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The wonders of dumpster diving

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Famassu

Member
Dumpster babies, sure. Scimitars, hell yes. But food from a dumpster, never. Its criminal how much we thrown away but I dont think I could ever eat food that has spent any amount of time in a grimy nasty dumpster. Objects are one thing, food is totally no bueno.
The food is packaged in a way that it can't and DOESN'T touch anything in the dumpster. There's absolutely no difference in picking a package of yoghurt from the dumpster as opposite to getting it from the store shelves. And usually peole go dumpster diving close to the time when the shop closes (which is usually when they throw the food in there).

The only thing left in the dumpster by the end is your pride and dignity.
Eh? I don't think this does anything to my dignity or pride.

Eating food that has been in the garbage is not smart, and nobody should ever do it.
There's absolutely no problems with it. You do have to be somewhat smart so that you avoid certain things (fish goes bad quickly, so unless it's winter and cold, I usually leave that stuff alone), but other than that I have never heard of anyone having any problems with food they've gotten from dumpsters (I've got plenty of friends who dumpster dive as well).
 
There is a garbage room right outside my apartment which has both regular garbage and furniture, old monitors and such. I've found a few pieces of furniture that are quite fine after a quick wash. I would never take anything with fabric on it though, you never know where it's been and it would take on the smell quickly.

Sometimes when I need to spray paint something outside, I pick up any suitable shelf to put it on, spray the whole thing and then throw it away once I'm done.

I also dump some of my old stuff there when I replace it, don't know if someone picks it up or if it's taken away by the garbage truck but it could be useful to someone.
 

Nevasleep

Member
I understand we waste a ton of food. You won't see me disputing that at all but dumpsters are the most vile thing in the world. I guess I'll just leave that food there for someone that needs it more than I do. Enjoy!
Not always.
In some places everything is bagged, and the dumpsters are empty quite regularly.......I think.
 
The worst part of this is that food could be given to food shelters.

Tell a girl that you like digging through trash like a hobo to get a free carrot or a bunch of bananas or some other crap. See how far you get. It's sad and pathetic, honestly.

I always base my self worth on what some random girl might think of me.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
I wonder how many people would rather eat rotten food from a restaurant that looks presentable on a plate (Kitchen Nightmare stuff) rather than fresh sealed food that has been put into a dumpster. Would make for a interesting experiment.

#thingsthatmakeyougohmmm
 

Alucrid

Banned
The worst part of this is that food could be given to food shelters.



I always base my self worth on what some random girl might think of me.

Sure, until they get hit with a lawsuit from their charitable donation.

Still, dumpster diving for carrots and bananas? C'mon.


I wonder how many people would rather eat rotten food from a restaurant that looks presentable on a plate (Kitchen Nightmare stuff) rather than fresh sealed food that has been put into a dumpster. Would make for a interesting experiment.

#thingsthatmakeyougohmmm

Hash tags are the fucking worst. I'll just go purchase my own fresh produce and cook up my own meal. No disgusting restaurant or dumpster food.
 

Darklord

Banned
I always base my self worth on what some random girl might think of me.

Then anyone. Say it to an employer, a girlfriend, a friend,. It's a dumpster and your digging food out of it. Unless YOU live at a shelter or in a box it's embarrassing and shows you aren't only extremely cheap but are willing to sacrifice your pride, dignity and honestly, risk your health to save like $3.
 
Sure, until they get hit with a lawsuit from their charitable donation.

Still, dumpster diving for carrots and bananas? C'mon.




Hash tags are the fucking worst. I'll just go purchase my own fresh produce and cook up my own meal. No disgusting restaurant or dumpster food.

I haven't researched it myself, but in the documentary they say Clinton passed a law that protected you from law suit if you donate food to a shelter. I would guess it's the shelters job to ensure the safety of the food. I have never dumpster dived just to be clear. I have taken an old router out of a box on the curb though.

You clearly don't have much experience with dumpsters.

