Dumpster diving finds - let's see yours

[JasperFrank]

Working for PSC, a bar code scanner company in Oregon, they had a big electronics recovery/recycle dumpster. We asked if we could look though it and recover stuff. Management said Okay. This was a fantastic dream come true, for a electronics nerd like me at the time. The stuff they were tossing out, was pure gold and a huge perk. I made 20 or so laser pointers out of the laser diodes they tossed out. And built a little light show computer controlled system. They tossed a huge amount of dielectric mirrors, which I mounted to an old C-band type parabolic antenna, also recovered from a dump. It could melt zinc and brass to pour into forms. Just with sunlight. Legal, some how heard of this, and banded our adventures into the dumpsters. But man!, it was fun for three years.

 

[flyerdan]

When I worked at the photo lab, every time they'd get a new piece of equipment to replace something, maintenance would clear all the spare parts for that item to make room for the new stuff; they'd just box them up for me and I'd take them home. Bearings, rollers, switches, all kinds of stuff that can be used for a variety of projects.

 

[paulsharvey]

NOT Mine. So, you think this guy found this in a dumpster, or did he steal it? It's a Speedy Moisture gauge, with reagent, scale, case, and all the accessories; and he is selling it as "something, no idea what it is, $50).

 

[MossRoad]

Friends of ours alway had fresh flowers in their house. LOTS of fresh flowers. They showed us a dumpster behind a wholesale florist. So on Saturday nights, after a night out with friends, all of us would drive over there and go through the dumpster. Roses. Lilies. Carnations. Greens. You name it. All there. That lasted a few years. Then cameras showed up on the dumpster area. Then they moved it inside.

It's kinda intersesting, in that I had a job at a wholesale florist for about 6 months between jobs about 40 years ago. Every Saturday, the owner would toss all the old stock. He'd jump up and down on the flowers in the dumpster and break all of them. I asked why? He said homeless people would pull the flowers from the dumpster and sell them on the street corner. That didn't bother him. But the retail florists complained that the homeless people were undercutting their prices. So he had to react or lose paying customers.

On the bright side, every Saturday before he dumped the stock, he'd let me take any two bundles of flowers (25 to a bundle) home to my wife. She preferred carnations, so for 6 months she got 50 carnations and some greens every Saturday. The job didn't pay dildly, but that sure was a nice perk.

 

[KennyG]

Years ago there was Celotex factory near my home town. Once a week they would take all the foam insulation board rejects to the dump. The rejects usually only had a small defect. The smart guys would pick up those and insulate their houses and sheds with them. After a few years they changed to a hauler that would insure the boards didn't get "repurposed". I don't know if they worried about lost sales or liability.

 

[MossRoad]

Years ago there was Celotex factory near my home town. Once a week they would take all the foam insulation board rejects to the dump. The rejects usually only had a small defect. The smart guys would pick up those and insulate their houses and sheds with them. After a few years they changed to a hauler that would insure the boards didn't get "repurposed". I don't know if they worried about lost sales or liability.

There's an insulation factory north of us that frequently offers free cutoffs. You could piece together anything with enough tape.

 

[1Mech]

A couple years ago, I found a like new 4 foot Werner 300 lb cap fiberglass stepladder, lying beside the curb in a cul-de-sac. Retails for $100 at HD, still using it.

 

[BubbaSam]

I'm looking for ways to always get rid of crap. If I haven't used it in 3 years or more it usually gets sold or junked.
I don't want to be that dude whose estate sale looks like Sanford & Son.

There is a website called TrashNothing.com that folks put stuff up for sale that they just don't want. You know the old saying, "One man's junk is another man's gold". Yes, a lot of it is one man's gold and to me another man's junk. BUT... often there is some REALLY GOOD STUFF. Just sayin'!

 

[paulsharvey]

My wife's uncle used to mow lawns and odd jobs in a pretty upper scale neighborhood, upper middle class to mid upper class incomes, beach town. He once got a crap boat and nice trailer for free, (had to take both), so he dumped the boat down a county road, and kept the trailer. Another customer that month wanted a boat (no trailer) hauled off, ran but not well, for free. It's crazy what "white folks" throw out. Perfectly good appliances, TVs, ecr, because they upgraded

Before anyone gets butt hurt, what I mean is upper middle class, cul de sac, HOA, folks, they can be of any ethnic group. And yes, I am of European background, and I joke about the stuff white folks do

 

[masscity]

This guy I worked with used to ride the back of a garbage truck. In a commercial area he found 25 bags of metric tools that

would go with some kind of heavy equipment. He asked me if I wanted a bag, I said sure and still have an use them today.

They were all open end wrenches that weren't bad quality. Edit: Forgot there were sockets too.