Jun 16, 2025
Found $1.65 in one of the pockets of a backpack that I found in the dumpster! Picking pays :)
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Finland
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
Found $1.65 in one of the pockets of a backpack that I found in the dumpster! Picking pays :)
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)
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.
It’s really insane how addicted to this one dumpster I am. It’s always a risk to dive there just because it’s behind a 24/7 station with no cover other then the cubby thing that dumpsters are usually protected by, but the gate is always open with no cameras. The right dump is such a reliable source of food that I’m starting to identify the ‘good’ bag by sight alone. It’s a literal mixed bag of what I can find once I can identify it. Will I be getting pizza tonight? Will I be getting breakfast type sandwiches? Will the breads be croissants or French toast? I’ve only ever found a donut bag with good donuts once through there and I’m hopin I can pull that stunt off again. The single pastry I got cracked in half and fell into the dump as I was crawling in.
Reminders!; try not to tear bags, don’t make a mess, leave some for others if it’s a popular spot, and don’t be too loud!
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.
I finally got 2 folding shopping carts!
It took my neighbor moving out and some interacting with someone who somehow knew her via my partner, bc he gets involved with the most interesting people somehow, to get them. One is smaller and is in near perfect condition, and the bigger one needs bars replaced. It may need a replacement something for the handle.
We got a lot of stuff from her unit, too! She’s not coming back to this unit sense she’s going to prison (long long story) and it’s saving us a lot of $$ in the long run. The original plan was to go to some of the thrift stores that I know for sure have cutlery and other miscellaneous objects up for grabs. $30 of gas and maybe $20 for the stuff we’d want makes $50 of money that we can keep in our pockets.
From today, we got; bowls (Pyrex), umbrellas, more milk crates, clothing/pants (not for me, for a friend), a blanket, round head forms (for my ‘adult’ gear), little bit of bleach, polyfill bag, & spools of sewing thread!
Edit: forgot to mention we got lotion and a working ring light!
I just tried to look in the dumpsters again then found a real burlap rice sack in the wayy back of one of them 👀 I was just looking for some wire hangers to repair the larger shopping cart.
Then there was a… raccoon, I want to say? In the bottom of the opposite (left) dump. I think I scared it by talkin real loud. It didn’t move too much so idk if it was alright or if I just scared it? They cut down a HUGE section of a wooded area near me not too long ago so it wouldn’t shock me too much if the raccoons are having to switch tactics. If the sack is still there tomorrow you can bet I’ll be hopping in there to get it!!
Whoever on here said that work pants aren’t even made to last no more; you are 10^100% right. I just discovered that I have a 2+ inch big hole on my pants along with another parallel to it bc my thighs are mighty. I am able to fix damn near everything cloth related but
my work pants getting holes when they are under a year old is
unacceptable.