Dumpster Diving.

Remy

Remy

Well-known Member
Location
California, USA
Probably a subject that can have many different opinions but I did a search and didn't see it posted before. I don't mean the people going through the trash and recycling looking for cans and bottles they can turn in for money.

I follow a YouTube channel and watch here and there a few other channels where people dumpster dive for food at grocery stores. Many of these items have nothing wrong with them, not even outdated. Or the cereal box is ripped but the inner bag is intact. Chain pet food stores throw out returned items. Sometimes slashing pet food bags and throwing them in the dumpster but most of the food is still in the bag. Retail department, crafting stores, dollar stores. The waste is insane.

I see posts like "gross" "how can you eat that" etc. I see many more from other divers and people glad they are getting the stuff. One post stated they worked in a grocery store and they have seen cockroaches in the trucks that deliver the food. I assume that would happen. I couldn't do it. I'm not brave enough and I'd be afraid of getting caught. But I like watching those videos.
 

Grocery store trash is how food banks started. Back in the 60s when runaway kids were flocking to San Fransisco, a group of older folks (20 and 30-somethings) started taking care of them by providing donated clothing, creating shelters and getting them into them, and gathering edible food from dumpsters behind grocery stores. And "free stores" and food banks were born.
 
The waste is insane, and shameful.

I remember a chicken outlet in our area soaking leftover chicken at the end of the day in bleach before tossing it into the dumpster, something that angered me beyond words.

My heart bleeds for poor people and the homeless, why not take that leftover chicken at the end of the day and feed them?

I see people fishing-out cans and bottles from dumpsters all the time, but what bothers me is people throwing out needles and things, and then dumpster divers getting stuck and infected. A dangerous practice it is.

I also witness on a regular basis, workers in the meat department at the supermarket filling an aluminum half sphere on wheels with packaged meat that will be outdated that day, and then out back they go to toss it into the dumpster.

Why not have a sale on the product?

I remember reading an article on household waste (food in particular), and it was like getting punched in the guts, the waste was extreme. In our house nothing gets wasted. I loathe waste on every level.
 

Aunt Marg said:
The waste is insane, and shameful.

I remember a chicken outlet in our area soaking leftover chicken at the end of the day in bleach before tossing it into the dumpster, something that angered me beyond words.

My heart bleeds for poor people and the homeless, why not take that leftover chicken at the end of the day and feed them?

I see people fishing-out cans and bottles from dumpsters all the time, but what bothers me is people throwing out needles and things, and then dumpster divers getting stuck and infected. A dangerous practice it is.

I also witness on a regular basis, workers in the meat department at the supermarket filling an aluminum half sphere on wheels with packaged meat that will be outdated that day, and then out back they go to toss it into the dumpster.

Why not have a sale on the product?

I remember reading an article on household waste (food in particular), and it was like getting punched in the guts, the waste was extreme. In our house nothing gets wasted. I loathe waste on every level.
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There are laws preventing that, probably because insurance companies lobbied for them, afraid some homeless guy would say he got sick from eating throw-away food and sue the chicken place or whatever. As if.
 
Murrmurr said:
There are laws preventing that, probably because insurance companies lobbied for them, afraid some homeless guy would say he got sick from eating throw-away food and sue the chicken place or whatever. As if.
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It's sad, isn't it.

I've always said that I would make for a poor millionaire, because I'd be spending my money all the time to help those in need.

There is such an abundance in this world, yet there are homeless people. It just shouldn't be.
 
There are a growing number of Food Rescue organizations spreading through the country, organizations that salvage food that would otherwise be wasted from grocery stores and restaurants.

There's actually legislation that protects businesses that donate food to the homeless, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996
This act specifically protects them from being liable when donating food to a non-profit organization.

There's so much more that needs to be done, but these organizations are at least making a start.
 
Autumn said:
There are a growing number of Food Rescue organizations spreading through the country, organizations that salvage food that would otherwise be wasted from grocery stores and restaurants.

