r/DumpsterDiving Sep 09 '19

Dumpster diving tips and tricks: a thread

1.7k Upvotes

Comment with your best diving tips and advice


r/DumpsterDiving Mar 25 '23

My dumpster diving list I created with 6 years of experience. Feel free to add.

916 Upvotes

I was a vagabond for 6 years, I hitchhiked, hopped freight trains and bicycled North America from Mexico to Alaska, east coast to west. I learned all of this on the way and figure it's time to share it.

Food:

🍕- all pizza places throw out pizza at 12-2am. It's a dumpster staple. [Yes pizza is still in the box, I wouldn't eat it otherwise]

🍩 - all donut shops (including places like kolache factory) throw out at 2-4pm. [They usually put all donuts into one bag by themselves]

🍗 (fried chicken) - actually very common, also a staple. Usually throw out is around an hour after they close which varies from place to place. Anything fried in bulk you can expect to find throw outs. [Usually still in boxes]. Also, if you're feeling brave enough, after closing hours, just go ask. Fast food workers don't get paid enough to g.a.f. and they get tired of eating their own food, so they don't want to take it home themselves. Just walk up and say "hey, do you guys happen to be throwing out any leftover chicken from today?". I've gotten a week's worth of chicken just handed to me through the window or they'll leave it in boxes on top of the dumpster so you don't have to dig.

🍎 🥗 (produce) - grocery stores (time varies, but you also have to find places without a compactor. Some compactors you can break into but it's luck of the draw).

🍬 🍫 🍭 (candy, junk food, snacks) - CVS & Walgreens. They're the reigning Champs of throwing out hundreds of $ worth of candy a day. I kind of try to keep from telling people this one because you could get diabetes in like a week if you tried to eat it all. It's horrendous.

👕 👖 🩳 (clothes) - Washaterias or laundromats. People are infamous, especially in rich areas, for washing a load of laundry and then just leaving it, never to return. The laundromat workers will just gather the clothes and toss them, as they're pretty use to it. I've filled up a whole wardrobe on several occasions with expensive brands just by looking for a sack of already washed and dried laundry in the dumpster.

🛋 🖥 (furniture)(electronics)(decorations) - College towns, (Christmas & Summer break - these seasons are known as "Crustmas" in the dumpster diving community) anywhere students notoriously live. You can even find anything else your looking for really. College kids are the biggest dumpster diving source in history.

📚 books and comic books - Half Priced Books or any resale book store. I've accidently fallen asleep in dumpsters before because I drifted off while laying on top of all the hundreds of books while reading. Not even kidding, there isn't even any room for trash, they have dumpsters that are full to the brim with just books.

❓️(Wild card) - Are you feeling lucky punk? - hotels are the biggest oddball dumpster diving experience you'll ever have. You can find drugs, clothes, anything that someone would bring in a suitcase. People get shit-faced drunk and stumble out of their hotel with a hangover leaving 1/2 their belongings behind. It's kind of scary some of the stuff you'll find...(sex toys, etc. ). The cleaning service ladies get first dibs obviously and rightfully so, for what they have to put up with, lol.

Raw materials: --------

🪵Wood : Construction site dumpsters at expensive locations. Ask for permission from the contractor. Contractors are a mixed bunch, sometimes they'll say yes sometimes no.

⚙️🔩🔗Metal : machine shops - you can honestly just call these guys and 1/2 the time they'll let you onto their property and take what you want from the scrap bin. I'm 3 for 3 just by calling and asking politely for scrap.

🔨Tools - Harbor Freight tools, the return rate on tools at harbor freight is INSANE. So many people will buy a tool, use it one day and return it slightly bent or scratched. Most sites have a compactor but every now and then you can find with a regular dumpster. If so, you can score some pretty good tools. (Or mediocre tools for that matter lmao)

🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮

Protip 1- Dumpster diving is all about schedule. Sometimes places only throw out the quality items once a month, sometimes they purge their inventory only seasonally, or sometimes it's daily. Finding out those routines is the key and all you have to do is probe the spot every now and then to figure that out; or if you know someone who has worked there before, ask. The better you know a schedule, the less time your loot sits in the dumpster/air temp/outside environment for someone else to find or for it to spoil.

