dumpster diving?

larry@stinescorner · Dec 30, 2013

Whenever I pass by this one deli I check for empty buckets,I have asked the owner in the past ,he is glad someone can use them,Over the years I have gotten many there,got these today.Not a big dumpster score,but a handy one?

Aaron Ford · Dec 30, 2013

I have pulled some amazing scores out of dumpsters. Tools, straps, a 13hp honda engine, heck I even pulled a kitten out of one. Not sure how it got there, but it sure was glad to be out. Ended up being a helluva mouser.

Aaron

Formerly PaMike · Dec 30, 2013

If you ever get down to the lancaster area I can get you hooked up with all the buckets you can use. A buddy is a trucker and he gets into a cheese plant. They get goat curd in 5 gallon buckts. After they are opened they cant be reused. They smell a little funky but are really handy. We use them in the tractor shop all the time. Even use the sides of them like a white board...
Nothing like restoring a tractor and having 25 buckets sitting there with hardware from each part of the tractor in them...

JDB · Dec 30, 2013

If you want buckets, try the dumpster behind a dry cleaner. Buckets will not have food residue inside.

gtractorfan · Dec 30, 2013

Look like good turnip toters!

Wile E · Dec 30, 2013

A buddy of mine got a hold of a pallet load of 3 gallon buckets. All new, All clean, He uses them for his garden. He should sell the rest.
He has somewhere of about 250 of them total.

Oh, and Yes all...FREE.......my favorite 4 letter word.

Brian806 · Dec 30, 2013

I dumpster dive everyday im at work! I work at a transferstation were they dump garbage trucks and load it back up in semi trucks! Youd be shocked what people throw away especially factorys makes you see why things cost so much! I ve gotten tools wood steel hardware rope lifting straps chains jacks money! Yep people throw it away change all the time! Love it when kids clean out grandmas old house gaurentee you thiers a jar of change in a roll off box that comes from a house clean out! Or bills hidden behind a old painting! Makes me sick to think of just how much actual money is buried in a landfill! O well we live in a throw it away society!

Frank 41 · Dec 30, 2013

A friend works around a college and has a bonanza when they have their break. Real good stuff!

samn40 · Dec 30, 2013

I used to do a bit of tractor restoration training in a college, one night a week....Always tried to get in early to get a look in the dumpster....We call them dump skips. Always got steel and wood out of there from the metal and woodworking classes, even got some storage cabinets. But one night I got the surprise of my life!......The mechenical section had changed their sponsorship from Ford-New Holland to JCB and a set of new Perkins engines and JCB transmissions had replaced the Ford engines and SLE gearboxes.....I got a New Holland 7840 six cyl engine and a Ford 4610 engine in the skip....both brand new and still in their packaging crates plus an SLE gearbox. Both engines went straight into tractors but the gearbox had been up and down a few times ,,,so we rebuilt it before fitting it.......Wish I had done the lottery that night on my way home......Sam

Russ from MN · Dec 30, 2013

I used to get teased at the paper mill, quite often when I took something out to the scrap metal dumpster I came back with more than I came out with!

Rick Kr · Dec 30, 2013

FREE is one of my favorite four letter words. Along with BEER. The two best four letters words together...

FREE BEER

Ultradog MN · Dec 30, 2013

I used to do a lot of dumpster diving.
Had a lot of fun at it.
Back in the late 80s I bought 40 acres of woods and built a 20X24 hunting shack on it.
Most of the materials were used and a lot of them came out of dumpsters.
The land was on the lane where my family has been since the 1880s - a bunch of stubborn Frenchmen in a sea of Swedes, Germans and Finlanders.
So in keeping with my French heritage and because of the used materials, I named the shack Chateau Debris.
It was a hit with all my relatives.

farmerjohn · Dec 30, 2013

I dive every chance I get, often not real valuable stuff but things I can use, so don't need to buy them.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 30, 2013

My dad worked in the railroad yard in the late fifties had a fellow worker always looking in the scrap iron cars till one day he jumped in and found a dead man hopped out a lot faster

Fergienewbee · Dec 30, 2013

I re-purpose anything I can use that I can find. I pulled some 1-1/4" plywood out of a dumpster behind a cabinet shop and also about two dozen pieces of PVC 2" pipe, five feet long, with caps. I figure some kind of trim came shipped in them. I use them in the garden to elevate my sprinkler and for a trellis support. They plywood I used for shelves and a bookcase. I get kitty litter buckets from my SIL to keep seed in. I have one in the back of the truck with ashes and a shovel in case I get stuck.

Larry

ss55 · Dec 30, 2013

Many fast food restaurants will sell used 5 gallon dill pickel buckets for $1 each or $1.50 with a tight sealing lid. Burger King is one that will.

ejr-IA. · Dec 30, 2013

My favorite is the local chevy dealer.Son needed tires for his pickup they were about bald. Out back stacks of take off tires almost new.Service manager said have at it.Very cheap Christmas present for me.