Depends on the store but 90% of the garbage from a grocery store is gonna be groceries I would suspect.
 

Alucrid

Banned
You really think he went into a dumpster just for carrots/bananas? C'mon.

I will say this that I haven't been doing this for a long time and use this method as a supplement to my diet as what you find varies from time to time.

He's doing it for food, not in hopes of finding a lost diamond ring.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
Tell a girl that you like digging through trash like a hobo to get a free carrot or a bunch of bananas or some other crap. See how far you get. It's sad and pathetic, honestly.

So people shouldn't do it just because a random girl might think of them as being weird?

Why are you on this forum then?
 
I guess I didn't mean to imply that whatever you were diving into was going to be nasty, but a lot of food dumpsters are pretty disgusting. From what I've seen, it just depends on the place, but I've never really looked for food.

No offense taken. I just thought I should explain a bit since people get the sensation that the source of the food is always bad. Like once there was this big and wide container and much of the food had been thrown that same day and was inside open paper boxes (ala those dole banana boxes) untouched. They were on the top of all the trash and it i was doubtful that any other contamination happened except through air.

Plenty of good food gets thrown away by supermarkets and restaurants.
Some far better pictures and examples out there, which wouldn't gross people out. (Although this is Neogaf)

I could maybe try to make gourmet food and take a better picture from a proper camera if there is an interest for an OT, but I am sure people would still be grossed just knowingly it came from a dumpster.
 

Dishwalla

Banned
I remember the Alpha Beta down the street in San Jose used to have people going in after the meat that was thrown out by the store. Always thought it was the most disgusting thing, even if it was still sealed.

Then again, you could get day-old donuts from them or Winchells and they'd be perfectly fine.
 

Darklord

Banned
So people shouldn't do it just because a random girl might think of them as being weird?

Why are you on this forum then?

Like I said, anyone would think it's weird. Tell your girlfriend, wife, co-worker, boss. They'd look at you like you're crazy.

you seem insecure and fragile breh

No. I don't give a shit what people think of me but I would be highly embarrassed to say a thing like that to someone else for my own self respect. Why not buy food like a normal person?
 
Still, dumpster diving for carrots and bananas? C'mon.
.

People do read into things funny. The carrots and bananas were an example of what I have found today. Another thing whats wrong with carrots and bananas? They are damn nutritious and delicious and also less exposed than other types of food. It can be pure luck what I find in dumpster, but certain vegetables and fruit tend to be thrown a lot more than other types.

On the other hand I would be open to do it with other things too. However it all depends on where you can find it.

Like I said, anyone would think it's weird. Tell your girlfriend, wife, co-worker, boss. They'd look at you like you're crazy.

No. I don't give a shit what people think of me but I would be highly embarrassed to say a thing like that to someone else for my own self respect. Why not buy food like a normal person?

I don't really care about looking weird if it is a better contribution than buying new waste all the time to throw. Food shouldn't be thrown when many more people are starving due to the lack of it. Think of how it feels for these farmers to be impoverished and ship the food to the West just so it can be thrown into the trash?

It is not like I tell everyone I meet that I happen to eat food from the trash. The big reason is ignorance which is unfortunately something I see a lot here (not something I didn't expect though).
 

Bgamer90

Banned
Like I said, anyone would think it's weird. Tell your girlfriend, wife, co-worker, boss. They'd look at you like you're crazy.

I wouldn't say anyone.

Even though I would never do it, I don't think it's weird at all to be honest since I've seen first hand how much tightly sealed food in boxes gets wasted just because of petty things like "got the wrong flavor" or "I bought too much".
 
Like I said, anyone would think it's weird. Tell your girlfriend, wife, co-worker, boss. They'd look at you like you're crazy.

Yeah if you just come out and say yeah I dumpster dive for old carrots dur..or if you know explained it rationally they might understand. Then again they could be close minded and judgmental. It seems to be a trend.

