Darn Dumpster Divers.....

[John L]

Whats the big deal.. so what somebody is making use of what you through out...shred your papers of any importance ... don't worry

I agree, if it's "below the rim" it's free for the taking. Besides, if you stop the pickers, you will not have room for the illegal dumpers and trash havoc will ensue. This will completely mess up the balance of the Ecosystem of Garbage.

How many dead bodies wouldnt have been found if it wern't for the pickers. A picker might save you from mistakenly being acused of murder someday. Think about it.

 

[mrchips]

CharlieJ,

Take your breath away and GAG bad!!!!!!

Joe,

Makin Chip$ and Havin Fun!

 

[TyrantDesigner]

one of the things that stores do to prevent dumpster diving (grocery stores and book stores in particular) is to pour bleach in the dumpster and close it up ... just like any other container it will store the fumes and make dumpster diving impossible.

 

[skyhigh]

if you stop the pickers, you will not have room for the illegal dumpers and trash havoc will ensue. This will completely mess up the balance of the Ecosystem of Garbage.

The "Ecosystem of Garbage"
:ROFLMAO:

The dumpster divers are helping save our planet, you ding-dongs. Why are you not recycling yourselves?

 

[CES020]

The dumpster divers are helping save our planet, you ding-dongs. Why are you not recycling yourselves?

Not hardly. They never drive a hybrid car to go through my dumpster. It's always a 1972 pickup with more rust than metal, spittering and sputtering and blowing out so much oil smoke that BP can't keep up with production.

Either that or a 1978 4 door car, again, with more rust than metal on it.

If they would stay at home, they would be doing their part in this equation!

I suppose they are doing their part, they look like they shower once a week, whether they need to or not.

 

[Rick]

We had dumpster divers going through my trash, an older couple. I walked out and talked to them about what they were looking for. They looked at me as if i was about to yell at them, then I told them to relax, and tell me what they were looking to recycle, as I suspected, they told me they were retired and not making it with the checks they were getting and they use the money to supplement their income. I offered to put that stuff in a separate bag and leave it on the fence, I also give them cans, bottles and cardboard that usually go in the recycle can.

It's been our arrangement for a few years, , they seem like good people, around holiday times I get a nice gift, I can appreciate needing money when times are tough, and I am not worried about people rummaging trough my trash.

 

[CES020]

Just so I'm clear- I really don't care if they are recycling, but the thought that someone from another sign shop was going through our trash got in my head after the conversation I had and it freaked me out a little. I don't give a lot of thought to what I throw in the trash can, as far as whether or not there is any customer information that would be helpful to someone else. I don't print much of anything, but I do take names and number on sticky notes, which end up in the trash. Now I'm thinking I need to shred my stuff before throwing it out. Never gave it much thought until the other day.

I do like to poke fun at them on here, but in general, when I hear them out back, I don't even walk back there any more.

 

[CES020]

Finally caught the people diving in our dumpster. It was a man and a woman team, recycling cardboard and paper products. I asked him what he was looking for, he told me, then I asked him if it was worth all the trouble. He said they averaged about $150 a day from getting recyclable products out of dumpsters. I told him I'd try and sit that stuff next to the dumpster for them so they didn't have to go through all of the trash to get to it.

I had some more cardboard inside, so I came in and got it and took it out to them. I feel a lot better knowing someone's going through my trash for that than thinking it would be a competitor looking for information.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Rick, back in college there was an old couple doing the same thing. We called them Can Man and Can Lady (real creative, huh?) They started off going through dumpsters but for some reason it became trendy to save all your own cans for them and just leave them by your apartment door. They'd come through a couple of times a week and load up on cans.

 

[TheSellOut]

I am actually a FAN of dumpster divers and think that they provide a great service to the world for free.

I mean they sift through our garbage pulling out things that could be recycled or reused and save it from going to our overflowing dumps and landfills. It might be small scale but I bet if you added up the amount of stuff pulled from the garbage in a single day, across the US alone it would be a substantial amount.

