On Dumpster Diving

922 Words4 Pages
This essay “On Dumpster Diving” is about a homeless man Lars Eighner, accompanied by his dog Lizbeth, explaining the strategies and guidelines of surviving from dumpsters, thereby exemplifying the wasteful nature of some humans, while explaining the etiquette involved in the process. The author began dumpster diving about a year before he became homeless. He used all of his infrequent income for rent, consequently having to derive all of life necessities from dumpsters. He then goes on to share the valuable information he has learnt as a human scavenger. There are several different stages to being a scavenger. The first is the New Scavenger, who is filled with disgust and self loathing and very ashamed to be seen Diving into Dumpsters. In which case they may try to lurk around, duck behind things or may even try to Dive at night, even though most people look away from scavengers and lurking only calls attention to themselves. The second stage comes with experience and the scavenger stops hating themselves. They begin to think they have the last laugh because they are finding perfectly good things in the Dumpsters and begin hanging on to things that they have no need of. They may even become lost in this stage and become a pack rat. But a majority of Divers realize that they can't hold on to everything and begin to only take what they have a need for or could use. Those that break the pack rat habit begin to restrict themselves and only get what they have and immediate use for. Eighner only collected one small object at a time, such as a pocket calculator, and because he had no access to health care he would store up on things like warm bedding that he would find in the summer months, since he wouldn't be able to once winter came, and all sorts of essential drugs, such as antibiotics and antihistamines. Eighner complained about how can scroungers

More about On Dumpster Diving

Open Document