Dumpster Diving is the salvaging of waste in large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers to find items that have been discarded by their owners but may still have value or prove useful to more resourceful people. Dumpsters once known as the graveyard for diapers, coffee grounds and all kinds of stinky garbage that I don’t even want to mention can also be your own personal treasure chest when at the end of the line finance wise. All it takes is a little bit of (sometimes very messy) work, patience and time to prospect or find something of value that someone has tossed out! Dumpster diving is for the rare individual that can overcome the societal and sometimes personal stigma to get something for nothing by digging in another’s refuse. My first experience with dumpster diving was as a little kid following my dad who was an avid dumpster diver. At that time it was still relatively common in Missouri to have public dumps and private dumps that you could pick through. That is long gone, and the large landfills that remain will not allow you access to their mountains of trash and treasure. This means you have to rely on Dumpster Diving to get the best goods before they go to the landfill.Dumpster diving was so deeply ingrained in my father that he eventually opened a scrap yard and recycling center in our county. He would often bring home a trunk load full of treasure each day. I have spent a lot of my youth running the rounds inside our scrap yard collecting and identifying valuable objects in a mountain of garbage. It is really amazing what people throw away and how that ambivalence can lead to money in your pocket if you have a well trained eye and are willing to get a bit dirty. While I can afford all the essentials of life without the need for dumpster diving, I enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and getting use out of something tossed. I also don’t understand why people are so wasteful, and for that matter why nobody sees the potential of the items they discard. I consider waste a sin and try to avoid it as much as possible. For me reclaiming something tossed is a good and almost noble thing to do. The combination of a tough economy plus a growing awareness of how our modern lifestyles can damage the planet have led many people to seek out more sustainable modes of living. Dumpster diving is one of the more extreme, adventurous and creative approaches to money making ideas. If you can conquer your squeamishness and find some great locations, you can as the cliché says, find treasure in other people’s trash.People dumpster dive for all sorts of reasons. Some do it because they wish to decrease the impact they have on the earth and its resources; dumpster diving is the ultimate in recycling. Others take it up because they simply can’t afford to buy new items. Creative types enjoy looking for material they use to create “found art,” while entrepreneurs rehab old furniture, toys, and electronics for resale and other money making ideas. Everyone hopes to find something really spectacular–a lost Rembrandt or Bay Psalm Book, anyone? So-called “Freegans” are a world apart; their goal is to live as completely off of found, free items as is humanly possible.