TCU prof Dumpster-dives to highlight a disposable society

[Dover]

FORT WORTH — Don't ask Jeff Ferrell to define "fun."

"If I'm on two wheels, I'm having a good time," he said, riding his mountain bike down an older residential street in central Fort Worth.

He might find biking fun, but admits his real passion is Dumpster-diving...cont'd

Watch video or read transcript here:
http://www.kvue.com/news/consumer/133230498.html

[midnight]

1. A girlfriend of mine has a husband that does this...

[Dover]

2. I loved dumpster diving when in NYC. So much fun and found some amazing things...n/t

[Gregorian]

3. Another mountain biker diver here!

I've got a storage facility crammed with stuff I've found. Sears Roebuck had a repair center where I went to college. I got more stuff from that place. Floor jacks. Bearings. Wheels.

The best ever was a huge steel recycling place in Humboldt county. Lawn mowers, fuel transfer pumps. The list is huge.

No, the best was the 50,000 pounds of steel that someone dumped, and then I got permission to drag home. Titanium, aluminum, stainless. Must have been $100k worth of material.

[Dover]

4. WOW...that's some heavy metal! I guess recycling wasn't an option?

The metal recyclers would pay a pretty penny for that treasure trove of metal these days.

[Gregorian]

6. It was a big Bay Area machine shop.

They were selling to new owners.

I still have much of the steel. I have been moving with me from property to property. I just made special pallets for it yesterday. I"m preparing for yet another move. Ugh. But it's so cool to have every piece of metal I ever need right in my yard.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Can I be your friend?

:hi:

[Gregorian]

10. Yeah, sure. Just help me with this next move.

Here's a picture of my bedroom. I do a pretty good job of moving by myself. But it's still a real pain.

<img src="" /></a>

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Now I remember the photos of your shop.

Proof that being single does have an upside.

[Fumesucker]

5. Wow, that must be some mountain bike!

:evilgrin:

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Dumpster diving is the ultimate expression of conservation ethos. n/t

[Tesha]

9. That photo looks just like WALL-E's place! (NT)

[Dover]

12. lol... But seriously.....I look at all that stuff and wonder why.

Ya know I, like many others, have gotten used to sorting my garbage for recycling. I don't know why that couldn't be expanded so that
there were more places for things like what this guy has hanging in his shed. Or maybe there are enough places like that
(thrift stores, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity reuse centers, etc.). What could be done to assure that all our 'stuff'
- including discarded food from restaurants - gets at least a chance at reuse? Seems like this is a place where entrepreneurial types
could really make a difference.

[Tesha]

13. We had a place like that at our city dump.

It was called "The Swap Shop". People dropped off
what they didn't need and picked up what they did.
We left a lot of good stuff there and brought home
some wonderful things as well.

Then the grifters closed in.

Week after week, the same people would stand there,
loading up their pickup trucks with everything worth
anything to take home to their perpetual yard sales.
The city tried to move them on, but it became such
a nuisance that they just decided to close The Swap
Shop down.

So we lost a great resource both for giving and for
getting.

Typical...

Tesha

[pipi_k]

14. Wow, that sounds like a great idea!

Too bad the jerks have to mess things up for others.

Maybe a new one could be started, with "club" membership cards or something, and maybe some sort of record keeping. Those found abusing it could be banned...

there has to be some way to keep this sort of recycling program going while weeding out the abusers...

[Tesha]

16. Nowadays, we participate a lot in "Freecycle".

It's basically the same idea but done "on the web".
It doesn't have the same sort of spontaneity/run
into the neighbors character as The Swap Shop used
to have, but it still has all the great stuff/still
offers us a good place to get rid of a lot of our
stuff.

http://www.freecycle.org/

Tesha

[Dover]

15. That IS a great idea! I wonder if they could have applied some rules such as

3 items dropped off allows as many that could be picked up, or something like that. It would at least prevent people from loading up
whole truckloads. But I'm sure there are ways around anything... too bad.