I lived in a college town, as a townie, for a long time. It was neat getting to grab all the computer equipment, sometimes a desk or two, and then the small fridges which sell quite nicely at the start of the next year. I haven't had time, inclination, or need to raid UMF in a long time but I understand that it is quite a popular sport these days and that you have to be speedy because all the good stuff is gone quite quickly.

At move out time in May, the faculty and staff at my college dumpster dive. That's how I got my the laser printer in my office, and we all now have dorm fridges in our offices.

Countless students have gotten completely good computers and appliances from the dumpsters that our extremely affluent (I'm talking Saudi oil money affluent) students discard every year.

UnspokenVoice: I lived in a college town, as a townie, for a long time. It was neat getting to grab all the computer equipment, sometimes a desk or two, and then the small fridges which sell quite nicely at the start of the next year. I haven't had time, inclination, or need to raid UMF in a long time but I understand that it is quite a popular sport these days and that you have to be speedy because all the good stuff is gone quite quickly.

Yep.

But if you work in relevant parts of the university, like Housing, you can get first crack at all the best stuff too.

Then, there's the endless dumpster diving behind the "luxury" apartments. Definitely some good stuff to be had, and that was BEFORE the official "Dump and Run" style programs were started.

Three times a year, the college students at the university I work near throw out TVs, furniture, computer and stereo equipment, all kinds of stuff. It's both incredible and disgusting. The sight of a four-month-old sofa sticking up out of a dumpster is a common one.

It's especially stupid because there are plenty of local charities (similar to and including Goodwill) that will come pick the stuff up if you just give them a call. You won't even have to lug it out to the dumpster.

And it's especially sickening because a lot of these kids specifically make an effort to keep anyone else from using their discarded stuff. They smash TVs and computer monitors, rip up furniture upholstery, etc. And they clip electrical cords as short as they can.

Just a month or so ago I saw frat boys cutting up their perfectly good leather sectional with kitchen knives. A couple of years ago, I saw three kids pouring something over a jumble of stuff they'd put in a dumpster, laughing. They'd pissed in a big jar until it was full and saved it just to dump on their discarded stuff so no one else could have it.

It's pretty bad. I hope most of these kids wind up living in craphole apartments, unable to afford furniture or electronics, for their first year or two after they graduate.

People wait until students leave before swiping stuff?

When I went to college, if you turned your back on your property for a second, or left your door unlocked, you could kiss it goodbye.

As far as I understand, that's pretty much the rule everywhere, all the time.

Amiright?

I went to school in LA and aside from a small upper crust of frat kids, most students scrounged the oldest, cheapest stuff off of craigslist that they could find. Cinderblock coffee tables, old couches, old TVs, etc. Once we brought in a free non-functional jacuzzi from the valley and re-wired it for our house.

We did do a few silly things though. When our big TV died for good, we called Kappa Sig and they had their pledges take it, hoist it onto their roof and throw it off. The lenses made useful solar cigarette lighters. Possibly not the most efficient solution, but frinkin' fun. We also had a few extra fridges we took from campus housing. Sadly, they were a few inches too small to make into 1/2 keg kegerators.

When we were especially broke, we'd go behind frat row and take off with all of the empty kegs to return for deposits.

Virtually every piece of furniture in my apartment was abandoned by departing college students. Off the top of my head, I paid for one thing, my desk chair.

Yes, but the drapes, could you wipe your dick on them?

/New band name: If Drapes Could Talk.
//More drunker.

I used to work as a garbage man and I can tell you we loved it when the kids at Gonzaga moved out.

We would deliver three forty yard containers. Within a day or so they would be filled up and we'd return to take them to the burn plant. We wouldn't dump then directly into the pit though, they would get dumped on the floor and anyone who was there at the time would pick through it and find some great stuff. TVs, CD players, clothes, microwaves, porn, unopened beer and booze bottles (not sure how those made it into the trash). It was like Christmas morning to a trash troll.

The only better time was when stores would throw out last years products to make room for hte new stuff.

Kumana Wanalaia: People wait until students leave before swiping stuff?

