Simple & Frugal

March 2005
Vol. 1, No. 1
A Compendium of the Best on Simple & Frugal Living!

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Hello Simple & Frugal Subscribers!

Welcome to the first edition of the Simple & Frugal News.  The goal of Simple & Frugal News is to provide you with relevant and helpful information about simple and frugal living topics.

Simple & Frugal News will do the work of finding the best resources, freebies, information, books, and websites so you don’t have to spend your time searching and instead get on with simplifying your life.  Each issue will contain announcements about upcoming simple and frugal living classes, links to great websites that provide great freebies or information on simple and frugal living, original articles, book reviews, and tips, tools, and techniques.

Simple & Frugal News is a compendium that is brief and to the point to minimize the amount of time it takes to read so you can spend more time living.

In short, Simple & Frugal News is your one stop monthly brief providing you with the best available information on simple and frugal living.

Enjoy,

Jona E. Kessans

Founder, Simple & Frugal

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Question of the Month:  What is the largest man-made structure in the United States?

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This Month’s Topic: Dumpster Diving

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From the Editor:

This month’s topic will cover dumpster diving.  For many simple livers, dumpster diving doesn’t rank in the top 10 ways of simple or frugal living.  However, I know several people who actually make a large percentage of their income and furnish their homes this way.  Statistically, America is the most wasteful country on the planet according to the book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf.  From a simple and frugal perspective, dumpster diving provides yet another viable option to reduce spending and reduce waste that will go into landfills both important to the goals of simple living.  My friend Tom is what I call an expert in this perspective.

Tom, a freelance artist, introduced me to the art of dumpster diving several years ago and taught me the ropes of this little known art form.  For Tom, dumpster diving means he can continue to be a freelance artist since his finds provide him with economic support.  Specifically, Tom sells his dive finds at his twice-yearly blow-out yard sales and on eBay. And according to Tom this averages about $20,000 in additional income per year and a few thousand dollars in tax write-offs.

When Tom first told me about dumpster diving I was fascinated that anyone could make a living, even partially, by simply “re-distributing” goods that had been thrown out.  So Tom was kind enough to teach me the ins and outs of dumpster diving by taking me on a few of his “dives.”

Since that day, although I don’t make a practice of it, I have on occasion been able to find some really nice and useful items that I have sold on eBay, used, or donated for the tax write-off. 

So, I put this issue together for those seeking other possible options to continue on the journey toward simplifying their lives.  And hopefully, if nothing else, it will provide you with entertaining reading. 

Also, as always, please feel free to submit your experiences, tips, or articles on this topic to simplefrugal@fuse.net.  We always want to hear about your experiences and insight.

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In This Issue:
Question of the Month

Simple & frugal Living Courses

S&F Book Review & Overview
3 Tips from a Novice Dumpster Diver

The Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs of Dumpster Diving

Website of the Month: The Dumpster Lady
Next Month’s Topic: Garage/Yard Sales

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Simple & Frugal Living Courses

Simplify Your Life Now Course—FREE at Barnes & Noble University

Title: Simplify Your Life Now
Starting: March 5, 2005
Course Type: Online Instructor-led Course
Estimated Completion Time: 24 hour(s)
Session Length: 4 week(s)
Course Information: Buried in clutter? Calendar crammed with commitments? Not enough money to do what you want? Feel drained and tired? Wish there were a better way? There is! You can simplify your life and have more time and energy to do what you really love. Our simplicity course will help you to focus on what's most important to you, and will help you effectively strip away all the excess things, commitments, and financial problems that keep you from living your life as you want.
Register at: B&N University
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Your Money or Your Life—Course offered through www.simpleliving.net

Start Date: March 22, 2005
Fee: $50
Offered By: Simple Living Network (www.simpleliving.net)
Course Information: Your Money Or Your Life presents a simple, nine-step plan that will transform the way you think about, earn and spend money. This plan, a whole systems approach based on simple record keeping and your own unique life situation, works for anyone who earns or spends money. Singles and couples (with and without children), retirees and students, big earners and those below the poverty line have all been successful in doing the program.
Register at: www.simpleliving.net

