Trash to Treasure
- Submitted by: luvbug23
- Views: 1308
- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 01/21/2011 09:27 PM
- Pages: 11
- Report this Essay
Trash to Treasure,
Why Dumpster Diving is the way to go.
For most people, the idea of rummaging through other people’s garbage is distasteful and gross, yet there are a slew of people who go out looking for anything that may be of value. “Dumpsters are full of things of some potential value to someone and also of things that never have much intrinsic value but are interesting” (Eighner 25). The previous owner may have disregarded the value simply because the item didn’t match their décor or they just didn’t find a need for it any longer. People choose to dumpster dive because it is environmentally friendly, they have become curious to what people throw away, it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and it has become a hobby. Understanding these choices will provide the much needed knowledge to citizens in the United States of America who are opting for convenience instead of reusing. Dumpster diving counters the wastefulness of our throw-away society by reducing the volume of trash in landfills and recycling quality merchandise.
Dumpster diving is highly frowned upon in today’s society. Most often dumpster divers are labeled as bums or low lives but in many instances this is not the case. Dumpster diving has become more common among financially stable people, as there are a lot of perfectly good items in the trash. Some items thrown out can cost hundreds of dollars if bought brand new such as furniture. A couple of the most common items that people commonly find plenty of are clothes and food. Consumers throw out brand new or gently used clothes because they are either too big or too small or they just don’t like them anymore. Food is discarded because the expiration date has passed, too much overstock on an item, overly ripened food, spoiled or cosmetically imperfect and/or blemished spots on items. This leads to “more than 25 percent of food thrown away by Americans, which adds up to about 96 billion food waste each year” according to...
Why Dumpster Diving is the way to go.
For most people, the idea of rummaging through other people’s garbage is distasteful and gross, yet there are a slew of people who go out looking for anything that may be of value. “Dumpsters are full of things of some potential value to someone and also of things that never have much intrinsic value but are interesting” (Eighner 25). The previous owner may have disregarded the value simply because the item didn’t match their décor or they just didn’t find a need for it any longer. People choose to dumpster dive because it is environmentally friendly, they have become curious to what people throw away, it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and it has become a hobby. Understanding these choices will provide the much needed knowledge to citizens in the United States of America who are opting for convenience instead of reusing. Dumpster diving counters the wastefulness of our throw-away society by reducing the volume of trash in landfills and recycling quality merchandise.
Dumpster diving is highly frowned upon in today’s society. Most often dumpster divers are labeled as bums or low lives but in many instances this is not the case. Dumpster diving has become more common among financially stable people, as there are a lot of perfectly good items in the trash. Some items thrown out can cost hundreds of dollars if bought brand new such as furniture. A couple of the most common items that people commonly find plenty of are clothes and food. Consumers throw out brand new or gently used clothes because they are either too big or too small or they just don’t like them anymore. Food is discarded because the expiration date has passed, too much overstock on an item, overly ripened food, spoiled or cosmetically imperfect and/or blemished spots on items. This leads to “more than 25 percent of food thrown away by Americans, which adds up to about 96 billion food waste each year” according to...