Picking Items from Dump Yards

Riq

For this very reason I smash everything to bits inside electronic goods, or at least make it look like it works but it doesn't. :cool:

pringy

i had a skip outside my house full of flood damaged floorboards, doorframes, carpet an rubble etc, came back next day an most of the stinking floorboards had been taken! unbeleivable!

Pip26

picklepick wrote: »

take a walk down a street in New York and the probability is you'll see a little box at the bottom of someone steps with books, records, sometimes you see sofas or bikes with a little note "please help yourself". If we did that in this country there'd be outrage and we'd be probably get fined for dumping! although I have in the past left things out with a note and they're gone within half an hour. Unfortunately I dont think groups like freecycle are that well known to the general public.

mother_noah wrote: »

A few years ago my daughter was working with a disadvantaged young mums group when a girl came in all excited because she had just found a travel cot for her baby daughter left out side a house with a note on it offering it to any one who wanted it. My daughter could not stop herself from smiling because she knew the house must have been mine ! I still do it now !

I have seen this a couple of times where I live and think it is a really good (& nice) idea - once or twice people have spread books out on walls with a notice for people to help themselves and (because we are near the local football ground) on match days (when lots of people walk past) if people are doing something to their house and have furniture they don't want- they leave it out for people to take - saves them having to dump and does someone else a favour - a nice community thing to do.


Mothernoah - what a lovely story - it shows it's worth doing and you obviously really made a diference to/helped her! - if only more people were like this!

vikki2k1

as far as im aware its illegal, some guys round here got arrested for doing that!

abdulawwal wrote: »

Hi all,

Apologies in advance if I am writing this in the wrong thread... this is my first attempt at starting a thread!

I have a friend in High Wycombe who boasted about picking up things like a used laptop, fan heaters and portable CD players, in working condition, at a dump yard which he then used or resold.

On a seperate thread, an MSE'r mentioned picking up some skis which he sold on eBay!

I wanted to know: is this legal? Are these dump yards all over the country? Is there one in Birmingham?

I think some great free items could be found in these places but I have no idea on how to go about researching this. Help appreciated.

{Abu}

fuzzymoneymonster

I go to my local dumps quite often and have got some great bargains.

I got an antique wardrobe for £15 that now has pride of place in my bedroom. I've got a set of original plastic care bears and care bear cousins that I've put away for the future.
I love looking for a bargain and they are quite happy to sell to me.

purplegirluk1

Our local dump does not allow you to take anything, it makes me sad to see all the things you cannot rummage around, I love the big book skip, i'd have a great time looking through it. Sadly there are usually 5 or 6 workers around and they aren't exactly polite. I get the feeling they sell the goods on.

I use freecycle as much as possible to pass things on and I also put things outside our flat, they have always gone really quickly.

newage

Hi we have a dump yard/recycling centre near us and as my house is constantly undergoing alterations i often find myself dumping materials there. But on one occassion i managed to bag myself a snooker table, on another i managed to get a new monitor for my pc. If it had not been for those staff so mentioned in other replies i would have had the whole pc :P the trick is to get to the person dumping before the staff do and you could get yourself something free. Ofcourse there is a reason they are dumping it but sometimes their reason is only because they have no need for it anymore and they figured its easier to chuck it. The snooker table for example had nothing wrong the man just had no room for it at home and figured he may as well chuck it. The lady with the monitor just bought a new pc and figured she'd chuck this one. I've also bagged a few ornamental things and plants sometimes as well.

I would certainly not put these things up for sale but you could get something for yourself. Like i said, its a race between you and those staff :P

14wrence

Hi...

I didn't know you couldnt take stuff from public dumps... I went through a creative build your own stuff phase, and I tried to turn a massive Stainless steel saucepan I found into a trendy log basket. The guys at the dump were laughing at me when they saw me take it..

Anyway, I think you may be on about somebody who knows somebody, who works on a landfill site, not a normal dump. There alot of good stuff gets dumped... From when firm goes bump, packaging and typing errors, and just when things go end of line in stores..... I not sure how legal it is to take it from here, but nobody cares apparantly.. not sure on the ruling...

I got a load of hair gel from a popular brand off my friend, as it had a typo on the packaging... lasted me about 7 years the amount I had. He also got loads of free wine, that had illegal labels on... he said he just got all the bottles that didnt break when tipped in.. there was literally 100's.

Persona_non_grata

vikki2k1 wrote: »

as far as im aware its illegal, some guys round here got arrested for doing that!

It is illegal, rubbish thrown out for collection and rubbish collected becomes the property of the local council. It is theft to remove it.

Pip26

This is interesting because the usual train of thought is that if it has been thrown away it is rubbish and does not belong to anyone - I suppose this means it becomes the property of whoever's bin you put it into?

Maybe I ought to put some bins out!

I knew it was illegal to take things out of skips (my mum used to snaffle stuff out of skips all the time throughout our childhood and take cuttings wherever she went (even the school trip to Kew Gardens!!!!!!!!!) - you could never get away with this nowadays.

The silly thing is most people would not care if you took something out of their skip (is the stuff then theirs or the skip company's?) and may even be pleased that someone can use it - after all they have thrown it away - what most people find really annoying is other people dumping things in their skip which they are paying for - not taking things out!!!!!!!

Have heard that if you can find the people who the stuff in the skip belongs to you can ask them and if they agree, take it but now have started to wonder is it theirs to say yes to or the prop. of the skip company?