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S&F Book Review & Overview
The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman
Quick Review
I first read this now classic book on dumpster diving several years ago and have re-read it several times since.  If you have ever been curious about the topic, then this is the book to read.  John Hoffman does a great job of giving the inside tips on how to dumpster dive, what to look for, what to avoid, and how to spot the best sites for diving.  Beware though, some readers may find his political statements in the book to be somewhat offensive.  John makes no bones about it: he is not a great fan of the police or authority in general.  However, if you read his political rants with a grain of salt you will actually find yourself laughing at them rather than being annoyed.  Although I am not a big dumpster diver, I really enjoyed this book because it explored a part of simple living that I had no idea existed at the time.  Moreover, I have on occasion dumpster dove and found some useful items I’ve sold, used, or donated for the tax write-off.  For the novice, occasional, or hard-core divers, or those just looking for more information, The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving is a good (and sometimes funny) read.

Book Overview:
The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving takes you on a guided tour of America's back alleys where amazing wealth is carelessly discarded. Hoffman will show you where to find the good stuff, how to rescue it and how to use it, including: step-by-step, illustrated dumpster diving techniques, how to work your neighborhood dumpsters, tips for dumpster diving restaurants, how to convert trash to cash, how to dress for dumpster-diving success, how to handle run-ins with cops, and more.

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3 Tips from a Novice Dumpster Diver
As stated before, I usually don’t dumpster dive too often.  However, on the few occasions that I have participated I’ve found it to be both entertaining and rewarding.  Based on my novice experience I have a few tips I’ve learned and haven’t read anywhere else.  They are as follows:

1. Unless a bag is obviously filled with bulky items, it is best not to rip it open, in a residential area because homeowners become irate due to the high incidence of identity theft these days.
2. I have found that one of the best times to dumpster dive is right after a neighborhood yard/garage sale because most people don’t want to drag the remaining items back into their garages/houses and will just put what is left over on the curb for garbage pick-up.
3. Try to dive when it is light out because people are less suspicious and will usually not call the cops when it is obvious that you are only dumpster diving.

SOUND OFF: If you have any experience with dumpster diving or tips you would like to share please email them to us at simplefrugal@fuse.net.

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The Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs of Dumpster Diving By David Templeton
As dumpsters go, the one I'm now lying in doesn't smell half bad. The trash container behind that restaurant last night was much worse, a prime example of why most professional "dumpster divers" avoid food cans at all costs. It's hard to get the memory out of my mind: ripe with the commingled remains of blue-plate specials and coffee grounds and soft shreds of slippery-brown lettuce. It was no picnic, though to the homeless guy who showed up as I was leaving, one would suppose that "picnic" is a fairly apt description.

So where am I?

That's right. In the trash. The receptacle in which I am now submerged--a giant, treasure-filled waste bin at a Santa Rosa industrial complex--is, relatively speaking, a joy and a delight, a dumpster diver's paradise. Dry and warm (the time being just after 10 in the morning), the air in here is peculiarly pleasant. Perfumed with the dusty musk of damp paper and office supplies, undercut by the sharp citrusy scent of aged and rusting metal, the experience is not at all bad--it's even somewhat intoxicating.

Or is the buzz I'm feeling only the raw adrenaline rush of having hit a vein of dumpster gold? For I have just uncovered two-dozen perfectly good cassette tapes--Steppenwolf! Joan Baez! Gary Puckett & the Union Gap?--buried beneath all the shredded paper and plastic bags.

"Can you imagine?" exclaims Ginger Quinn, the Sonoma County artist--and seasoned dumpster diver--who has graciously agreed to act as my trashcan tour-guide this morning. "Someone actually threw this out!" She holds up the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing, clucking with mild disdain. A moment later, she uncovers a pile of CDs, but is disappointed to discover the plastic cases are empty. A few minutes later, she nimbly pulls herself up and out into the morning light, jumping to the ground with a satisfied sigh. "Isn't trash fun?" she whoops.

Quinn has been peering into trashcans for years. In various travels from New York City to Taos, N. M., she has learned that all communities are unified by one startling factor: everyone throws away cool stuff.

Most of the wood scraps and odd, motley tidbits Quinn has recovered have ended up in her whimsical altars and bright, mirrored sculptures. The founder of Art from the Heart--a non-profit program that reaches out to at-risk children by encouraging their creativity--Quinn discovered long ago that within the dumpsters of America lie rich mother lodes of worthy raw material, valuable stuff that, were people like herself not there to rescue it, would only end up as so much waste in our ever-growing landfills.

