Dumpster Diving Essay

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Dumpster Diving When I began reading “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner, I felt pity for him. I assumed he was just a homeless man digging for scraps of food in order for him and his dog to survive. I assumed this man must have little to no education, or perhaps he was a drug addict. As I kept reading on, I was surprised to find out Eighner is in fact quite intelligent. He gave “Dumpster Diving” a whole new meaning. To start off, Lars Eighner doesn’t just grab any old scrap he finds. He is rather cautious about the food he eats in order to avoid getting sick. He uses three different principles when scavenging for food. His senses and common sense to evaluate the food, knowing the dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and always answering the question “why was this discarded?” For example, there was a time where he would survive off of a dumpster behind a pizzeria. He realized that they discard whole pizzas that customers have sent back if the order was wrong, or pizzas that were left over at the end of the day. Eighner even admits to gaining a few extra pounds while living from this dumpster. Food isn’t the only thing Dumpster Divers scavenge for. They also find clothes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, medicine, books, furnishing, and change, sometimes amounting to many dollars. At first Dumpster Divers try to keep everything they find. With time they realize they should only keep the things that they need. They are quite courteous to each other by often leave findings, like good pairs of shoes, or linen, for one another. In fact, they find drug attics to be a nuisance because they make a mess of things in the dumpsters while searching for drugs. Dumpster diving has become a popular thing to do. In a New York Post article, “Brooklyn hipsters go Dumpster-diving for dinner” I realized that some students work regular jobs to pay for school

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