Dumpster diving

I've been dumpster diving for a little over 3 years now, all through college, and sometimes for all of my food. It's not because I have to, but because I can and there's tons of great food if you find the right spots! I am always so shocked at how much good food is wasted.
Do any other climbers out there dumpster dive as well? Dirt bag or not? Ill include some photos of some of my dives for the wary. Just curious to see if other climbers do as well. It seems to me that this could easily correlate with the climber lifestyle, especially the resourceful-dirtbag type.
Cheers,
Will

Kitchen floor after one night.

I wouldn't be surprised if you don't have any fellow dumpster divers in your town. You take everything! ;-)

I went once in college. I had a meal plan so I didn't need to, but you're totally right, there's absolutely nothing wrong with dumpster food! And as anyone can see, even the vegetables are wrapped so they're not dirty from being in the dumpster. What I'm surprised at is the water! I had no idea they threw bottled water away.

wpfister wrote:I've been dumpster diving for a little over 3 years now, all through college, and sometimes for all of my food. It's not because I have to, but because I can and there's tons of great food if you find the right spots! I am always so shocked at how much good food is wasted. Do any other climbers out there dumpster dive as well? Dirt bag or not? Ill include some photos of some of my dives for the wary. Just curious to see if other climbers do as well. It seems to me that this could easily correlate with the climber lifestyle, especially the resourceful-dirtbag type. Cheers, Will

You found all that in a dumpster? I would dumpster dive if I found that stuff! Sadly (or happily, actually) the most I have ever seen in a dumpster is a rotten tomato with cockroaches crawling through it.

I haven't since high school, but a friend of mine who works at a super market in Idaho has gone years without paying for food. Seriously everything that guy eats is from a dumpster. And most of it is still in sealed jars, cans, or bottles.

However, here in Kyrgyzstan, you would barely survive on bread scraps and old noodles and chicken bones if you were a dumpster diver. Maybe some potato peels too!

Have you ever gotten sick? I would not do it in this country. I do shop in good will and second hand gear shops a lot!
Although it does look like all good food. I would do it for sports just to see what can be dug out. I would check expiration dates very carefully too. Heck, what dumpsters and what time would you recommend going for it?

The major dumpsters are locked up in our area but I have dived and scarfed before.

There's a great little documentary about dumpster diving called Dive!. Check it out, it's a worthwhile look at this issue.

nothing better than some cinnamon pecan loaf fresh from Schat's dumpster

Trader Joe's are well known for throwing out food the day BEFORE it expires. Many a good score there, Ezekiel breads, etc. Most major super markets around here compact all their expired food so that people can't dumpsta drive those digs.

Morgan Patterson wrote:Trader Joe's are well known for throwing out food the day BEFORE it expires. Many a good score there, Ezekiel breads, etc. Most major super markets around here compact all their expired food so that people can't dumpsta drive those digs.

somewhere on the interweb there is a video of folks lining up in Brooklyn NY to get some Trader Joes

Gotta love it...we throw food away when people are starving because of regulations. I'm sure most people would rather have a belly ache from something "not as fresh" than a belly ache from lack of food. It's really a shame that food can't be donated.

A typical Boulder climbers' date: take her dumpster diving at Wholefoods! Score!

I uave a friend in phoenix who was involved with the food bank in town. They threw away so much good food that its just crazy. Tons of it from trader joes. Packaged meat products, tons of bread, packaged salads,, everything that you could imagine. Ate free for a year or more, fridge was jammed, froze a bunch of stuff for later, just crazy. For someone resourceful there is enough food out the for a lifetime!

Thanks for replies everyone. Like everyone is saying, trader joes is fantastic, I once got 18 bottles of wine in one night. Other places to check out... Aldi, CVS, Walgreens, etc. everything in that picture is from aldi and CVS. I usually go after 11 when I get off work an never have any issue. I have some friends that go during the day and just ignore the stares haha.

saguaro sandy wrote:A typical Boulder climbers' date: take her dumpster diving at Wholefoods! Score!

funny! used condoms can come in useful

Scott McMahon wrote:Gotta love it...we throw food away when people are starving because of regulations. I'm sure most people would rather have a belly ache from something "not as fresh" than a belly ache from lack of food. It's really a shame that food can't be donated.

I'm not a legal expert, but I don't think there is much standing in the way of donating food. What regulations are you referring to?

I think most grocery stores throw out edible food because of ignorance or laziness.

The Good Samaritan Act of 1996 protects you from liability when donating to non-profit organizations. It protects donors from liability unless they are guilty of gross negligence - like donating food that you know is not edible.

Edit: here is info on the Good Samaritan Act
feedingamerica.org/get-invo…

youtube.com/watch?v=vuD1oDt…

saguaro sandy wrote:I would check expiration dates very carefully too.

[article about the arbitrary nature of expiration dates] npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/…

We dumpster dived a fair amount during college (mostly out of boredom) and not once got sick. In addition to grocery stores we hit up bakeries like Einstein's, who threw out their bagels every night.

I have done a LOT of volunteering in my life and every food kitchen/shelter I have ever been to has been tremendously overstocked with food. Many businesses donate food and use it as a tax write off, especially smaller bakeries and such - the owner just brings by the day old stuff on their way home every night.

A lot of time larger donations from supermarkets can't be accepted due to lack of space, volunteer resources, etc.

Of course maybe I have only experienced this because I volunteered in the liberal enclaves of San Francisco, Portland and Madison, WI. Maybe elsewhere in the USA there truly is a shortage of food and people are emaciated and starving on the streets, that would be super lame and I probably would go back to doing some of my volunteer time at food related orgs if I saw that.

By the way my favorite dumpster dive locale is indy pizza places. Food banks often won't take cold pizza, but the liberally minded shops often will box up leftover pizza and leave it conveniently on top of all the debris in the dumpster, almost presenting it as "don't let this go to waste, take it!"

I worked a summer job at a bakery once in highschool, and we threw away tons of cake tops (slice them flat so they stack).

People started making a mess diving for the cake tops, and I got fired because my boss thought I was being lazy and not throwing the bags into the dumpster.

Once she figured it out, she started dumping bleach with the cake tops and hired me back without apologizing or acknowledging her mistake. Then the divers vandalized her store with garbage in reaction to the bleach, which I didn't mind at all except for the fact that I was the one that had to clean it up.

Never worked in food service again after that job.

Oh yeah, TJ's dumpsters are boss! Personally never dived in them, but have been offered plenty of free food in JTree and Yosemite that came from there.

I spent a summr and fall riding my bike around with a large crate on the luggage rack collecting scrap metal. I had a route to the electrical, HVAC and plumbing shops in the evening and it was a blast. It was a combination bicycle adventure and treasure hunt.

At times, I felt like I was picking up $5 bills from the dumpsters finding large ammounts of copper. There were other rewards too, like an almost new pair of Carhart work pants in my size, gold plated electronics, jewelry, tools, skis...

I stopped when a cop stopped me and said that a lot of his associates would automatically arrest me and hold me in jail until the business owner decided to press tresspassing charges. However, I was also doing a public service; one time I found a large 2' Crescent wrench on the ground next to the dumpster and put it in a placee where the business owners could find it.

One word reason why I won't do it,pride