A floor lamp. A Magic Bullet blender. Handfuls of hangers. Two storage ottomans. Unopened bulk packages of trail mix and granola bars, ziplock bags, and dish detergent. Towels and a bathrobe. A popcorn machine. Costume ladybug wings. Four fans of different sizes. Slightly sticky but gently used Tupperware, pots, and mixing bowls.
This is just a smattering of the things Matt and I dug out of the dorm dumpsters over move-out weekend. And there was a lot we didn’t take–we left behind at least two printers and a microwave, both perfectly good–leaving us perplexed at how truly wasteful our peers (and our culture as a whole) is.
We’re pretty sure that students were just throwing away anything and everything that wouldn’t fit in their cars for the drive home, and some of those things are necessities that they’ll have to buy again next year.
Their loss, though, since Matt and I aren’t complaining about our newfound goodies (okay, we’re complaining about the sunburns we acquired, but that’s it). We’ll take all those housewares to our apartment next year. Our day spent dumpster diving likely saved us hundreds of dollars, and it’s also sustainable–those quality items can be used instead of rotting in a landfill.
You know what they say, one student’s trash is another’s entire kitchen.
Victim to Charm 
LOL. I was just lecturing my college daughter on dumpster diving at school when I picked her up last weekend. She scooped up a really cool plate and a scarf. There was tons of stuff. Can’t believe what people throw away.
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For real! People throw away all sorts of great stuff.
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I loved the clean-out days of the storage spaces at my school. Got some truly great stuff there!
As someone who had to clear out each summer and could only store so much at the school (the rest had to be lugged on the plane back across the country with me), I always tried to find good homes to anything I was going to get rid of (that wasn’t truly junk). Someone to hold it until the next fall, or someone to give it a good, new, home.
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I like to hit the Goodwill in the town where I work this time of year; not as cheap as your option, but better than store prices!
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Absolutely!
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When I was in college – I was appalled at what other students threw out! I didn’t throw out anything unless it was actual trash – My parents (or myself) could not afford to buy a new chair/shelf/furniture every year! How ridiculous! Dumpster diving is awesome – and yard sales – I got so many awesome things for my apartment at yard sales!
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Exactly! Even if you CAN technically afford it, why do it? It’s wasteful.
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This sort of thing makes me crazy! I did the same thing back in school. I got just about everything at one time or another after dorm clean out day, including a microwave. It bothers me that this is still going on. Haven’t we learned anything as a society? Good for you! You kept all that stuff out of a landfill!
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It’s definitely still going on! I wonder whether it’s better or worse now.
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I am shocked that Americans throw out perfectly good things & glad to know there are people like you retrieving these items. I shop 2nd hand stores & Grocery Outlet myself.
This doesn’t happen in Europe. If you throw out more than a 6 by 6 square of garbage, you get fined! My friends there saved all their empty cologne & perfume bottles!
Such is life in this country that is always complaining but is so quick to be wasteful!
All the best!
A young American woman goes to war-torn El Salvador: tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
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Agreed, that people are always complaining about finances yet waste the money they do have.
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It doesn’t stop after college, either! Some of the moms in my neighborhood have noticed that others put absolutely, perfectly good items out for the trash. We will snap pics and post them in Facebook with an address, and whoever needs it will swoop in. We’ve started a neighborhood Facebook page just for hand-me-downs and treasure-trash so that things don’t go to waste! If only more people would do the same,
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This is a great idea! A lot of people don’t want to make the effort to donate items or host a garage sale so they just toss them.
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I have a couple of friends who call that “Jawaing” and they typically do it on the days when the garbage company has their “free haul” day. It’s amazing what they find, especially in the more hoitey toitey neighborhoods.
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We are a little on the toity side. :)
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I am from Germany and here, it is the same. Some things works perfectly, maybe have only a small scratches and still people trow this things away.
But at Facebook there are groups for every big city, where you can give things away for free.
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That makes more sense. Why not give them to people who need them, if you don’t need them anymore?
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Craigslist is great for that too–not sure if you have that in Germany, though.
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I don’t believe you found all those things in the dustbin!!! I don’t believe people would just throw away those things. That really is a waste :-(
But at least you saved some of it :-)
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It’s such a waste! People just don’t want to deal with packing things, I think.
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Wow, that’s amazing that you found all that in a bin! I mean good for you, you got a great deal there (why would someone throw out trail mix though? that makes no sense!) but it’s sad that so much gets wasted. In the UK we have a real culture of taking things to charity shops (thrift stores is the US equivalent I guess) so at least not too much good stuff is thrown away, but sadly there’s no such thing in Hong Kong and if there’s something you want to get rid off but that someone else could use, well it can only go to the bin.
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I didn’t know they didn’t exist in HK! People here do donate to thrift stores but they’re hard to access where I go to school and the end of the year is a busy time. I get it, but at the same time I’m mystified by it.
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At least you’re getting something out of it though, so that’s a nice bonus for you!
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Definitely!
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I use this phenomenon as a plot point in one of my stories! *geek moment*
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That’s so cool, Rose! Overconsumption/wastefulness you mean?
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No, I mean literally, I use the idea of college students buying tons of stuff and then throwing out all kinds of perfectly good merchandise because they’re moving out of the dorms. My character put finances a trip overseas partially by scavenging from the wealthy dorms and then comes back when he’s older and does the same thing when he needs quick cash for another purpose.
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Wow, very literally the same idea. Interesting how they collide. Also that sounds like an interesting story premise!
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It was part of a novel, but now you got me thinking I could extract that part as a short. HA!
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^ THIS is what the blogosphere is all about!
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My son always picked up a lot of perfectly usable stuff during move out week when he was in college. I think if the school would allow an easy way for students to store more things over the summer, it wouldn’t be so bad so they are partially to blame. My daughter had to leave a lot behind when she moved back to California after college in Baltimore. They just didn’t have room in the two cars driving back then one car broke down in Kentucky and had to be left behind. They have away add much add they could to motel staff and to the people at the auto repair place. My daughter still sheds tears over what she had to leave behind.
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I think that’s a lot of it. I have to pay for a storage unit regardless, but I understand that sometimes things just don’t fit in the car and you have to make choices.
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One of my best friends does this at school! Or, well, he did before we graduated. He was the king of dumpster diving and I scored a we’re pretty confident its real Louis Vuitton wallet out of it a few weeks ago! I can’t say I’ve ever been myself, but one doesn’t need to go dumpster diving when one is friends with Paul. He’s got that down. :)
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That’s a great find!
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I can’t imagine all of that stuff getting thrown away! At the very least, it would have ended up at a Goodwill in my family. :/ That really is wasteful.
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If there were an easier way to get to a donation center, I bet people would’ve done that. But everybody is so isolated on campus that I understand wanting to just get rid of things and get out.
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Sounds like an opportunity for a student group to take advantage of (tax credits and the like)
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Ooh that’s true!
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Years ago, my husband worked in an apartment complex. We were absolutely horrified at what ended up at the dumpster – until we started to take advantage of some of the leavings. It supplemented his poor income, for sure. I know someone in NYC who has furnished his small apartment (he is not a high income person) through dumpster diving – all high quality stuff.
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That’s amazing! I love stories like this.
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I started dumpster diving a month ago. I haven’t paid for food since. All good and all fresh. I keep a record of my freegan adventures on my blog. :)
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We found a lot of perfectly good food too, and kept some of it!
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