When I went to college, if you turned your back on your property for a second, or left your door unlocked, you could kiss it goodbye.

As far as I understand, that's pretty much the rule everywhere, all the time.

Amiright?

No. You live in a bad community and should feel bad.

/front door is unlocked 24/7

attackingpencil: I paid for one thing, my desk chair.

probably a good choice

CnFlght: Kumana Wanalaia: People wait until students leave before swiping stuff?

When I went to college, if you turned your back on your property for a second, or left your door unlocked, you could kiss it goodbye.

As far as I understand, that's pretty much the rule everywhere, all the time.

Amiright?

No. You live in a bad community and should feel bad.

/front door is unlocked 24/7

Yeah. My Aunt thought that too until she came home and all of movies and her TV was gone.

Kumana Wanalaia [TotalFark] 2009-06-07 05:26:29 PM
People wait until students leave before swiping stuff?

When I went to college, if you turned your back on your property for a second, or left your door unlocked, you could kiss it goodbye.

As far as I understand, that's pretty much the rule everywhere, all the time.

Amiright?

I left a state-of-the-art graphing calculator in the computer lab for two days before realizing it was gone. I found it right where I left it. My roommate across the hall left his outside his dorm room for hours. Still there when he came back. I have no clue why nobody stole them. These events were so contradictory to the way the world works, it actually kinda scared me.

Whatthefark: I used to work as a garbage man and I can tell you we loved it when the kids at Gonzaga moved out.

We would deliver three forty yard containers. Within a day or so they would be filled up and we'd return to take them to the burn plant. We wouldn't dump then directly into the pit though, they would get dumped on the floor and anyone who was there at the time would pick through it and find some great stuff. TVs, CD players, clothes, microwaves, porn, unopened beer and booze bottles (not sure how those made it into the trash). It was like Christmas morning to a trash troll.

The only better time was when stores would throw out last years products to make room for hte new stuff.

It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

Scavenging is an art form. I furnished our entire apt. for less than 100 aside from the new bed. I once found a vintage Persian rug in a dumpster.

WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

I always thought the same thing when I'd have to toss stripped books into the trash compactor when I worked at CVS. Why not donate the books to libraries, schools, bookmobiles? Or sell them to used book dealers? Hell, even Goodwill and Salvation Army have book sections.

Instead, they tear off the covers and throw them away. Such a shame. I'd take home any that caught my eye.

We put out a special donation bin next to all the dumpsters at the dorms, then pile everything together in the gym and have a sale. The proceeds along with whatever doesn't sell goes to charity.

No word on where interested parties can find discarded "garments" left behind by hot sorority sisters

Just what we need, chlamydia stained panties.

WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

AbbeySomeone: Scavenging is an art form. I furnished our entire apt. for less than 100 aside from the new bed. I once found a vintage Persian rug in a dumpster.

Back in my uni days, I saw quite a few places furnished like that. It's a special kind of college kitch.

Krieghund: Just what we need, chlamydia stained panties.

Forty-five bucks.

I had a nice rug, it really tied the room together. Gained a couch my last year to. Like a good college student, I committed my spoils back to the plentiful bounty of the dumpster once my 4 years were up. Everything of mine was taken in 1 day, high quality merch!

AbbeySomeone: Scavenging is an art form. I furnished our entire apt. for less than 100 aside from the new bed. I once found a vintage Persian rug in a dumpster.

Did it smell like pee?

About 10 years ago a friend took me dumpster diving at Wesleyan University in CT. We filled her SUV with mini-fridges, a couple of TVs and tons of clothes with the tags still on them, new sneakers still in the box, sports equipment--amazing stuff. That was just 1 trip's haul and she'd go a couple times a day around this time of year.
She said it's cheaper for the kids to throw everything out and buy new in the fall than to pay to store it or ship it home.
I still have one of the little fridges in my garage for parties.

vgt: AbbeySomeone: Scavenging is an art form. I furnished our entire apt. for less than 100 aside from the new bed. I once found a vintage Persian rug in a dumpster.

