Dumpster Diving

On Facebook I follow Love in the Dumpster, one of the many pages that celebrates a culture of dumpster diving – digging through the trash bins behind businesses to score usable materials before their smashed and heaped into the landfills on the outskirts of town. There is quite a bit of useful material, especially for a homestead, that can be secured from dumpsters. You know, if I had land, a place to sort and process collected materials, I think I would take this up as a hobby, out there searching for free stuff I can find out along side roads and in dumpsters.

Pallets left curbside and in dumpsters are one of the most used resources I see used on homesteads – they not only provide wood for bonfires and starting woodstoves – they are used for animal shelters, fences and many other uses. They can be taken apart, their wood used in building structures and many other purposes. And if all else fails, they burn and make warmth and light. There are often pallets left along the road for the taking on Erie Boulevard which I often ride and drive by on my way to work.

I’ve been interested for some time in starting a coffee ground and composting collection in the office. I see this as a great source of nutrients when I have a homestead just currently going to the landfill. Or looking through dumpsters for food that could be taken home and fed to livestock, especially once I have hogs. I also look at all the shredded paper and other paper trash the data division produces, and can’t help to think what good bedding it would make, not to mention as a source of carbon mixed with in all the manure.

There really is a lot of possibilities those days when I own my own land.