June 21, 2007
Dumpster Diving 101
A lot of people pick up abandoned furniture on the street, but apparently there's some good 'ol fashion dumpter diving going on around town, too. Treasures in the trash are hard to come by, and we'd be nervous about bed bugs, but for the fearless - there is free stuff for the taking. The best of which is found at Third Avenue and 12th Street as NYU students depart for the summer.
The NY Times chronicles the crucial hours as a group gathered to go through discarded items of the undergrads.
New York has several colleges and universities, of course, but according to Janet Kalish, a Queens resident who was there that night, N.Y.U.’s affluent student body makes for unusually profitable Dumpster diving. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the gathering at the Third Avenue North trash bin quickly took on a giddy shopping-spree air, as members of the group came up with one first-class find after another.
What was found? A television, a painting of a Mediterranean harbor, and a working iPod! Though some find excitment in the little things, “The small thrills are when you see the contents of someone’s desk and find a book of stamps,” a woman told The Times as she "stood knee deep in the trash bin examining a plastic toiletries holder." Where did this group find out about the free spree? Freegan.info, a site run by a group that boycotts "the economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider."
When asked about depriving herself, one freegan (who quit her six-figure job for the cause) explained, “I do have some mixed feelings. It’s always hard to give up class privilege. But freegans would argue that the capitalist system is not sustainable. You’re exploiting resources. Most people work 40-plus hours a week at jobs they don’t like to buy things they don’t need.” There are other grassroots group like this, including Freecyle.org, which is geared towards giving and getting already used items, and the old standby for free books, Book Crossing. Who needs Craigslist?
Photo via Finstr's Flickr.
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Stupid hipsters, couldn't they leave our trash and garbage alone? I almost threw up when I saw able bodied adults rummaging through the garbage outside a Dagastino.
"Most people work 40-plus hours a week at jobs they don’t like to buy things they don’t need.”
I love that there are people out there living so far out on the other end of the spectrum. But, there's gotta be some sort of compromise in middle for the rest of us to strive for.
Like, work a shitty job but buy organic food? I dunno. Don't buy disposable furniture from Ikea when there's Craigslist.org (or apparently dumpsters) around?
Please don't encourage this - I lived in Third North for several years, and each day on moving out day, these ravagers would idle around and would take your suitcases and boxes while you were trying to put your stuff in a cab or car. The security would always try to get them to leave, but they'd come back and lurk. It was the most annoying thing.
If this is your thing - do this in New Haven. I went to Yale back in the day and it is much easier to gather discarded valuables there than in NYC. Rent a Uhaul and fill it. I would easily collect at least dozen working dorm fridges and resell them.
Scavengers are around everywhere in manhattan...because we throw away (apparently) valuable stuff. I don't care really as long as it's not a "feeding frenzy" or they make a disaster of our garbage.
Unfortunately these scavengers turn our already stinky garbage in barrels into a trash-strewn nightmare. Then I see them taking bags of recyclables and dumping them in garbage cans once they take 1 aluminum can out of it.
There's worse things, I know.
I love how all of the losers profiled in the article rail against capitalism and how it destroys society and blah blah blah.
And then you find out they're a bunch of well to do kids living with their parents. Viva la revolucion!
Fricken freegans...
I believe there are still genuine homeless people in NYC that could really use the food and other trash. Why are these self-righteous trust fund hipsters like mama's boy Weissman invading their turfs? I agree that Americans produce too much waste but that should be solved on the front end, and not be devoured by human garbage disposal units.
I betcha you see a lot of jews involved in this kind of activity LOLOL
Yes, imagine if they had this kind of thing in Boro Park or Crown Hts hehe
Like a candystore for the Lubavitcher sect ROFLMAO
I would argue that The Freegans are exploiting the poeple who exploit resources. The Freegans are basically opportunists who because of their inability to accept social norms have placed themselves into a strait where they must sit idly by like a vulture until someone throws away something. So in order for the Freegan to survive they secretly hope people buy more stuff so they can throw more things away and give more stuff to the freegans. Not for the purpose of reusing and recycling items but for holding it over our heads. As Lao Tzu once said "Virtue for Virtue's sake has no virtue"
True, the Talmud preaches frugality (and stinginess, hehehe)
People, the racist and bigoted comments are pretty pathetic. If you think they're funny, can't you just laugh about them to yourselves, and not pollute the comments with them?
People who accept social norms simply because they are social norms are pretty pathetic human beings, #12.
#15 - I think people who eat garbage are even more pathetic, since they also smell. You're probably one of them!?
80 % of ALL items purchased in the USA are used ONCE and then throw away.
Who cares what KIND of person is plucking something out a dumpster?
These are items that will simply just wind up in a landfill.
We are SHAMEFULLY wasteful. PERIOD.
-La Leone-
SC: wow. you sure told 'em. Thank god there's YOU to look out for everybody and be able to point this out! We're all indebted to you for having the ability to keep us aware of this. Really, it's like I read these comments and then WOW ... your post. And I say that's great, because there's somebody like you to make everybody aware.
Freegans? Please. Try freeloaders.
I find it very weird that so many posters have such animosty towards these dumpster divers. Um, how is being frugal and recycling goods a bad thing?
I do welding and though I've never rumage through sealed garbage bags, I have taken trashed metal off the street to use in furniture and art.
Anyway, seriously people, can't you find something else to get angry about? There are far, far worse things happening in this world than people recycling your trash. (I don't mean to sound crass, but if trash scavengers make you angry you seriously need get to a life).
To the scavengers: Have fun! I hope that you find some useful items.
SC,
I appreciate your comment. I'm also sick of hateful narrow-minded people filling Gothamist's comments section.
and to "Guest" - if you're going to insult other commenters, at least leave your name.
