For free: 52-inch high-definition TV.
Sound too good to be true? Welcome to the world of dumpster diving. There are no pushy salesmen, no coupons, and no cardboard boxes containing assembly instructions. No shopping carts are necessary and no metal detectors frame the doors at the entrance to warn shoplifters.
With garbage collecting on sidewalks all over Boston, many students have discovered the art of reducing, reusing, and recycling. These items left out for the trash collectors attract both students on budgets who are forced to pay the high rent that comes with living in a city, and students who are just looking to save on the one-year furnishings of their leased apartments or houses. While scouring through the garbage may seem unappealing to some, the tradition does not always necessitate getting down and dirty with dumpsters and unwanted waste. For many students, it simply involves perusing sidewalk garbage heaps.
"I do it because people throw away salvageable, nice stuff," says Sandy Williams, A&S '10, who found her dresser, TV stand, kitchen table, and chairs in the trash.
After living in furnished residence halls during their first two years at Boston College, many students forced to live off campus their junior year reuse what has been left behind by off-campus students who are now either moving back on campus or just relocating to their new one-year leases.
Jeremy Chow, LSOE '10, is living off campus this year for the first time. Originally from Chicago, he was unable to bring any furniture from home for his leased apartment. Instead of going to any of the nearby retail stores for furniture, he and his roommates decided to save when shopping for furniture for their living room. "Our couch was free. We had to carry it across Commonwealth Avenue in the dark and then up the three flights of stairs, but it looks brand new and no sales tax," Chow says.
According to the city of Boston's "Guidelines for Refuse and Recycling Collection," all trash must be stored in containers with tight-fitting covers and placed out for collection in barrels or in two ply trash bags. It must be placed outside after 5 p.m. the day before pickup. Paper bags or retail bags are prohibited. Clothes dryers, household appliances, mattress and box springs, carpets (no longer than three feet and tied), washing machines, furniture, food waste, dishwashers, and hot water heaters require no scheduling for trash collection and can be left outside for rubbish collection, after 5 p.m. of course. Refrigerators, air conditioners, water coolers, computer monitors, televisions, and dehumidifiers, however, require a scheduled pickup.
For students, this means that anything from desks to record players can be found right outside their front doors. The wealth of reusable items all over the Boston perhaps is most visible during student move-in. While dreaded by most Boston residents, this weekend provides one of the best spreads of reusable items for the college students moving in.
Every year student move-in days usually start Aug. 31 and continue throughout the following week. During Labor Day weekend, the high rate of turnover in off-campus rentals across the Boston area generates the most visible display of debris, trash, and, for some, treasure. Scrambling to move all of their items out before leases end, many students leave behind what they could not fit into their moving trucks, many times disregarding any monetary value these items might have. At the very height of this frenzy, one can find within the piles of junk furniture, electronic appliances, books, and home decor for any taste.
While moving into her apartment on South Street during Labor Day weekend, Williams was able to find three quarters of her apartment furniture for free out of the trash.
"My roommate and I went over to 2000 [Commonwealth Ave.]where there was a ton of free furniture. If something looks dirty, obviously don't take it, but if it looks fine, just clean it and bring it home," Williams says.
But for the city of Boston and the permanent residents within the Greater Boston area, this may not be the most efficient system for recycling. These mountains of garbage that for some provide a wealth of reusable items also stand outside of residents' doors, obstructing not only foot traffic but also cars. And with this occurring all over Boston, full dumpsters have become a problem that the city has worked to reduce.
According to data collected by the city of Boston, during move-in weekend (Saturday Aug. 30 to Monday Sept. 1) this year, the city collected a total of 351.59 tons of trash, compared to 429.53 tons last year. The Allston-Brighton district, where most BC students live, accumulated more trash than the Fenway, Beacon Hill, and Mission Hill districts combined. A total of 171.25 tons were collected within Allston-Brighton, with the largest daily amount 86.94 tons of trash, collected on Monday. Trash disposal costs the city of Boston a total of $28,745.61 for move-in weekend alone, with Allston-Brighton as the most expensive area, with a disposal expense of $14,385.00.
The city paid 19 trash trucks working a total of 152 hours on Monday, 18 trucks working a total of 144 hours on Tuesday, and seven trucks working a total of 56 hours on Wednesday. Coupled with the collection expense of $52,800 for these three days, the total expense of student move-in trash collection was $81,545.61. Less than last year's total expense of $95,083.26, the city's efforts to efficiently make Boston less trashy have succeeded in 2008.
"The decrease in tonnage is indicative of the work that the city has done to promote the use of private contractors collecting containers by landlords during move-in weekend. Landlords are also holding some of their trash until normally designated trash days, also cutting down on the waste collected during move-in weekend," said Nick Martin, press assistant to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, in an e-mail.
Lucky for those who take pride on the simple beauty of Boston's streets and sidewalks, many dumpster-diving devotees still claim their own system of reducing Boston's trash as their unique pastime. "It's a family tradition," Williams jokes.
With horror stories of bed bugs and the forever-haunting fear of the unknown, there is always the downside that comes with the word "free." Many students acknowledge the risks of bringing used furniture of unknown origins into their homes, but with the lure of free finds, for many it's a risk worth taking. "You don't know who had sex on this couch, but on the upside someone famous could have owned it," Chow says.
The term "dumpster diver" has amassed some negative connotations, bringing to mind the wandering hobo looking for a leftover cheeseburger. But for students it is an alternative to spending money on new products that often will be thrown out when leases are up at the end of the year.
"I don't like to think of myself as cheap; I like to think of myself as environmentally conscientious," Chow says.
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