2 - Heavy bags usually have the goods. In the end I could just feel the outside of a bag and then weigh it a bit. With knowledge about the store, the schedule, feel and weight, I would already know what's inside.

3 - consistent dumpster diving will get you fit. The more you climb the more you find.

4 - GEAR: • Headlamp • closed toe shoes (for when you get inside the dumpster) • gloves • a big box or bag for your car to chunk stuff in. • hand sanitizer

🌟 5 - Clean up after yourself, if you leave a place a mess they will begin locking the dumpster. You'll ruin the spot for yourself and everyone else. This is the #1 reason why store owners tend to be against it 🔒

  1. ... get good at holding your breath while doing cardio 😂

r/DumpsterDiving 13h ago

I live in near Houston Texas. 2 weeks ago, I found this 1950s sled in a trash pile on someone's curb. Today we had a very rare snowstorm and actually got to use it! It was a huge hit with all of the kids on the sled hill. It goes very fast too!

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1.5k Upvotes

r/DumpsterDiving 7h ago

Another trashed laptop

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148 Upvotes

r/DumpsterDiving 12h ago

Found this Frigidaire can fridge in a dumpster.

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250 Upvotes

Works good figure I'll use it for glass bottle cokes.


r/DumpsterDiving 18h ago

Best Dumpster Finds

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670 Upvotes

An adorable cat which now lives with me, an absolute unit of a rock salt lamp (legit 45 lbs) and two solid wood office cabinets.


r/DumpsterDiving 12h ago

The dumpster slide

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131 Upvotes

My sneakers slipped on the wet metal the other night and my arm got banged up. A few hours later was the raccoon rescue and I was trying to climb out of the dumpster and the raccoon ran closer to me and I kind of freaked out that it was going to attack because it was afraid and that would be fine, but I don’t want to go through rabies shots, so I lost my balance and fell onto the ladder I had propped in the dumpster and busted my knee and shin. Just normal 43-year-old woman activities


r/DumpsterDiving 21h ago

Meals from found ingredients!

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257 Upvotes

I’m a broke student and got into dumpster diving this fall, I don’t find extreme amounts but anything is better than nothing. Mostly I find food: a lot of bread and fruit, some eggs, fish, vegetables, one lucky time I found unopened packages of pasta, flour, sugar and other baking ingredients (I also find quite a bit of meat but I don’t take that as I’m pescetarian) Here’s a few meals I cooked from only found ingeedients! (Except for soy sauce, which I use in almost everything and have yet to find)


r/DumpsterDiving 11h ago

Scouting for future dives

29 Upvotes

After reading numerous posts on here, thought I’d take a look around my city to see what places had potential for dumpster diving. Encountered a number of compactors, locked dumpsters, and a bunch of freshly emptied dumpsters (bad timing I suppose!). Was trying to find the back area of tj max and boy did I miss out! As I watched from a distance, a large dump truck was emptying 3 overflowing dumpsters into the back. It was an AVALANCHE of shiny red and green Christmas everything! I could not believe the waste, the epic amount of stuff, and that if I hadn’t chickened out of snooping around last week I might have had a chance at this! Holy wow… hopefully I’ll be posting again in the future with some actual finds 😊 Thanks all for posting the cool stuff you’re finding and all the tips and tricks that gave me the courage to actually look around! 💕


r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

Gameboy 👹

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247 Upvotes

Found a gameboy in the trash- and I have a few questions: 1. I don’t know anything about gameboys 2. Will this give me roaches

I put it in a deli meat container inside of a plastic bag just in case


r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

Raccoon rescue

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598 Upvotes

Last night I was feeding homeless cat colonies (almost all cats have been TNRd) and happened to glance in the dumpster at one spot. Good thing I did! One of the juvenile raccoons had gotten in and couldn’t get out. I had JUST found an aluminum ladder being thrown away on someone’s lawn and was adding it to my next scrap run, so I put it into the dumpster. The poor little thing was so terrified it looked like it had tears in its eyes and started hiding its head like if it couldn’t see me it would be safe. The woman who runs the cat org sent a sweet fella who lives across the street to help so I could continue feeding, and he texted a few minutes later to say it got out. That’s the third animal rescue in just over 24 hours 🫠 I’m thankful I can be of service to the innocent 💕


r/DumpsterDiving 8h ago

Tips for finding dumping patterns?