Three words:
"HIDE GUEST COMMENTS"
The very best thing eva.
Now what was the person thinking about throwing away a working iPod!???????
do i now call the chinese ladies that pick through my trash freegans?
BoerumHillJo,
Thank you!
Have these people ever heard of bedbugs? seriously...
Vanessa, you'd be pissed too if they took your boxes when you had them stacked and ready to put in your car because they "thought you were throwing them away!".
freegans = vultures and hyenas. Despised creatures but utterly essentially to the environment/society.
I saw some hipsters pick up a chinese lion head out of a dumpster. I bet there were some cool antiquey stuff in those dumpsters, stuff from way back when Chinatown still had those old time grocery stores.
Billyburg hipsters have ruined everything yet AGAIN!
One comment on the article: someone is quoted to the effect of "rich people throw away more stuff" as though this was the most obvious thing since "capital is the means of production."
I don't think so. Rich people (generally) buy expensive stuff. Expensive stuff (generally) doesn't break or wear out as easily as cheap stuff and has greater resale value than cheap stuff. It's easily as plausible that poor people throw out more stuff than rich people.
Also, what happened to thrift stores? You can get cheap, used goods and be giving to a charity at the same time. But what's up with the thrift stores in NYC, you can't get anyone to haul furniture away.
And, yes, people: bedbugs, frickin' bedbugs....
"But freegans would argue that the capitalist system is not sustainable. You’re exploiting resources. Most people work 40-plus hours a week at jobs they don’t like to buy things they don’t need.”
The next time someone you hear someone say that they hate capitalism, punch them in the face, take all of their stuff and then drop it all off at a dumpster. Capitalism at its broadest sense of the word, means that people and people through companies own capital and decide how to use it, not the government.
The fact that we have a free mind to choose the veggies we eat and the birkenstocks that we wear and the color of our nalgene bottles is the highest testament to capitalism...
The truth of the matter is that the freegans are simply opportunistic parasites.
The dominant mode of production for the freegans seems to be scavenging, which is simply unsustainable without some larger to system to scavenge from. Freeganism is, itself, unsustainable and economically unproductive (though it probably does increase the overall efficiency of the system by reducing waste). They exist on the discards of a system they despise, but it's that very system's inefficiencies that make their choice of lifestyle possible. If there was no capitalist system, then freeganism would be impossible.
Yeah, capitalism may be, in the long run, unsustainable. But Freeganism isn't sustainable either.
A charitable simile from the animal kingdom is that freegans are very much like pilot fish. A less charitable comparison would be to compare freegans to buzzards.
both buzzards and pilot fish are still around, right?
"Don't touch my trash! Don't touch my trash!" Sheesh. Who cares if they take stuff from the trash? Who cares if it's not sustainable? Who cares if they hate capitalism yet depend on it? They're not hurting anyone. Let 'em do what they want. It's just another form of recycling.
Geez, The "Spelling Bug" Has infected other columnists here at the Gothamist ! Guess the editor's passing the "Flu" bug around . Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
Worst forms of life in NYC
4. rats
3. hipsters
2. freegans
1. anal spellcheckers (#36 "Still has no life")
'nuff said.
How can anyone have a problem with people taking things that others have THROWN AWAY? What exactly is wrong with that? In the 'burbs people drive around on bulk trash pickup days and get furniture and lots of stuff people don't want. Half the apartments downtown are furnished with stuff off the street.
Some of you manage to have a problem with just about ANYTHING.
The world has had a wonderful source for free books for centuries. We call it a library.
From Wikipedia:
Freeganism does not hold with Kant's Formula of Universal Law; if everyone were to adhere to the freegan lifestyle, essentially "living off" the tailings of Western society rather than being producers and/or consumers, the result would be the disintegration of society.
free stuff is great. we the young and the poor who take advantage of others' waste dont care in the least what people think of it. this city is filthy and disgusting anyway, so one more pile of picked over garbage, and one more dude with some sweet new free shit does no damage to anyone. if you have a problem with this, its probably best you get over it as soon as possible because its never going to stop. freegan and other labels are totally irrelavant. the point is, no matter how you get it, or wether you need it, its all just stuff.
Why do freegans suck so much?!
may i point out that most of the people posting responses to this article--and the ny times piece that sparked it--seem to possess scant attention to detail? well, i just did. i don't need your permission, you button-down, culture-shocked yuppies. that's right! yuppies! talkin bout the hipsters, oh lord, the hipsters! guess what, ma and pa east coast? this article isn't about hipsters. i mean, come now, a 44-year-old qualifies as a hipster? if so, i now have even less idea what the designation stands for than before. i mean, why not just call them thrifty?
jesus christ, get your head straight before you barf out your garbled takes on all things decent. for example, "perryair" most likely possesses an understanding of economic/culture theory approaching that of an eighth grader, which should serve as an insult here, provided said poster is not in fact in sixth or seventh grade. or how about the inclusion of rats and freegans in a four-point category of detestable new york entitites? do you realize that the practice of dumpster diving reduces the mass of refuse left out on the street, thereby decreasing the amount putrefaction, and ostensibly providing fewer resources for vermin to utilize in their bid to conquer the city? i mean, for the love of shit, do you not understand that "freeganism"--or whatever unfortunate moniker you'd most prefer--acknowledges in its guiding principle the "unsustainability" of the venture? moreover, by this stage in our "enlightenment," the integrity of a kantian ethics is thoroughly assailable, i.e. bullshit.
last but not least, consider that while the vulture may be incorporated into a tired metaphor signaling moral depravity, sloth and cowardice, i may choose to invoke the vulture--who slaughters only the dying and can claim few natural adversaries--as an exemplar of love and mercy. and i will.