maybe it goes back to that forager
like hunter-gatherer mindset the thrill
of the hunt
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i'm aaron sheffield my name's dave
sheffield i am a care coordinator for
people with developmental disabilities i
own a small manufacturing business when
we're not doing that we go dumpster
diving
i was slimed we sell the things that we
find and keep the money
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i could do this 60 hours a week and
probably make like 100 grand a year
doing it i sell the stuff mainly on ebay
we're saving up money from dumpster
diving for that boat
going to do some dumpster diving i
started dumpster diving back in college
just picking stuff out like a hot pot oh
there's a hot pot i need one of those
i was in a big long stretch dumpster
kind of like picking through stuff and
she kind of walked up behind me and was
like hey what are you doing in there we
started talking and i was like
yeah there's more dumpsters down there
you should go check them out and then
like five minutes later we met at the
same dumpster and then i gave her a ride
to the next one and worked up the
courage to ask her out that's like 13
years i guess so 13 years 13 years ago
look it's a bag of sponge candy that's
too heavy for me
our friend really likes this we don't
like it as much
i'm a case manager for people living
with developmental disabilities trying
to meet their needs for programs and
supports in home at work whatever they
need i'm there i have a manufacturing
business where we make a bunch of
different products mainly bottle openers
made from golf balls baseballs hockey
pucks a bunch of other like gift items
when we were first dumpster diving it
was more to see what stuff we could get
lately dave has really taken it to a new
new realm
so this is our
inventory of all the various uh dumpster
finds that we've got i started selling
some of my like excess stuff on like
ebay and realized kind of how easy it
was the light bulb went off an old
like amplifier that like your father
probably had in his garage this thing
sells on ebay for like 400
somebody who resells xboxes will buy
this on ebay for 30 bucks the man
following you around this is like a 500
or 600 bottle of champagne so this will
sell on ebay for like 30 bucks used
disposable cameras and i messaged the
guy on ebay so i was like why are you
buying like why are you buying these and
apparently there's like capacitors in
there that he uses for like
flux capacity yeah
he's building a time machine
like a certain point it becomes more
than just like beer money or like pocket
money pay rent we repaired our furnace
with like cash i got from scrapping our
cost doing this i mean the biggest one
is our time i bet you i fill up my truck
two to three times a month and that's 50
bucks to fill up so call it 150 bucks
maintenance and tires and things like
that it's probably like call it 50 bucks
a month in maintenance you know fees for
selling things online if i look back
over like the last three four months
i've been consistently making like three
to four thousand a month i started
looking on craigslist and facebook
marketplace for that boat 10 grand
sounded like a good round number in my
head i set up some alerts for craigslist
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we are headed to
office depot and gnc i'd say like
30 percent of the time i find something
that could be like a
50 cent chunk of metal it could be you
know
hundreds of dollars worth of stuff but
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oh okay
all right we'll get out of here
yeah liability sure we understand we're
sorry okay thank you that woman was
actually really really kind and just
politely asked us to leave she didn't
ask us to put anything back which was
great
he actually made a map of the entire
city went around and drove to every
dumpster and figured out what was in it
when is a good time to come so it's not
just a couple routes he's got like a
systematic map of every place to go he
knows every dumpster in this city i'm
pretty sure
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we are at a company that maintains
copiers and printers this is a perfect
example this is
like a brand new part it's got the part
number on it so i would just type this
into ebay some of this stuff is like we
won't be able to resell them but we can
scrap them but even if it's just scrap
you know that's still seven cents a
pound so
it adds up this is a drum unit for a
printer and this would likely sell for
between fifteen hundred dollars says
like used out of order but i can tell
just by experience that that's one of
those parts that if you buy new is
probably three or four hundred dollars
150 part new
so it might be 20 or 30 used
when he shows me what he's
selling sometimes i'm like i can't
believe somebody bought that
but they do and like we keep making more
money
okay i could work with this
oh brad yeah
i like to find food items in the
dumpster because i know that if it's not
something i like we can give it away to
people in our community for free if it's
like produce anything green we can
usually give it to our chickens they
love everything
may 28th organic
two percent milk
i'm gonna drink that i drink a lot of
milk you know
i'll probably drink a couple of those
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i'm gonna drink that
milk we'll put it out we'll put it out
people will take it
we live in a neighborhood where there's
a lot of need and we just put it between
the sidewalk and the street
and within
an hour it's usually gone it's like our
own little mini food bank
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we talked about starting a family we
talked about like getting a bigger house
and like you know so we could have like
50 chickens and they really like the
lettuce
yeah i don't think either of us would
have
bought a boat on our own but together we
decided we both wanted to i grew up
always my dad always had a boat i feel
like i haven't been growing up enough to
like have a boat like i haven't had my
stuff together i think it's like part of
like being like a stable relationship i
feel like i have my more together
than i'm with you
team
us can
manage a boat
dave has taken it to a different level
even than that is going to the stores
and stuff there's definitely some like
dumpster diving things that could scale
up pitter patter let's get at her
of the places that i go to regularly
they refurbish emergency vehicles so
like a cop car or an ambulance i just
started a conversation with them like oh
yeah i stop here pretty regularly and
you guys throw away a lot of material
that i can scrap for money looks like a
brand new car seat
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it's definitely at least like 260.
why do you just throw it out and they're
like well we just we can't be bothered
like it's just too much of a hassle
and so i just said okay well if i give
you guys some containers would you just
set it aside and it said yeah sure
cool
if i can sell these for 50 60 bucks a
piece
that's another 120 bucks and this is
probably worth five or six bucks in
scrap it's weird that they throw it away
this kind of stuff doesn't really thrill
me but the money's good one and two and
three
like it's more than we can even take
expired april 26 2021.
yeah
it tastes like potato chips
maybe it sounds weird to say i'm like
passionate about dumpster diving but it
makes us a little bit of money but
somebody's getting some product cheaper
than they would have otherwise gotten it
and yeah it is like not going to a
landfill
we found a boat on craigslist we're so
excited
we're going to pick it up
all right most of it
yep you're good
why is it beeping
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is that little thingy on
it's possible i might be missing
something he's gonna call the guy he
bought it from to see how to start it
a couple of times it's gotta close he
said that he said it sounds like it's
flooded right now
i definitely have like an opportunity
mindset about it other people like go do
it we just try to do our part like as
little as it is we'd love to pass that
on to our kids to other people in our
community too
i feel like i've thought about that a
little bit about dumpster diving kids
probably not young kids i'm kind of
thinking it like at some point it'll be
like natural to them they'll be like
they won't think it's like weird until
their friends tell them it's weird
i don't have any money
and i
we kind of joke about it sometimes that
i'm like very lucky that i found a girl
that is like kind of into the same thing
as the things that i'm into and it's
like oh man you found this in a dumpster
like that's that's so awesome like i
it's like few and far between like it
was
meant to be
long as i want to stay
don't have time to be blue and i
like it that way
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you