Did it smell like pee?

No, it smelled like Persians.

Here:

dionada: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

I always thought the same thing when I'd have to toss stripped books into the trash compactor when I worked at CVS. Why not donate the books to libraries, schools, bookmobiles? Or sell them to used book dealers? Hell, even Goodwill and Salvation Army have book sections.

Instead, they tear off the covers and throw them away. Such a shame. I'd take home any that caught my eye.

Goodwill actually has a lot of books with torn covers, just kind of raised my eyebrow when I saw that.

jshine: Here:

-1

Needs more tentacles

WildMonkey: mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

That it doesn't necessarily help anyone to give them the items these people are throwing away. You're assuming it would do so. I'm suggesting that it's just as valid to assume it will hurt them.

See my point? We don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and there's no real reason to believe either way for sure.

SVC_conservative: jshine: Here:

-1

Needs more tentacles


You're supposed to supply those yourself...

mattharvest: The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

I prefer the "light a fire for a man" parable: If you light a fire for a man, he'll be warm for the night. If you light a man *on* fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

WildMonkey Quote 2009-06-07 05:51:41 PM
mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

His point is that people shouldn't get something they didn't earn. If they want nice things, they should do what it takes to deserve them, not scavenge the discarded trophies of those who trained so hard to win life's race. This is, of course, total bullshiat in the case of college students. It's not like rich kids worked hard to be born to generous parents, while townies screwed up and got born to a blue collar Jerry Springer fan. This reminds of the skinny people with fast metabolisms who think they earned their svelte figures. People just don't want to face how much luck factors into everything they are.

mattharvest [TotalFark] Quote 2009-06-07 06:02:39 PM
WildMonkey: mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

That it doesn't necessarily help anyone to give them the items these people are throwing away. You're assuming it would do so. I'm suggesting that it's just as valid to assume it will hurt them.

See my point? We don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and there's no real reason to believe either way for sure.



Um ... didn't your friends or parents ever give you something just because they thought you'd like it?

I worked as a Resident Assistant for a while at college.

When the students all moved out of the dorms for the year, it was our jobs to go room-by-room and make sure that everyone had properly moved out and didn't damage anything.

If anything was left, I grabbed it.

Got quite a few pairs of neckties, lamps, posters, bookshelves, backpacks, etc.

What do you suppose happens to all the stuff Walmart can't sell, particularly leftover seasonal stuff? Yep, straight to the landfill. Clothes, toys, you name it.

dionada: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump

I always thought the same thing when I'd have to toss stripped books into the trash compactor when I worked at CVS. Why not donate the books to libraries, schools, bookmobiles? Or sell them to used book dealers? Hell, even Goodwill and Salvation Army have book sections.

Instead, they tear off the covers and throw them away. Such a shame. I'd take home any that caught my eye.

They have to do that by law. If they mail the covers back to the publisher, it proves the book was destroyed, and CVS doesn't have to pay the publisher/author royalities for it. It is, in effect, "returning" the copyright license for that book.

My alma mater (Ithaca) had a program called Take It Or Leave It, sponsored by the environmental society. We set up these big blue bins in all the dorms, left them there all through finals week, and picked 'em all up the weekend after everybody was gone for the summer. We all got to keep whatever we wanted, and we sold the rest at the beginning of the next year. It was one of the major ways we made money... taking the stuff the spoiled rich kids left behind and selling it back to them in August. It didn't hurt that spoiled rich kids made up 3/4 of the student body, either.

A good bit of my wardrobe is from TIOLI. Fond memories, indeed.

GeneFrenkle: Krieghund: Just what we need, chlamydia stained panties.

Forty-five bucks.

UnspokenVoice: I lived in a college town, as a townie, for a long time. It was neat getting to grab all the computer equipment, sometimes a desk or two, and then the small fridges which sell quite nicely at the start of the next year. I haven't had time, inclination, or need to raid UMF in a long time but I understand that it is quite a popular sport these days and that you have to be speedy because all the good stuff is gone quite quickly.