They shouldnt do it because its pathetic. It just so happens that everyone else would also think youre pathetic.

If you watch the documentary you will see that those guys eat quite well. It not just old carrots and bananas they are getting vacuum sealed bags of prime rib.
 

Alucrid

Banned
Yeah if you just come out and say yeah I dumpster dive for old carrots dur..or if you know explained it rationally they might understand. Then again they could be close minded and judgmental. It seems to be a trend.

I supplement my diet by foraging for discarded foodstuffs.
 
That's nasty. Most of the stuff you are finding isn't even that expensive. Leave that stuff to the hobos that really don't have money and actually need it.
 

magicstop

Member
Inexperienced-GAF is uniting with black-and-white-GAF to really bring some convincing arguments against dumpster diving to the table . . .

I'd recommend withholding judgement unless you've given it a whirl. My experience of dumpster diving has been largely non-gross, non-dangerous, and rewarding. Most grocery stores don't have disgusting dumpsters because they are emptied very frequently. Usually the goods you are sifting through and taking are fresh to the dumpster, and most of them haven't even touched anything but the products beneath them.
Food gets thrown out in advance of the sell-by date, which is a very conservative date that is usually timed well before the use-by date, which is in turn a very conservative date about when to eat the food by.
Also, a lot of food gets tossed not because it is close to the sell-by date (again, not a date indicative of spoiling), but instead because the food was "damaged" somehow. Entire bags of avocados get thrown out because they were dropped, or because one is badly bruised. Whole FLATS of eggs get tossed because a single egg or two in a single carton break. Fruit gets thrown out like crazy due to single pieces being bruised. It's insane.
And so if you are willing to throw on some gloves (or not, I don't always) and dive in, you can get perfectly fresh, perfectly good food.
Grocery store dumpsters aren't usually that gross, and they certainly aren't disgusting cesspools in which you risk getting super sick from some disgusting infection. The fucking factory farms where your chicken comes from are 1000x more disgusting than these dumpsters.
Do they smell bad? Sure. So fucking what? I can handle a little odor, and if you can't, all the more for me.


That's nasty. Most of the stuff you are finding isn't even that expensive. Leave that stuff to the hobos that really don't have money and actually need it.
I find expensive cheese, yogurt, eggs, and meat all the time. Stuff that I typically can't afford. Too much talking in this thread without knowing what the fuck you are talking about.

They shouldnt do it because its pathetic. It just so happens that everyone else would also think youre pathetic.
It's pathetic because you think it is? Right, mate. Solipsism, much? I think the food waste that we generate while simultaneously leaving millions starving is pathetic. I think judging people who recognize that food waste and turn it into a positive food source is also pathetic. Of course, I doubt many people into diving are very concerned with a classist prick doling out judgement from his high throne.
 
Inexperienced-GAF is uniting with black-and-white-GAF to really bring some convincing arguments against dumpster diving to the table . . .

I'd recommend withholding judgement unless you've given it a whirl. My experience of dumpster diving has been largely non-gross, non-dangerous, and rewarding. Most grocery stores don't have disgusting dumpsters because they are emptied very frequently. Usually the goods you are sifting through and taking are fresh to the dumpster, and most of them haven't even touched anything but the products beneath them.
Food gets thrown out in advance of the sell-by date, which is a very conservative date that is usually timed well before the use-by date, which is in turn a very conservative date about when to eat the food by.
Also, a lot of food gets tossed not because it is close to the sell-by date (again, not a date indicative of spoiling), but instead because the food was "damaged" somehow. Entire bags of avocados get thrown out because they were dropped, or because one is badly bruised. How FLATS of eggs get tossed because a single egg or two in a single carton break. Fruit gets thrown out like crazy due to single pieces being bruised. It's insane.
And so, if you are willing to thrown on some gloves (or not, I don't always) and dive in, you can get perfectly fresh, perfectly good food.
Grocery store dumpsters aren't usually that gross, and they certainly aren't disgusting cesspools in which you risk getting super sick from some disgusting infection. The fucking factory farms where your chicken comes from are 1000x more disgusting than these dumpsters.
Do they smell bad? Sure. So fucking what? I can handle a little odor, and if you can't, all the more for me.



