Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Whats In Your Dumpster?

This is topic Whats In Your Dumpster? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005191

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-07-2007, 10:10 AM:

So I get to work today coming in the back alley way as I normally do. I notice that someone had dropped some extra stuff next to our dumpster... this is not unusual. The only thing this time is they left me a nice gift. Now I'm not normally a dumpster diver nor a pack rat but this was too good to be true... In a box next to the dumpster was an entire case of Jensen JT-16A Microphone transformers. Not only are these the worlds best microphone trannys but there was an entire case of them. A quick search on the Jensen Transformer site led me to the specs and pricing.... $73.32 in case quantity.

Thank You to whoever left these.....!

Whats in your dumpster or what interesting stuff have you found there over the years?

Mark

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-07-2007, 12:35 PM:

Some DJ dumped a couple hundred CDs into one of my dumpsters.

Posted by Damien Taylor (Member # 4255) on 08-07-2007, 12:38 PM:

When my store switched to a new food preparation system, the entire store was gutted. So I scored a 20 foot fiberglass sign, about 4 tonnes of Stainless steel cabinetry, heating apparatus and electrical cabling/transformers, and advertising trans-lites. All dumped in the back corral, overflowing from dumpsters.

Unfortunately, our logistics officer (Mum), said only the trans-lites could stay. So all that metal went back, with a suggestion to management that maybe it would have scrap value. I'm pretty sure it still went to landfill. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-07-2007, 12:38 PM:

The tortured and mutilated body of the last person I caught using a mobile phone in a cinema... [Big Grin]

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 08-07-2007, 01:17 PM:

A fire is occasionally found in my theatre's dumpster.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-07-2007, 01:34 PM:

back in high school, a friend and I, after midnight, would go dumpter hunting behind TV stations for 16mm film and the film that we would get! ... which is now worth very much in collectable value of all that was taken.

These explorations didn't last too long soon afterwards since the stations caught on that their dumpters were being pillaged and would then destroy the film before tossing it out.

But it was fun though ...just something that one wouldn't imagine of doing...

Someone left a complete GATEWAY computer next to our dumpster at the theatre a couple of years back..only 2 yrs old in fully operational condition.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 08-07-2007, 02:21 PM:

People like to dump their household trash in my dumpster.
This includes all bills in there original form, payroll check stubs, etc (not shredded).
Takes me about 30 seconds to find the name, address, and phone number of the offender. I like to call them at 2am and inform them they have one hour to come get their shit or I call the prosecutor the next morning. Usually works.

For repeat offenders, can we say true dumbass, I load the offending trash bags, drive past their house on the way home, and deposit it all on their front lawn. Oops, it's too bad if the bags happen to split open when I do so. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-07-2007, 04:00 PM:

Anyone looking the dumpster out back of the parts store might find some interesting stuff from time to time. Whenever we clean out an area, we find "something" that either nobody can identify, or something no one has wanted for 20 years...it almost always winds up in the dumpster. So far I haven't thrown out anything that I later found out I really needed though!

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-07-2007, 04:53 PM:

It pays sometimes to dumpster dive. Almost every single piece of commercial kitchen equipment at my drive-in was sitting in the parking lot next to a roll-off dumpster at a local college to be thrown away. There were several pieces of equipment still in their boxes that were never used, but were now "in the way". My wife worked there and the food service director said, "Come get it if you want.. it all goes in the dumpster on Friday." We scored refrigerated prep tables, triple sinks, work table freezers, 36" grill, 2 deep fryers (one still has a 2 year warranty left on it), steam table, ice dispenser, fryer filters, etc.

Our dumpster at the drive-in gets the occasional household trash from some of the folks in town. I like Brad's idea of taking it back to them! [thumbsup]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 08-07-2007, 05:40 PM:

quote: Brad Allen
For repeat offenders, can we say true dumbass, I load the offending trash bags, drive past their house on the way home, and deposit it all on their front lawn. Oops, it's too bad if the bags happen to split open when I do so.

Brad, while I doubt I'd take all that time and effort, your post cracked me up! Really funny! [thumbsup]

I especially like the part of calling them in the middle of the night! [thumbsup]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 08-07-2007, 08:25 PM:

Remember "Alice's Restaurant?" Louis

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 08-07-2007, 11:52 PM:

When I was working for the UA theatre at the South Plains Mall we shared a dumpster with B. Dalton Booksellers, and I happily discovered that when they make credit returns to the paperback publishers, they don't return the entire book, just the front covers. They chucked the remainder of the book in the dumpster.
Gave me something to read...

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-08-2007, 02:33 PM:

A good friend built an alarm system complete with fire detection, entry detection and motion/body heat detection for his house and 3 car garage with new in the box parts from the dumpster of the local ADT branch office. The box to install it in took a second dive a couple weeks later.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-08-2007, 05:41 PM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Remember "Alice's Restaurant?"

"You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant"
"Walk right in, it's around the back, just across the street from the railroad track."

"loaded the microbus with 500 lbs of garbage"

(great Masacree and the 1969 UA movie).

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 08-08-2007, 10:41 PM:

I always take my yard rubbish to our dumpster at work. Our trash pick-up is on Tuesday mornings but I usually fill it up over the weekend. Especially during fall when I rake up an average of 42 bags of leaves. I have to line the bags up beside my garage and take them a few at a time. Otherwise I make it overflow too much. This really makes our warehouse guy mad. [evil]

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 08-09-2007, 08:48 AM:

TIMELY TOPIC!

We found a complete double bed with mattress and box springs, head and footboards, with frame laying allover the ground in front of our dumpster on Wednesday. When we went out to clean the mess up, we found the mattress reeking of piss. Thank you, dear depositor, for this gift.

I just happened to have a sledge hammer in the trunk of my car that I just bought. I got to try it out on the box springs so we could compact all of the junk into our dumpster. A cheap headboard and footboard falls apart like pressboard under a hammer...

Today, Thursday, its all gone.

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 08-09-2007, 04:00 PM:

I once caught a guy throwing a thick steel sewer pipe and a bunch of shingles in our dumpster, which are both banned by Waste Management in our area. I asked him to remove the stuff, he said no, so I called the cops. The next day he was back with the officer, apologizing up and down.

We charged him $100 for us to go into the dumpster and pull the stuff out, he paid in front of the officer.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 08-09-2007, 10:15 PM:

Now that I think about it, we do have a Goodwill store near the theatre I am working at now, and when Goodwill rejects someone's furniture, appliance or whatever is big and beyond repair, we sometimes will find that item next to our compactor, but someone did stick a clothes dryer into our cardboard recycling dumpster.It had to have pushed over the top of the dumpster to get it in there. We let BFI deal with it...