Glancing inside another bin, crammed with lumber and unused drywall, Quinn murmurs, "You could probably find enough construction material in dumpsters to build your own house!" Later, after striking out at several dumpsters, we notice an enormous stack of sleek wooden boxes, piled up by a back entrance, on their way to the dump.

"What a score!" she crows, loading the boxes into the car. "Isn't it amazing what we throw away in this country? Whether it's tapes or crates or throwaway kids, I find it incredibly troubling that we don't try to do more with the things we have."

Talking Trash

The phrase "dumpster diving" was coined only a decade or so ago, though the inclination to remove goodies from other people's trash is about as old as civilization itself. From the Trojan Horse on, folks have been grabbing things that others have left behind. But it's never been as profitable or as widely practiced as it is today.

The scavengers range from eccentric junk artists to cash seeking, aluminum-can collectors to pragmatic flea-market vendors and fearless redistributors of memorabilia; from hardened, anti-waste activists to wide-eyed teenagers looking for cool, free goodies; from the merely curious to the severely hungry.

Dumpster diving is not exclusively an American pastime either. A cursory search of related Websites on the Internet reveals that dumpster diving has become an international phenomenon. There are sites originating from England, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, and Japan; many of them offer books, tapes, and videos on the subject. One features catchy, grunge-style "Music to Dumpster Dive By." The Loyal Order of Dumpster Divers in Victoria, British Columbia, has not only helpful advice but a complete line of dumpster-diving apparel as well.

So what is the attraction here? How do we explain the peculiar but undeniable appeal of climbing into big smelly trashcans? Though the cultural motivations of its practitioners shift wildly, and the laws, safety precautions, and technical difficulties (locked dumpsters, for instance) vary from city to city and person to person, the bottom line is simple: It's the stuff.

Instant Wealth

According to the Treasures Found Website--to which divers have submitted astonishing first-person accounts of the groovy things they've found in the trash--sharp-eyed divers have scored such bounty as a working Pentium computer (sans keyboard), numerous mice, modems, and other computer supplies; color TVs, chairs, china, jewelry (one guy found an engagement ring in a trash bin and promptly proposed to his girlfriend); a Ralph Lauren suede skirt, a complete swing record collection, a set of lawn furniture, wood scraps and lumber (often used for firewood); a set of slides from someone's trip to Moscow, miles of Christmas lights, an Asteroids video game player, a loaded handgun (excuse me?), $37.27 worth of pennies in a shoe box, and even--someone "swears to God"--a John Deere tractor.

"It's like snapping your fingers and creating instant wealth--out of nothing," exclaims author John Hoffman, speaking on the phone from Seattle. "I walk around in a constant state of shock at how much is thrown away. I see so much being wasted, but I can only capture so much of it. The rest is up to everyone else."

Hoffman, an outgoing, gregarious guy with a contagious attitude and a passion for trash, has become something of a guru to the maligned and misunderstood dumpsterers of the world. His offbeat, philosophical guide book, The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving (Loomponics, 1994), transformed him into a household name among the diving community, and--with numerous radio and television appearances, including a weekly radio show distributed throughout Europe and spots on ABC's Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends--he's earned a certain level of mainstream celebrity as well.

"It's the role that's been thrust upon me," he laughs. "So be it. Anything to promote dumpsterism."

I [Heart] Junk

Dumpsterism? "There's capitalism, right? And Marxism. And they both have their good points," Hoffman reasons. "My thing is that there is plenty of good stuff, and people should just, you know, scavenge it, so then everybody will have plenty. That's dumpsterism: an alternative economic vision. It might not be respected as highly as capitalism and Marxism, but hey--it works for me.

"The point is this: Every time someone goes into a dumpster and pulls something out that they can use, that's one thing that doesn't have to be manufactured again. That's good for the planet. The fact that dumpster diving is also a major kick in the butt, that's just icing on the cake!"

Hoffman's book brought him to the attention of San Jose artist/filmmaker Suzanne Girot. In early 1996, she and her film crew followed Hoffman for several days of dumpster diving and a heady dose of his anti-waste evangelism. The result is The Ultimate Dive, a 22-minute video in which the "Master Diver" (Hoffman) takes an apprentice and decries the rise of trash compactors and locked dumpsters. The film has been racking up awards in film festivals across the globe, including a second-place award at the Victoria International Film Fest in Canada, runner-up at the Berlin Transmedia Video Festival and at the Canyon Land Film Festival in Utah. Next month it will screen at a festival in Barcelona, Spain.