I find expensive cheese, yogurt, eggs, and meat all the time. Stuff that I typically can't afford. Too much talking in this thread without knowing what the fuck you are talking about.

Question: Have you ever considered simply asking the store if you can have their damaged produce before they toss it in the garbage?
 
Inexperienced-GAF is uniting with black-and-white-GAF to really bring some convincing arguments against dumpster diving to the table . . .

I'd recommend withholding judgement unless you've given it a whirl. My experience of dumpster diving has been largely non-gross, non-dangerous, and rewarding. Most grocery stores don't have disgusting dumpsters because they are emptied very frequently. Usually the goods you are sifting through and taking are fresh to the dumpster, and most of them haven't even touched anything but the products beneath them.
Food gets thrown out in advance of the sell-by date, which is a very conservative date that is usually timed well before the use-by date, which is in turn a very conservative date about when to eat the food by.
Also, a lot of food gets tossed not because it is close to the sell-by date (again, not a date indicative of spoiling), but instead because the food was "damaged" somehow. Entire bags of avocados get thrown out because they were dropped, or because one is badly bruised. How FLATS of eggs get tossed because a single egg or two in a single carton break. Fruit gets thrown out like crazy due to single pieces being bruised. It's insane.
And so, if you are willing to thrown on some gloves (or not, I don't always) and dive in, you can get perfectly fresh, perfectly good food.
Grocery store dumpsters aren't usually that gross, and they certainly aren't disgusting cesspools in which you risk getting super sick from some disgusting infection. The fucking factory farms where your chicken comes from are 1000x more disgusting than these dumpsters.
Do they smell bad? Sure. So fucking what? I can handle a little odor, and if you can't, all the more for me.



I find expensive cheese, yogurt, eggs, and meat all the time. Stuff that I typically can't afford. Too much talking in this thread without knowing what the fuck you are talking about.

If you want to each cheese and meat out of the garbage more power to you, but I don't feel i'm being ignorant for thinking that's nasty as fuck.
 

Darklord

Banned
I wouldn't say anyone.

Even though I would never do it, I don't think it's weird at all to be honest since I've seen first hand how much tightly sealed food in boxes gets wasted just because of petty things like "got the wrong flavor" or "I bought too much".

I don't care if it's sealed in a vault. Those people are so cheap they dig through bins where flies and maggots, rats, mice, cockroach and other filthy creatures reside(and yes, if it has food it has those) and fish out a bag of slightly old bananas? If it was like an ipad in there, ok, I can see why you'd do that. Or like some nice table or chair. Ok, yeah. I can see why you'd want to take some things out of the trash. But fruit? REALLY? That's like $3 for a bunch of bananas!
 

Bgamer90

Banned
Most grocery stores don't have disgusting dumpsters because they are emptied very frequently.

I can't give my input on "most grocery stores" but it is true that some food stores have a majority of boxed & sealed food in their dumpsters that gets tossed out regularly.
 

Futureman

Member
Question: Have you ever considered simply asking the store if you can have their damaged produce before they toss it in the garbage?

This is what I was kinda wondering.

do you guys just show up unannounced at grocery stores and start going through their dumpsters? I would think if anyone saw that, they'd call the police.

Closet thing I've done to this was drink beer I found in a stream with my friend on the Appalachian Trail. Haha. Oh and I got naked in a dumpster for a certain YouTube video...
 

Loofy

Member
But third world countries usually don't have a good amount of tightly sealed food in boxes in their dumpsters.
Is that really where we're gonna draw the line?

Sorry but..
Zwlry.jpg
=
eGRu0l.jpg


The only difference is that the people on the left have no choice but to live on scraps.

