Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Loyal reader John pointed me in the direction of what I think could be a great story: the art of Dumpster diving. Tough economic times like this puts the fringe front and center, and there’s nothing fringe-ier than hopping into a trash can to find your lunch, or perhaps the next big ebay score.
Out in Cherokee, one of the most famous Dumpster divers ever got caught in the act — bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. But I’m looking for someone not quite so desperate, someone who approaches the job as
But Asheville’s gotta have Dumpster divers, right? Who are you? Where are you? Can I come along?
I do not fear Dumpster diving. That’s because of all the work I did as a youngster in the fast food industry. Anyone who has spent any time at all working in a restaurant kitchen gets intimately acquainted withnot only the construction of meals, but all the attendant offshoots: cockroaches, meat grinders, smelly freezers and food waste. Lots of food waste. Let’s face it, America — we’re a wasteful lot. We could probably feed a couple of countries on all the food we throw away.
When I was working in restaurants, one of the last jobs of the night was hauling trash to the Dumpster. Invariably, somebody had to jump into the Dumpster to either retrieve a lost item, or to tamp down the big black plastic bags oozing with offal. I think I got thrown in the first time. After that, I volunteered.
It’s kinda fun. A release. You’re already sweaty and dirty from a day standing over a 150-degree grill, so why not just jump in the Dumpster after for a little break?
But back to the subject — who out there is Dumpster diving? Lemme know. I’m thinking there could be cover story material here.
On the thread I mentioned in opening, here’s a comment from an Asheville resident talking about how Earth Fare recycles and how people there Dumpster dive, sorta:
I work at Earth Fare – a natural food store chain in the Southeast.
The store I work at in Asheville, NC has had some success (within the confines of food safety laws).
1st- Prepared foods such as rotisserie chickens (which cannot be be reheated whole and resold) are ‘stripped’ and used in soups and dishes on the ‘hot bar’. Cold salads, veggies, cheeses & meats from the deli often end up on the salad bar before going out of date.
2nd- Grocery & bakery items which are out of date and so-so produce are donated to local food banks. (The problem comes with getting stuff picked up regularly by the food bank volunteers [which gives me an idea for a possible solution].)
3rd- At the end of the night, the ‘hot bar’ stays open an extra half-hour to allow folks to put hot food in to-go containers and buy it at half-price. (Both feeding folks and reducing waste.)
Earth Fare will be switching over to wheat-based compostable to-go containers in the next month or so.
Throughout the day as the juice bar’s compost buckets fill up, they call out over the intercom and offer it to our patrons. (Folks seem less interested in the winter which is great for me – I have been bringing home several bags a week of carrot pulp, cutdown wheat grass, coffee grounds, etc.!)
There is a dumpster-based county recycling center set up behind our store [plastic, metals, cardboard,
mixed paper, glass]. I have picked magazines, wrapping paper and excelsior out of the mixed paper dumpster and picked up olive oil containers & large tin cans outside of the metal dumpster.(The glass & metal containers have holes only large enough to put your arm through-for safety; as the site is unattended.)
I have a friend[Grocery] who saves the buckets from the bulk nutritional yeast for me. Most of the other food buckets go back to the companies who sent them (ie: tofu buckets). Another friend[Specialty] saves the big glass jars that bulk olives come in for me. After reading the blog ‘Ramping Up the Garden’, I am on the look out for styrofoam fish boxes.
http://rampingup.blogspot.com/2008/12/plan-for-food-garden-2009.html
The employees at my store maintain a ‘free box’ in our back room. It is an old grocery cart in which folks put clothes, body care items, supplements, knick-knacks, books & magazines, etc for other employees to pick through.
As a papermaker and mixed-media found artist, I glean all sorts of interesting items from the free box and various trash & recycling bins in the store. Other folks who know my tastes save interesting items they come across for me.
I’ve been passively dumpster diving for a few years now. I don’t plan my trips usually, but every time I walk by a trash can, etc, I peek in and often grab some good stuff. I just started with Food Not Bombs too, and we dumpster dive (we have a map with times and locations) every Monday night around 10pm. If you want to get involved in that, let me know and I can forward you the info on meetings, etc. There’s also a Google Map somewhere that has the locations and times of good dumpsters to hit.
http://www.wikihow.com/Dumpster-Dive
When Brendals at the Innsbruck Mall went out of business one of my employees went there every night dumpster diving and found 2 cases of Pentax cameras. 12 cameras in each case. They were defected but all had warranty’s. He shipped them back to Pentax with the warranty. 60 day’s later he received a check for around $3000.00 from Pentax.
When Sams Club opened near Patton Ave this same employee would check out their dumpster. He brought my Granddad a full set of golf clubs found in the dumpster. The only thing wrong with it was the bag. It had a razor slice all the way down it. It looked like they opened the packaging with a razor to get to the bag of clubs. The razor accidentally cut the bag. Now they put all this kind of stuff for "discount" sale in the far right corner of Sams. Grandad still plays with those clubs to this very day. He hand stitched the bag and it is a conversation piece on the golf course.
P.S. people all over the world buy broken VCRs, DVDs, and Stereos to use for parts or to fix and sell as a hobby. Just because it does not work does not mean somebody else does not want it. As long as you sell it as broken and be up front there is no harm.
One mans junk is another mans treasure!
I have a friend who dumster dives at the Fresh Market. Gets some really good eats.
Gratuitous, great post. Thank you.
Entrepreneur, good tip. Thanks!
I have dumpster dived around college campuses for years. You can find working computers that rich kids throw out at the end of the year. Non working stereos and VCRs. You name it, you can find it. Off campus apartments have the best pickings. I have made thousands of dollars doing this in my spare time and sold everything on EBAY.
I once managed the Hostel in the Forest (reverse "hostel" and "forest" and slap on an org for the url), a magical place in Georgia, where we would dumpster-dive on a regular basis to help provide for the residential staff. The best, for a time, was behind the Winn Dixie on nearby St. Simon’s Island. We got to the point where we even knew what days the various grocery departments cleared out the "expired" or close-to, and would plan accordingly. However, in spite of the fact that we always swept up and left it cleaner than we found it, they started locking the dumpster, presumably after complaints of "shady hippie-types" lurking. Ah, the rich and anal…
Also, we would hit up the farmers’ markets with offers of saving them the trouble of tossing out bruised and otherwise "cosmetically imperfect" produce, and we would leave them pints of fresh-picked chubby blueberries from our 365 organic blueberry trees on the property. Trading rocks. Gifting rocks harder. There were many, many scores. (Recipe: Take two or three cases of discarded tomatoes, blanch off their skins, and cook and cook and cook until you have awesome tomato soup. Cook and cook some more, and you have delicious tomato sauce. Keep cooking, and you have tomato paste for future recipes.)
So get creative with acquiring free food, but be stealthy with businesses, especially in "nice" neighborhoods. I suggest a wide rotation as opposed to making regular stops. And please, don’t perpetuate the cycle of throwing out food if you happen to get too much (I remember scoring nearly a hundred pounds of cheese once). Give it away! And remember, dumpster-diving isn’t just for the starving. It’s perfectly okay to save money on food so you can spend it on beer or chicks or maybe even education. Be humble and be grateful.