"I just wanted to show, in a fun, visual way, exactly how much we throw out," Girot says. "Not to encourage others to go out and do it, so much as to demonstrate the negative side of all this consumerism. I mean, don't people realize that this stuff is going to end up buried in the earth? Don't they know that someone out there could probably use it?"

A renowned reuse artist herself, Girot has as her most striking work a series of giant sculptures depicting odd, mutating animals, constructed with castoff materials and dried seaweed. In addition to The Ultimate Dive, she directed the well-received documentary Garbage Stories, featuring four innovative public garbage recycling programs, including Petaluma's own Recycletown.

"As much as I love junk," she confesses, "and as much recycled scrap as I've worked into my various installations, I'm still more comfortable hauling it away from a dump than I am crawling into a dumpster to get it. It's just personal choice.

"The divers like John have a special bravura that not everyone has."

Zero Waste

Natalie Timm of Sonoma County's Creative Reuse has mixed feelings about these people whom she affectionately refers to as "garbage scavengers": "I'm glad that they are saving material from the landfills, but on the other hand, I wish our recycling systems were such that there were no usable materials going into dumpsters."

Timm is a longtime supporter of the zero-waste movement, seeking to eliminate all household and corporate detritus through recycling operations and creative reuse programs.

"Our systems are not yet set up to support the reuse that is necessary," she says. "So, of course, the dumpsters are full of stuff for the garbage scavengers to take. When I see what businesses pitch out, the total disregard for the environment that they show, it saddens me. It's lazy and it's uncreative. And everyone who throws something away that could be redistributed in some way is missing out on a very rewarding experience.

"I suppose that's what drives the dumpster divers," she adds. "Reuse is very rewarding. It genuinely feels good."

Rhapsodic Diving

"When I first started dumpster diving, my mom used to hassle me about it," shrugs "Spaz" (whose real name is withheld on request). He laughs a throaty, self-deprecating chuckle as he directs the beams of a tiny keychain-sized flashlight into the depths of a gloomy, but generously heaped trash bin. He immediately spies a slew of magazines, which he pulls from the dumpster and tucks under his arm.

"Then one time I found an angora sweater," he continues. "It was just a little bit torn, so I brought it home and gave it to my mother. An angora sweater! She never bothered me again."

It is nearing midnight--Spaz's favorite time to explore the trash of Santa Rosa--and he is leading me, on foot, through one of his favorite "routes." Even this late, the streets are surprisingly populated and full of noise. The creator of a notoriously confessional underground zine called Spazoleum, Spaz is known for his rhapsodic diving adventures. Although he is able to recite the same kind of anti-waste theory as Hoffman and Girot, he is quick to point out that the real motivation for these late-night trash treks is the fact that it's "a socially unacceptable practice."

"Since I was, I don't know, 10 years old maybe," he laughs, leading the way to the next stop, "if someone said, 'Don't do that,' whatever it was, it was like you couldn't keep me away after that. I guess I like pissing off the business world."

He pounds on the side of one metallic box, as if testing its ripeness before looking further. He glances in. "Nothing," he says. "I used to work for an appliance store," he says, leading me on to the next stop. "Sometimes we'd pitch perfectly good used TVs and things. The boss made us smash them up so that no dumpster diver could take it without paying. I found a whole bunch of shoes once that had been thrown away. Brand-new shoes. Someone sliced them up first with a razor. Any way you look at it, that's wrong."

We've come to a promising row of dumpsters, only to discover that they are all locked. Spaz shakes the locks playfully, and the noisy clammering echoes eerily across the abandoned parking lot. "When I first started out," he tells me, "locked dumpsters used to bug me. But not anymore." He holds up a glittering piece of metal dangling from his flashlight. "Now I have the key!" he grins. Two seconds later, he's inside the dumpster.

Yikes. This certainly seems to be pushing the edge of appropriate behavior. The dumpster--one of the Empire Waste company's numerous locked boxes--has the same basic padlock that all the companies others have. One key fits all. Spurred by anger at some citizen's attempts to lock up their garbage, a certain segment of the dumpster diving community has made it their duty to see that the point is made moot. [Empire Waste refused to return calls regarding this story.]