 

[mark in tx]

As bad as the economy has been, I'm not surprised to see and hear about more dumpster diving. As long as they don't leave a mess behind, I don't care.
There is quite a "movement" going on with dumpster diving, some people are making a living at it. If you want to have some fun, drive around a college campus on end of school move out day. You'll get the urge to recycle.

 

[MikePro]

as good as "recycling" is... I'd still be worried about liabilities of someone potentially hurting themselves on your business property.

 

[MikePro]

If you want to have some fun, drive around a college campus on end of school move out day. You'll get the urge to recycle.

hell yeah! I've gotten 4 graphic calculators, a laptop, an Ipod, and an assortment of furniture for my frathouse this way, during my time at UW.

 

[2972renfro]

It is sad what we throw away in this country, especially food.

 

[HulkSmash]

You can tell it's almost summer by the amount of dumpster divers that have come out of hibernation.

 

[Vinyldog]

The original quote could refer to the practice of searching through a competitors trash to find clues to who their customers are and hopefully even prices.

 

[The Hobbyist]

Okay, I wasn't paranoid until someone recently interviewed with me and said that they'd gladly go dumpster diving at the competitors locations.

SHRED EVERYTHING!

A competitor can pull old invoices out of your trash and use it to steal your customers.

"Mr. Brown? This is D. Diver calling. I noticed that you paid $5,000.00 for that new sign you just hung on your front wall. Take down my number. I could have made that same sign for you for $3,500.00 ...."

Of course, that would be a LIE, but he doesn't have to PROVE it. all he has to do, is convince Mr. Brown that the sign WOULD HAVE cost less by going with Mr. Diver. Future sign job WILL go to Mr. Diver, and Mr. Brown will ASSUME that his price would beat the other manufacturer's price ... since D. Diver "already beat the price" on the last sign!

Get a good paper shredder that turns your papers, invoices and anything else into snowflakes. The strip shredders only mean a person needs to spend a bit of time to reassemble the documents.



.

 

[The Hobbyist]

If you are tossing cutoffs of plexiglass and sintra board, etc., and the dumpster divers are going for that, just put a plywood box outside the rear of your shop and dump the scraps (anything 6"x6" or larger) into that box. The scroungers will come and empty it for you on a regular basis. :Big Laugh

As long as they don't leave a mess behind, I don't care.

you are a SIGN shop, aren't you? make a sign!

"Take what you want.
Please do not
leave a mess behind.
Thank You!"

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Those idiots do that here too. We have (well, had) a Spring and Fall Cleanup where you'd set your trash out at the curb and the city would load it out. Not like normal trash, but the big stuff that you need to throw out. These stupid scrappers in their rusted out trucks drive around town all day wasting fuel, and ripping everyones stuff to shreds to get the steel and copper out of it, so they can go cash it in for $10. When you spent $20 in fuel, I don't get the point...but they just fling crap everywhere. I don't care if they do it, but put it back in the organized pile I had it in. If they are dumpster diving, they have no common courtesy anyway since you had signs up.

$20 is nothing in copper. If you clean it down to bare metal you could make big bucks recycling other peoples stuff. Aluminum gets thrown out of households all the time and you can get good money for clean aluminum also.

 

[The Hobbyist]

When I lived in Commiefornia, I ran a motorcycle towing service.

The BMW motorcycles arrive at the dealership with these fantastic square metal tubing frame crates, surrounded by NICE quality 1/4" birch plywood! The pan the bike wheels sit in is all steel and it brings a good price for recycling. The dealers THROW THIS STUFF AWAY!

You can go to your local BMW motorcycle dealer and make a deal with him to come on a certain day and haul off the crates. The plywood is usually 30" tall or so x 60 to 72" long or so. The outside might be painted with some stencil which can be sanded off, but the inside is usually pristine plywood, suitable for many projects.

The metal frames are GOOD, clean, non-rusty steel that you would pay a king's ransom for, if you were to buy it. I have built many things with the "free" steel and plywood that WAS once BMW motorcycle crates.



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