that folks have tossed though.

No, right now I couldn't do it. But if I was really in
need of food, you bet your bippy I could.

It is illegal to go curb shopping here. AND dumpster diving too... get caught and get a ticket/fine.

My DB, when living in Ca. for several years, dumpster dived for food. He would rather do that than spend money to go in and get a burger. Wanted his SS money to go towards old motorcycle stuff.

Never knew him to get sick EVER from doing this. Goes to show if you're dirty enough the germs don't dare come near.

He now lives with us and when he goes to town with me I have to watch him or he will have his head in a dumpster. Most of the time he's looking for cans to recycle, but runs across food, half eaten I might add, he will eat it if I don't see him in time and read him the riot act! Very embarrassing and it's not like he's starving, has more than enough to eat here. Guess old habits are hard to break. He's 80 years old and I don't remember the last time he was sick.

We have blue boxes for cans, bottles, paper, etc. for recycling. We are not supposed to take things from those boxes (e3specially aluminum cans, which help defray the cost of the recycling) and some places have green boxes into which the residents place compostable stuff.

As far as I know, people don't get into trouble for picking up things that are placed out as garbage.

Last year while returning home from a city a few miles away, I saw a colourful (Barbie-type) bike on the roadside, with a couple of other things, and a sign offering things for sale, with a price of $300.

When I knocked to ask about the bike, told the lady that I saw the sign for $300. and wondered whether that referred to the bike (it was for a cultivator that they'd sold the day before), I said that I thought that if they had that price on it, at least some of the $300. should go to the daughter ... who, with husband, were standing a few feet away. We all had a bit of a laugh over that.

Actually, when I told her that I had a connection with a helping agency for folks down on their luck, new immigrants, etc. ... she told me to take it at no price.

I left a note some time later to say that if she contacted a church which I attend that helps the chaplaincy agency, that I expected that they would put them in touch with the agency, and that I expected that they could issue a charitable receipt for a reasonable value assigned to the bike.

Yesterday there was a trike and a little girl's bike with training wheels by the roadside in a nearby village, with a "Free" sign, so I picked them up for the chaplaincy ... and told the resident lady what I planned to do with them: she was gratified.

I think that I've eaten things thrown into the garbage pail in a workers' lunchroom at a plant where I worked as security guard a few years ago - still in the Zip-loc bag. Pretty sure that I've eaten bananas and oranges in such a circumstance ... after washing them. And the peeling didn't go down my throat.

I've lived among refugees, helping them get their feet back under themselves ... it changes one's viewpoint on life. And that was almost 50 years ago.

We in the northern part of North America have a very incomplete view of what life is about.

But we may be about to find out.

ole joyful

When DS had a storage unit a lot of other unit holders would toss so many good things in the dumpster. Retrieved so many freebies that are offered to Dentist Drs etc for give aways like note pads pens, even clocks etc DS dived in and got my current set of nice sturdy silverware. I miss tht dumpster which was on premises.

I saw that documentary and watched it with some horror. If I were starving, dumpster diving for food--heck, stealing food--would be something I'd do. But the documentary profiles people with money who do it as a hobby or an environmental statement. I do admire the courage and conviction. But when I think about what I throw out with food scraps in my own home--used tissues, cat litter, wipe-up animal poo, etc. etc.--I don't know how people can salvage food like this and expect to remain disease free.

I probably wouldn't voluntarily, but it is interesting. I'm just curious how many of those people do this to make a statement and then go home and take out a fresh new purchased waste basket liner to throw a grocery bag into for disposal!

As for the bugs, rat droppings and the like, check into your local restaurant inspection reports sometime. (With or without SLIIIIIIIIIIME IN THE ICE MACHINE!) Having worked in the kitchen of a restaurant, ugh! I won't go into it but I will say I am not worried that my kitchen might not be pristine at all times.

Around here, the garbage is fair game but recycling is not. Can collectors thought they hit paydirt when curbside recycling started but soon found out they enforced it. So it was back to the parks and parking lots, both of which were questionable FWIW.

Apartment dumpsters and dorm dumpsters are known for being good pickings for things. People moving often run out of time and just toss it, or leave it and the management tosses it.

I hate to see food go to waste. But I understand with today's society many stores can't take the chance. Plus many food shelves are fussy on what they'll take. They don't want dented cans because it might be an "insult" to the people getting them. Some people requesting help take the position they don't want "garbage". I figure, chump don't want no help, chump don't get no help...

There's a Canadian produced show that airs on ION television called Junk Raiders. The premise is they refurbish a loft apartment on a budget of $5000 and freecycle the rest. It really shows some of the extremes of people and some of the sad facts of life, for instance as the one guy said he can't afford to clean a paint brush. He tosses them. The labor to clean it costs many times more than the brush costs. Same with pulling nails from boards or otherwise.

Never have DD, and never would. I'd be afraid there would be a mouse in there.

I have a friend who found that a nearby carpet store dumped all kinds of samples and small pieces. She went back to their dumpster several times until she found enough to carpet her basement rec room. She wasn't needy, she thought it shouldn't be wasted. Looked good when she finished it.

Sue

P,S.

Could somebody tell me where I might find the program? Time, which channel is carrying it?

Or is it to late to ask?

Sue

Sue, it's on our Global station, which carries across Canada.
It's a show called 16:9. Maybe one of your stations carries it as well.
It's on at 6:30 pm DST

I'd have to be starving.

Thanks, jasdip, can't find it.

Maybe some channel here will carry it later.

Sue

I would never eat food from a dumpster but do regularly find "goodies" on garbage day..the last being a gorgeous fern sitting by the curb. I'll take it inside for the winter. I have found benches , pots, hanging baskets which just need watering, and other things. We used to have an annual junk day but it was discontinued. I don't know why since it's a good form of recycling...