Chris Jones · Dec 30, 2013

Has anyone else noticed businesses are starting to lock the slide open side doors on their dumpsters now? I've stopped to look in several and they were pad locked.

I too got teased for looking in the dumpster at work but I was always pulling perfectly good computer equipment out of it.

Lou from Wi. · Dec 30, 2013

Larry. Great items for gardening or what ever. some good replays on finds from Dumpsters. We will be able to use the seeds we got. Now all we ave to do is count what varieties were missing.
Regards LOU.

NCWayne · Dec 30, 2013

Used to do a lot of work for a HUGE contractor local to us. When they"d get a CONEX back from a job it was nearly always full of tools and supplies left in when the job was complete. Instead of cleaning them out, cataloging what was in the container, and reusing it on the next job, they would throw it all away. The thinking was that it cost less to throw it away than to reuse. Basically, since everything was already paid for from the job it was used on, and the tools needed for the next job would be paid for in it"s budget, why pay someone to sort everything out when all they had to do was pick it up and dump it in the nearest bin. Needless to say Dad and I got a lot of good stuff from them until the parent company, overseas, went under and took them with it.

By far though, the worst place I"ve seen for waste is the RR. When they take a piece of track maintenance equipment in for a rebuild, EVERYTHING gets taken off and scrapped. By everything I mean even hydraulic fittings get thrown in the scrap, regardless of whether it"s a dollar, 1/4 inch fittings or 100 dollar, 4 inch fitting. Too pretty much everything else including valving, electronic components, etc, etc all get thrown in the apprppriate scrap bin. Makes me sick every time I look into a bin and see all of that good stuff lying there...........

Don-Wi · Dec 30, 2013

I work in a machine shop. About a month ago the boss went through the steel racks and chucked a bunch of useable stock that was either drops from paid for material, or just smaller peices. Some not so small, but had been there for 4-5 years or better.

Main reason was taxes. At the end of the year the company gets taxed on inventory. Less inventory, less taxes. Plus you get cash for the scrap metal. I grabbed a bunch of stuff, and so did a bunch of guys in the shop.

I've brought home lots of good stuff from work.

Brother works for the county recycling center. He brings home scrap brass and copper all the time and quite a bit of other stuff. Some good, some not so good, but he loves most of what he comes across.

Donovan from Wisconsin

howdy1960 · Dec 30, 2013

My step-father used to work at a landfill in the 70s. Every Saturday I had exclusive picking rights so I 'know' what kind of stuff is in there. When 1 box in a case of laundry soap got a little wet they thru the complete case away. Tools, batteries, copper, alum, Ect, Ect, Ect found there way to the house.
He had a heck of a time crushing a roll cage from a roundyround car with a D8H dozer. He hated seeing hotwater tanks come in.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 31, 2013

In most college towns when kids are leaving for the Summer the streets are full of all sorts of good stuff they set out for trash pickup.

nhboyd · Dec 31, 2013

I found a Swiffer Mop and it works

NoNewParts · Dec 31, 2013

used to able to find some good stuff.
times are changing though
locally, new 'rules' stop all garbage picking.
before I retired, at a factory, you could get some good junk with
a 'permit' to take it out.
no more, nothing can leave
I went up the ladder to ask, and asked them...
for packing foam from shipping 'in' boxes that was thrown away.
very light, but bulky, and they had to PAY big bucks to send it to the landfill. Nope, can't have it....

Oldmax · Dec 31, 2013

Were I used to work we could place something in dumpster and the next day it would be back in shop. We had a worker that wouldn't let us get rid of anything. The only way we could was catch him on vacation and toss it. When he took vacation my boss one of the owners of the company would go through and get rid of the unneeded junk.

Mike M · Dec 31, 2013

Looks like I'm in good company here !!!

I've got a lot of nice things from dumpster diving too.

Pulled an old homelite weed eater out of one and Mom prefers it to her new one. Didn't need much to get it going. Pulled a small 2 cycle tiller from a junk pile at a dealer it was bought new and the owner never put mix in it and the rod bearing was out. I tore it down and found a new needle bearing put it in there and it has worked fine.
Too many other things to even remember.

TonyIN · Dec 31, 2013

Nice! My dad before he retired would bring me a half dozen or so 5 and 6? gallon buckets home from his plant about twice a year - they made flavor chemicals. Always great quality. I always had a stash of them and very handy. He's been retired now for several years and I still have 5 of them around. Been starting to worry where I would get them - now I know!

Happy New year

Tony

massey333 · Dec 31, 2013

We have had that since the 90s,best way to meet your local Sheriff and judge.Salvage-Junk yards WILL NOT SELL anything back out once it goes in.Factorys-Shops have contracts with haulers and they WILL press charges for stealing. LIABILTY-LIABILTY-LIABILTY suits if anyone should get hurt.

dumpster diving?

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