There's actually legislation that protects businesses that donate food to the homeless, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996
This act specifically protects them from being liable when donating food to a non-profit organization.

There's so much more that needs to be done, but these organizations are at least making a start.
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OMG, this is so encouraging to me.
 
Aunt Marg said:
The waste is insane, and shameful.

I remember a chicken outlet in our area soaking leftover chicken at the end of the day in bleach before tossing it into the dumpster, something that angered me beyond words.

My heart bleeds for poor people and the homeless, why not take that leftover chicken at the end of the day and feed them?

I see people fishing-out cans and bottles from dumpsters all the time, but what bothers me is people throwing out needles and things, and then dumpster divers getting stuck and infected. A dangerous practice it is.

I also witness on a regular basis, workers in the meat department at the supermarket filling an aluminum half sphere on wheels with packaged meat that will be outdated that day, and then out back they go to toss it into the dumpster.

Why not have a sale on the product?

I remember reading an article on household waste (food in particular), and it was like getting punched in the guts, the waste was extreme. In our house nothing gets wasted. I loathe waste on every level.
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Horrible. I really don't get what the issue is. Are the retailers worried about getting sued? I did see a comment where someone stated they can write off the loss. Also home and linen stores spray painting items so people can't take them. One slashed packages of artist canvas but only the top canvas got slashed, the other's below it were fine. I'm just not sure why things are not getting donated.

I was listening to news talk this AM and they mentioned if something changes it has to keep the profit factor. They said it better and it wasn't related to dumpster diving but it makes sense. These corporations are going to do what they want especially if they can write it off and employees go along to keep their jobs.
 
Remy said:
Horrible. I really don't get what the issue is. Are the retailers worried about getting sued? I did see a comment where someone stated they can write off the loss. Also home and linen stores spray painting items so people can't take them. One slashed packages of artist canvas but only the top canvas got slashed, the other's below it were fine. I'm just not sure why things are not getting donated.

I was listening to news talk this AM and they mentioned if something changes it has to keep the profit factor. They said it better and it wasn't related to dumpster diving but it makes sense. These corporations are going to do what they want especially if they can write it off and employees go along to keep their jobs.
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I'm with you on all, Remy.

I suspect policies from the head offices of such places have been channeled down through the system to educate workers and staff. I get the impression today that if someone can't use something or grows tired of something, no one is going to use it or get it.

For years and years I have done what I refer to as fall-purges, going through closets, old boxes and stored goods, weeding-out things that haven't been used or worn for a year or more, and those items and things are donated to the local thrift and secondhand stores. Always has such a way of making me feel so good inside knowing I'm helping others.
 
It probably depends on the state/province what is allowed to be donated once it’s past date. My SIL owned a grocery store. The food banks weren’t allowed to take anything past date. By law, they had to destroy them. I remember a time when the Food Bank could put these items on a separate shelf and the customers could make their own decisions.
 
Murrmurr said:
Interesting article. I lean toward letting people do what they want to do in this case. Dumpster divers know the risks. It would be humane for the ones who soak throw-away stuff in bleach and whatnot to post a warning, though.
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I agree the bleach is uncalled for. However it's cheaper than building a locking fence which is the way with most employers to take the cheap way out.
 
Statistics show that almost 35% of the food in the US goes to waste. Restaurants throw out large quantities of good food at the end of the day, and many grocery stores do the same. Our local grocery store keeps a couple of carts of "expired date" items, and they sell them for half price or less, and anything left over at the end of the week goes to a local food bank. If all the wasted food were somehow put to good use, it would probably almost eliminate world hunger.

https://comparecamp.com/food-waste-statistics/
 
Aunt Marg said:
I'm with you on all, Remy.

I suspect policies from the head offices of such places have been channeled down through the system to educate workers and staff. I get the impression today that if someone can't use something or grows tired of something, no one is going to use it or get it.