Pathetic to you =/= pathetic to everyone else

Also, you know this from talking to "everyone"?
People equate going through other peoples garbage with homeless people. Do I really need to link you to a scientific study for that?
 

Alucrid

Banned
You clearly don't have much experience with dumpsters.

I remember when I worked at a produce store. Throwing out leaky bags filled with rotten fruit, sliced fruit skins, scraps of lunch meat and cut vegetables, bread, etc. etc. all right next to where we discarded the frying oil. What a wondrous smell that was in 100+ degree weather.

Inexperienced-GAF is uniting with black-and-white-GAF to really bring some convincing arguments against dumpster diving to the table . . .

I'd recommend withholding judgement unless you've given it a whirl. My experience of dumpster diving has been largely non-gross, non-dangerous, and rewarding. Most grocery stores don't have disgusting dumpsters because they are emptied very frequently. Usually the goods you are sifting through and taking are fresh to the dumpster, and most of them haven't even touched anything but the products beneath them.
Food gets thrown out in advance of the sell-by date, which is a very conservative date that is usually timed well before the use-by date, which is in turn a very conservative date about when to eat the food by.
Also, a lot of food gets tossed not because it is close to the sell-by date (again, not a date indicative of spoiling), but instead because the food was "damaged" somehow. Entire bags of avocados get thrown out because they were dropped, or because one is badly bruised. Whole FLATS of eggs get tossed because a single egg or two in a single carton break. Fruit gets thrown out like crazy due to single pieces being bruised. It's insane.
And so if you are willing to throw on some gloves (or not, I don't always) and dive in, you can get perfectly fresh, perfectly good food.
Grocery store dumpsters aren't usually that gross, and they certainly aren't disgusting cesspools in which you risk getting super sick from some disgusting infection. The fucking factory farms where your chicken comes from are 1000x more disgusting than these dumpsters.
Do they smell bad? Sure. So fucking what? I can handle a little odor, and if you can't, all the more for me.



I find expensive cheese, yogurt, eggs, and meat all the time. Stuff that I typically can't afford. Too much talking in this thread without knowing what the fuck you are talking about.


It's pathetic because you think it is? Right, mate. Solipsism, much? I think the food waste that we generate while simultaneously leaving millions starving is pathetic. I think judging people who recognize that food waste and turn it into a positive food source is also pathetic. Of course, I doubt many people into diving are very concerned with a classist prick doling out judgement from his high throne.

oh you
 
People also need to remember that sealed bags aren't vacuums.

If meat or produce are placed in temperatures that promote the growth of bacteria, the fact that it's in a sealed bag isn't going to do anything to stop that growth from happening.
 
Many people in this world with money dont bother trying to fix anything properly and you can find many many things such as furniture or electronics that many people think are "broken" and just replace it instead of bothering.
 
I find expensive cheese, yogurt, eggs, and meat all the time. Stuff that I typically can't afford. Too much talking in this thread without knowing what the fuck you are talking about.

This is GAF if you don't shower 3 times a day and throw away your underwear after wearing them once your a dirty hobo. GAF is filled with movie stars and models.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
I don't care if it's sealed in a vault. Those people are so cheap they dig through bins where flies and maggots, rats, mice, cockroach and other filthy creatures reside(and yes, if it has food it has those) and fish out a bag of slightly old bananas? If it was like an ipad in there, ok, I can see why you'd do that. Or like some nice table or chair. Ok, yeah. I can see why you'd want to take some things out of the trash. But fruit? REALLY? That's like $3 for a bunch of bananas!

So it's wrong just because they are "being cheap"?
 

Loofy

Member
This is GAF if you don't shower 3 times a day and throw away your underwear after wearing them once your a dirty hobo. GAF is filled with movie stars and models.
Wow only movie stars change their underwear daily..
This certainly puts things into perspective.

Are people looking down on garbage picking really being seen as 'elitist?'
Unbelievable.
 
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