"I'm sworn to secrecy, basically," Spaz grins. "But the keys are not hard to get. Punk rock concerts are a good place to ask around. As far as I know, there are plenty of [keys] circulating." He disappears into the dumpster, bobbing up shortly with an armful of rare Tin Tin comic books. "The best stuff is in the locked ones," he beams.

A Few Fine Legal Points

It is at this point certain questions come to mind. Mainly, isn't all of this illegal? The answer: it depends. "As far as I know, there is no dumpster-diving ordinance, if that's what you mean," says Officer Dan Dragos of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. He suggests that the practice of entering a dumpster might be prosecutable as trespassing and that removal of items from said receptacle might constitute theft. "But the business owner would have to make a private citizen's arrest if he or she wanted to see that enforced," he adds.

Calls to other law enforcement agencies revealed much the same thing. Though dumpster diving is not strictly against the law, it is frowned upon, and officers who come upon practitioners will usually send them on their way.

With the exception of Las Vegas, there are few cities with laws directly addressing dumpster diving. In Vegas, where dumpster diving has led to a series of mishaps involving people being crushed to death in waste disposal units ("It gets pretty ugly sometimes," confirms an officer at the Las Vegas Police Department), it's a matter of public safety.

And then there are other safety issues, such as the matter of possible exposure to toxins, rusty nails, glass, or used syringes--all dangers that are suggested by the various officers.

"Just tell these wackos to stay out of other people's trash," says a Los Angeles police officer who declines to give his name. It is a sentiment shared by the majority of business owners whose trash has become a playground for divers. Though some--such as waste-conscious manufacturers and others whose business generates a bounty of scrap material--will welcome scrap artists and others who present themselves and ask permission before peering into the bins, many express concern for everything from potential lawsuits to industrial sabotage or fraud. Thus, in order to discourage scavengers, many organizations deliberately destroy usable merchandise before dumping it.

"We strip the covers from books before they go into the trash, yes," says Jason Cruces of Barnes & Noble booksellers. "We strip them at the publisher's insistence. Otherwise someone could fish them out and then bring them into the stores for a refund.

"It's standard practice in the industry."

As for dumpster divers clambering through his own store's trash, Cruces says he hasn't been aware that it's much of an issue. "Then again, I'm not watching the dumpsters day and night," he shrugs. Told of Spaz's assertion that businesses destroy merchandise out of spite, Cruces says, "If at all possible, we will recycle or redistribute books and magazines. We strip and trash books only as a last resort. I imagine that if businesses are destroying merchandise, it's to discourage people from getting in the dumpsters and hurting themselves."

The streets are quiet now. Only the clank, clank, clank of a woman searching out aluminum cans disturbs the silence as Spaz quietly loads his car. His bounty from the three-hour excursion is remarkable: Two classic Tin Tin books, an educational video on astronomy, a dust mop, the aforementioned magazines, two brand-new Minolta camera equipment cases, and a textbook on early California history. He considers taking a bag of shredded photographs ("They're great for making collages"), but decides not to bother. As he closes the trunk of his car, he seems happy and satiated, like someone's uncle pushing himself back from the table after Thanksgiving dinner.

"All in all, it's been a pretty good night," he says. "I know it's not the classiest thing in the world," he bobs his head shyly, "climbing into the trash and everything. But neither is chucking something valuable because you're too mean to give it away or too lazy to find someone who can use it.

"If someone wants to get rid of something," he adds, "there are plenty of us out here waiting to take it."

From the July 10-16, 1997 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

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Website of the Month: The Dumpster Lady

http://members.aol.com/TheDumpsterLady/thedumpsterlady.htm
Interesting website with information on frequently asked questions about dumpster diving.

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Answer to the Question of the Month:
Opened as a "temporary landfill" in 1947, The Fresh Kills Landfill covers 2200 acres, can be seen with the naked eye from space and is taller then the Statue of Liberty, at a height of 225 ft. It is situated on the western shore of Staten Island and is made up of four sections that contain fifty plus years of landfill, mostly in the form of household waste.

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Next Month’s Topic:  Garage/Yard Sales

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"Simple & Frugal News" and Simple & Frugal does not assume responsibility for advice given.  
All advice should be weighed against your own abilities and circumstances and applied accordingly.  
It is up to the reader to determine if advice is safe and suitable for his/her own situation.