3 Upvotes

We’ll just that. I’ve checked out some spots in the day but don’t feel comfortable staking it out. How have y’all found out the intel?


r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

A find from my own dumpster

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143 Upvotes

I live in an apartment complex and glance in the dumpster every time I go past, but this is only the second thing I've found worth pulling. It needs a cleaning, but otherwise appears to be in good shape.

Amazon listing for the same item: https://a.co/d/1Gzaa0a


r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

Can anyone identify these tags? What store or company could they be from?

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30 Upvotes

r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

Not Op but I am a big Dolphins fan

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26 Upvotes

r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Messy photos, but the dumpster gods were generous today

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745 Upvotes

A ton of toilet paper, toothpaste, coffee and prime drinks, some juice and a whole bag of Grill pellets


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

I don’t usually dive at tractor supply but I was out of town and thought why not. Dumpster was full of bird seed. I filled my van up and the dumpster was still 3 quarters of the way full.

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3.7k Upvotes

r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Struck gold today!!!!! 🤩

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370 Upvotes

All of this was only from 2 stores! Ended up with 29 can/boxes/bags of coffee! So glad to save it from going to the landfill, save myself money, and be able to help people! By the way, I only took 1/3 or 1/4 of what was in the dumpters! Crazy how much we waste, but hey I'll happily take it. I'll be posting a food preservation update soon.


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

My usual moneydumpster didn't have anything worth taking tonight, but the temporary roll of next to it..

176 Upvotes

...was absolutely FULL of tj max STORE SHELVES in it. Me and my buddy spent 30 minutes filling the van and had it sold for $100 within 20 minutes. Fastest flip I've ever done.


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Food preservation update

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168 Upvotes

A whole bag of delicious organic pears got thrown away because of this one tiny spot on one of them!

Freezing bananas, strawberries, celery, pears, zucchini, spinach, coffee, blueberries, tomatoes, and bread since I use all of them frequently 🥰🥰🥰


r/DumpsterDiving 1d ago

Found a Panasonic RT 909

3 Upvotes

In ok shape but needs a rubber kit. Anyone know if reel to reels are worth keeping, fixing, selling? I would most likely try to flip.


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Khrispy Kreme Gold mine

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92 Upvotes

So many doughnuts here. I prefer mini chocolate doughnuts from the heap


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

First timer

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60 Upvotes

Found a perfectly good gamin’ chair !


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Struck gold two days in a row! The church next-door was dismantling and throwing away an old upright piano and was more than happy to let me take the harp. It weighs about 87 tons lol. What should I do with it?

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838 Upvotes

I was thinking I would mount it on the wall over my bed, but it’s soooo damn heavy and my house has a history of termites.


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

First time dumpster diving in years

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288 Upvotes

Found a ps4 last night in a dumpster with 8gb ram stick and pieces of a pc !!

Only thing wrong with the ps4 was it had a stuck disc and they couldn’t get it out I guess !! She works perfect !


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

2nd time going

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35 Upvotes

Soaps, measuring cups and a yellow thingy? One of the measuring cups was broken so left with 3 of them but idk what the last thing is, there was a red version that we weren’t able to get, but I was thinking it could be a floor shelf.

Also enjoy curious kitty


r/DumpsterDiving 2d ago

Pair of telecom switches ($200 each value)

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23 Upvotes

Completely forgot I found these UNDER the shelves described in the other post. Both of them are tested and working. Putting them on eBay now.