FORAGING (DUMPSTER DIVING by retail stores) pays $200,000 per year or more, nice hobby!!!
"Malone has taken the familiar saying to new heights by earning thousands of dollars sifting through dumpsters near major retail giants like Walmart.
In an extensive profile piece in Wired, Malone reveals how he spends much of his free time rummaging through retailer dumpsters around Austin, Texas, and regularly coming up with pristine products he then resells for a hefty profit.
And it’s all entirely legal. At least if you follow the rules, which basically comes down to not dumpster diving in areas clearly marked as private property or otherwise restricted areas.
Malone, 37, already has a full-time career and six-figure salary as an IT security specialist but estimates that if he pursued a full-time professional dumpster diving career he’d make $600,000 per year.
(Photo: A dumpster diver at work in London)
Those numbers are based on an average profit of $2,500 from each of his nightly diving forays across Austin. Malone said it’s so lucrative he’s considered doing it full-time but enjoys his actual work too much to quit.
“I’m not going to walk away from those kinds of experiences,” he told Wired. “But at the same time I don’t want to give up the treasure-hunt thrill I get from dumpster diving.”
Even with just dumpster diving part-time, Malone says his goal is to make $250,000 this year just from foraging alone.
His biggest finds tend to be electronics items that a customer opened, returned and the store then threw out.
Malone started out building custom-made electronics out of parts he found behind stores like Office Max, Best Buy and Home Depot, but when he held a yard sale to clear out his rapidly expanding collection, people flocked to smaller items like printer cartridges. At the end of the day, he had pocketed more than $3,000, he told Wired. “And that was when I realized, ‘This has the potential to be something.’”
In an extensive profile piece in Wired, Malone reveals how he spends much of his free time rummaging through retailer dumpsters around Austin, Texas, and regularly coming up with pristine products he then resells for a hefty profit.
And it’s all entirely legal. At least if you follow the rules, which basically comes down to not dumpster diving in areas clearly marked as private property or otherwise restricted areas.
Malone, 37, already has a full-time career and six-figure salary as an IT security specialist but estimates that if he pursued a full-time professional dumpster diving career he’d make $600,000 per year.
(Photo: A dumpster diver at work in London)
Those numbers are based on an average profit of $2,500 from each of his nightly diving forays across Austin. Malone said it’s so lucrative he’s considered doing it full-time but enjoys his actual work too much to quit.
“I’m not going to walk away from those kinds of experiences,” he told Wired. “But at the same time I don’t want to give up the treasure-hunt thrill I get from dumpster diving.”
Even with just dumpster diving part-time, Malone says his goal is to make $250,000 this year just from foraging alone.
His biggest finds tend to be electronics items that a customer opened, returned and the store then threw out.
Malone started out building custom-made electronics out of parts he found behind stores like Office Max, Best Buy and Home Depot, but when he held a yard sale to clear out his rapidly expanding collection, people flocked to smaller items like printer cartridges. At the end of the day, he had pocketed more than $3,000, he told Wired. “And that was when I realized, ‘This has the potential to be something.’”
Replies
You can find good food in dumpsters as well. I went to Chipotle the other day and they threw out a package of tortillas becuase they were a bit dry. All that food could have gone to the needy. It upset me.
Thanks for sharing.That was interesting.
should have pulled the food back out and gave it to strays and raccoons. they eat the same food we eat. go back fifty-five years ago and dog and cat food didn\'t quite exist. they were given a plate just like the rest of the family kind of thing.
My one neighbor in Des Moines has a business he calls \"residential cleanup.\" You have a house you want cleaned out? He comes and takes everything away. He gets a TON of good stuff that he resells. Most of it doesn\'t even need any fixing. I swear, at least half my house was furnished with things I bought from him. It\'s a shame what some folks will throw away! *HUGS*
university students also dump brand new items -- TONS of them -- at the end of the college year. drive down any road in college towns and there will be PILES of perfect items, many still in packages. its SICK, they just don\'t want to bother hauling it back home.
someone should set up a national company that will collect all the stuff dumped by college students and sell it discounted -- tied into multiple charities would be even better, similar to the Prince\'s Trust, in england.
i\'m equally guilty, but i give to goodwill instead of having a garage sale because i hate having strangers at my house at all.