For years and years I have done what I refer to as fall-purges, going through closets, old boxes and stored goods, weeding-out things that haven't been used or worn for a year or more, and those items and things are donated to the local thrift and secondhand stores. Always has such a way of making me feel so good inside knowing I'm helping others.
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It's always good to donate. People rely on those cheap items. I like our animal benefit thrift store which funds spay and neuter. I know the woman who co-started it. But the ones running it now, though all volunteer, strike me as people who never had to rely on thrift stores for items. Earlier they weren't taking clothes for a time and once were not taking fabric and they eliminated taking all children's clothes a long time ago. Where the woman who started it said they were grateful for every donation.
 
Remy said:
It's always good to donate. People rely on those cheap items. I like our animal benefit thrift store which funds spay and neuter. I know the woman who co-started it. But the ones running it now, though all volunteer, strike me as people who never had to rely on thrift stores for items. Earlier they weren't taking clothes for a time and once were not taking fabric and they eliminated taking all children's clothes a long time ago. Where the woman who started it said they were grateful for every donation.
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They really do.

In my childhood home, thrift store finds as well as hand-me-downs were big.
 
It would be difficult for me to dumpster dive for food but it is interesting to see what some people go through to survive.

In the university section of our city, a pizzeria owner used to put all of the leftover pizza slices into boxes at closing time and carefuly place them in the dumpster behind the store. Minutes before the leftovers were placed into the dumpster they were on sale inside the store and in the blink of an eye, they became garbage. The practice was discontinued after other local merchants complained about the undesirable people loitering behind the stores.

I suppose that we all have some sort of personal standard that we apply to the consumption of expired, dropped, or discarded food.

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Ruth n Jersey said:
It makes me sad that people in this country need to do this or go hungry
. Our local supermarket has an area in most every department for marked down items. Sometimes produce and baked goods are also marked down as day old. Much better than dumpster diving.

.
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And, too, Ruth, shame on big chain stores for not doing more, knowing all the waste that happens each day.
 
Chet said:
Growing up, I don't remember homelessness being a problem, so why now?
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That really is a good and possibly very complicated question. Mental illness, people who just won't hold a job? Is part of it rents and property going up so much? I just don't know. Wish I did. The area behind my work place is unbuildable. Homeless people go there and leave their garbage. There was a guy yelling off and on for a week. Haven't heard him. I don't know if he moved on or got picked up. He was clearly psychotic.

The town I live in was once decently cheap, especially for California. New apartments near me are renting at 1.400 for a one bedroom. There are cheaper places but I saw a small one bedroom online, no pets 950. Seriously what the...
 
Aunt Marg said:
And, too, Ruth, shame on big chain stores for not doing more, knowing all the waste that happens each day.
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So agree. Why are retailers able to take a rug, spray paint it and throw it out instead of donating it to a thrift store or Habitat for Humanity? Because they can use it as a right off? I don't know, can't you write off donations. Something needs to be done that disallows waste for usable items. Even slightly damaged items people can use, repair, repurpose.
 
Chet said:
Growing up, I don't remember homelessness being a problem, so why now?
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I do remember seeing some homeless people back in the 50's. but not many. These days we have more veterans out on the streets because we don't take care of them properly, more drugs available which adds to the homeless problem. Also back when I was growing up in the 50s families took care of there own, even with problems so at least they had food and a roof over their heads.
 
Remy said:
So agree. Why are retailers able to take a rug, spray paint it and throw it out instead of donating it to a thrift store or Habitat for Humanity? Because they can use it as a right off? I don't know, can't you write off donations. Something needs to be done that disallows waste for usable items. Even slightly damaged items people can use, repair, repurpose.
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I couldn't agree more, Remy.

In many ways I'm glad we don't fully know the extent of waste, because for those of us like you and me, we'd be sick with grief and anger.
 

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