UMF? Seriously! I went there for um... nine years. ;)

Each dorm had storage in the basement for stuff people could leave behind over the summer. Most of it was never reclaimed. I saw rooms and rooms of all kinds of housewares and furniture just sitting untouched for ages.

Kumana Wanalaia: People wait until students leave before swiping stuff?

When I went to college, if you turned your back on your property for a second, or left your door unlocked, you could kiss it goodbye.

As far as I understand, that's pretty much the rule everywhere, all the time.

Amiright?

I went to school in Maine. I left things unlocked all the time with a bowl of cash sitting out in plain view. Never lost a cent...

When I was in school I stacked up boxes for bookshelves, had a folding step ladder has a nightstand, and a electrical spool has a coffee table. My computer desk was a large trunk.

I did however score a tv, printer, dining room chairs, table and a blender from the curb. Huh.

Well let me see, either give my junk to somebody that could use it or throw it out. Seems to me either one of those options doesn't concern me in the least, but I'll to the HUMAN thing and assume that someone might benefit from it.

Textbooks were by far the most profitable things to collect. The campus bookstore would pay up to half the cover price (which for many books was in the $35-$65 range) and sell them at a $5-$10 discount the following semester. I made several hundred dollars my last day in the dorm; the limiting factor was how much weight I was able to carry for several blocks.

aammaazzoonn: mattharvest [TotalFark] Quote 2009-06-07 06:02:39 PM
WildMonkey: mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

That it doesn't necessarily help anyone to give them the items these people are throwing away. You're assuming it would do so. I'm suggesting that it's just as valid to assume it will hurt them.

See my point? We don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and there's no real reason to believe either way for sure.



Um ... didn't your friends or parents ever give you something just because they thought you'd like it?

Sure, but they didn't explicitly state that the failure to do so would be what, in the words of the original post, "[is] what's wrong with this country". My point, which I've already said pretty clearly, is that it's simply unreasonable to pretend it would help these people anymore than it might hurt them.

We have no reason to believe this sort of help would - as the parable goes - do anything more than feed them for a day. Criticizing people for failing to feed people for a day distracts from the far more important issue of teaching people how to fish.

Better question: Where do all the shiat students go when they leave?

When I was a kid I lived within the triangle bounded by MIT, Harvard and Boston University. Every spring I got a new (to me) bicycle, record players, unbuilt model kits. comic books, just about anything. I picked all of that out of the 'trash.' Christmas? Who needed that?!

Despite the hippy-dippy vibe of some music festivals, the amount left behind is sickening. Wrapped food, chairs, brand-new tents, the lot. Honestly, how difficult is it to carry away the same tent that you brought in?

Krieghund: No word on where interested parties can find discarded "garments" left behind by hot sorority sisters

Just what we need, chlamydia stained panties.

Giggity.

mattharvest: aammaazzoonn: mattharvest [TotalFark] Quote 2009-06-07 06:02:39 PM
WildMonkey: mattharvest: WildMonkey: It's sad that people and company would rather destroy/dump perfectly good stuff than to give it to the needy. I think that's what's wrong with this country.

The converse of that is the old "Give a man a fish" parable.

Another one is "Waste not want not" what's your point?

That it doesn't necessarily help anyone to give them the items these people are throwing away. You're assuming it would do so. I'm suggesting that it's just as valid to assume it will hurt them.

See my point? We don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and there's no real reason to believe either way for sure.



Um ... didn't your friends or parents ever give you something just because they thought you'd like it?

Sure, but they didn't explicitly state that the failure to do so would be what, in the words of the original post, "[is] what's wrong with this country". My point, which I've already said pretty clearly, is that it's simply unreasonable to pretend it would help these people anymore than it might hurt them.

We have no reason to believe this sort of help would - as the parable goes - do anything more than feed them for a day. Criticizing people for failing to feed people for a day distracts from the far more important issue of teaching people how to fish.

Yeah and all this teaching to fish seems like charity work to me, who cares about others, fark them. Let us just concern ourselves with our need and screw the rest, what could possibly go wrong?