#diving haul

[dumpster-divers-unite]

Semi successful dive for tonight; giant bulk can of cut green beans. In date!

(I found an equally giant can of baked beans. Might go back after it)

[dumpster-divers-unite]

There is so much more waste out there then your brain can imagine.

That’s a fact. There is SO MUCH waste out there just in clothing alone. After it’s been ‘consumed’, we think to donate it to give it another life. When that happens to literally millions of items, the chance of what was formally your stuff getting that well deserved second chance is diminished significantly.

I’m going to give you guys a tiny behind the scenes on a warehouse I’ve partially toured yesterday for a job. It was at a goodwill location with a bin style layout for second hand consumers. The crowd of people there were of all ages and backgrounds. The moment one of the workers put a fresh bin out, they swarmed it to pick through it like a horde of zombies.

The warehouse portion of the store was as huge as your mind could think of in terms of ‘large spaces’ but bigger. I had to follow one of the associates to the offices to interview, and I slowed to look at the literal HUNDREDS of gaylords stacked in 2’s in the middle of the storage space. Every single gaylord was stuffed with clothing. If you don’t know, a Gaylord is a really big foldable cardboard box that bulk stuff like produce get shipped in. It didn’t even hit me that all of them were packed to the brim with clothing until I rounded one of the corners to see the other side of the gaylord wall, were I saw the clothing bales. Visually, it was an assault to the eyes; there was so much to see but you couldn’t just stop to gawk at it all. As I walked through, I couldn’t help but to think of how much that all must have costed first hand. How much is a normal long sleeve t shirt, $25+? Multiply it by 10,000+ in every color of the rainbow, every mix, every match, every style, and without repeating your outfits. In long sleeve shirts alone, that’s a staggering $250k. Jeans and denims are popular right now and are flooding first hand brands and trickling their way to thrifts/second hands. According to my fast research online, both men’s and women’s brand new store brand are selling for upwards of $156 on average. Ask yourself, “how many pairs of jeans do I see at my favorite thrift stores? How many racks of jeans are available second hand right now?” and see if you can come up with a number. Sense denim jeans are so common, I could reasonably use the same 10k number for the estimated amount of jeans that are in that warehouse right now and say with some level of confidence that there are at least $1,560,000 in new/like new garments hidden beneath the rest of the unwanted clothing. The numbers, on all sides, were staggering and sickening to think about. If people took the time and effort to do so, I promise you they could have stacked all of the items (both folded and unfolded) to the ceiling.

Backing away now from those dizzying numbers; coming out from the warehouse portion and back to the bins, I was near breathless. ‘Breathtaking in a queasy way’ is my best way of conveying my experience with facing, head on, how much people are consuming and discarding. I can say with absolute confidence and certainty that everything you’re seeing and reading online about the waste/pollution problem in the clothing world is true. This is one of those issues that you can only really display online to get your point across sadly, and that might take away some of the reality of the problem. The rampant message to consume more and more of the clothing that these big brand stores are offering at every opportunity they have is one issue in a sea of many, but we can start to solve it ourselves. The power to do so is in our own hands sense this is a social issue that we have to tackle together. This isn’t an issue that a government can give an answer or a set of answers for.

I encourage you to take the deep dive into your wardrobe when you have time to pick out what you’re wearing and not. Ask yourself, “What makes me wear this? What makes this shirt worth keeping? What element of this style of garment do I like, and why do I like it? Why am I keeping this if I haven’t thought about or touched this item in the past 6 months to a year?” And see what your answers are. Separate your worn from your unworn and see what can reasonably be recycled or repurposed at home before it goes to the thrift.

Be passionate about preventing waste. Maybe one day, we won’t have to worry about the mountains of clothing and items stuck in warehouses and in dumps. For now, take it slow.

[dumpster-divers-unite]

Being curious (and cheap) pays ;)

If you live in an apartment complex and have a laundry facility (with no cameras), it’s worth giving that trash can tucked away in the corner a peek. Just stick your hand in there and root around for a few seconds. I did and came out with a detergent cup’s worth of what would be tossed detergent.

I saw some shirts in the trash and that’s what attracted me. My poor little thermal blankie got tossed I’m pretty sure and I wanted to make sure that no one was missing their beloved shirts. The shirt was ripped up in the front and was probably a work shirt; but the bright yellow bottles found under it caught my eyes. Yoink out of the trash it goes. I flipped the 3 bottles over with the caps on and blue liquid oozed from the nozzle. Ooooh, someone wasn’t paying close enough attention. Free detergent for me.

It’s worth looking, ya know. Just a peek.

[dumpster-divers-unite]

I want to point out that if you're ever looking for wood for a project then it seems that Craigslist is the way to go. In my area I have seen at least 10+ listings for wooden objects such as pallets.

[dumpster-divers-unite]

It's a good day for me! I wanted cookies and now I have cookies!

[dumpster-divers-unite]

Another friend and I found some cool album sleeves of a punk screemo band called 'Snag'. I've never heard of them but I'm open to their style. Diggin the album cover art though.

I'm at her place rn so I'll see what they sound like once I get home.

[dumpster-divers-unite]

Holy heck.... I thought people were joking when they said they could find whole untouched everything in the dumpsters. It was raining earlier today so tonight wasn't really the best time to go, but maybe in a way it was.

The first 2 pictures are surface shots of what lay within. The first shows some cake, unmercifully flipped over to it's once nicely iced top. All of the colors of the cakes really stood out against the boxes and random trash that lay on top. Cupcakes, cakes, cornbread, and the occasional soggy rouge donut lay exposed to the elements. I digged around a little (keep in mind, there was no way I was going to jump in there, it was way too slippery to even dare) through what I could and I was in disbelief.

I am now more passionate about getting what I can out of those dumps on my next run. Y'all have shown me and I have went out to see for myself, food waste is a huge problem. Whole chocolate cakes shouldn't be sent to the bin because you have produced too much.

The very last image is the one good thing I found- some hawi'ian bun sandwiches that tasted great and still had the seal on the package. I almost found a pack of (somewhat crushed) cookies but they were opened from being tossed in.

I need to wait for a trash truck to haul away what is already bad and wait for new material.... and to check the weather. I was wet with sweat once I stepped in the door.

[dumpster-divers-unite]

Diving at work yesterday was super risky, but worth it! I found a whole uneaten and untouched chilly dog.... well, uneaten until I munched on it. People tend to throw out whatever they don't eat at work when there is a staff refrigerator available to them.