Urban Forageing ...

[Silver Ether]

Coined a new name maybe nothing to do with food but skips to start with...
There is one over the road ... it great to watch. The house has been sold and they are doing a bit of remodeling ... the last three mornings we have seen different scrap men going through it. First went a washer and some pipes. Second some dineing chairs. Third the taps of the bathroom sink... I think its fantastic ...

I wonder if you put the stuff on the street instead of paying the council to collect it ??? would the scrap men be more effcient?

I know in Glasgow that folks often abandon furniture when they are moving... our Robbie has a wonderful leather chair. two bookshelves gained this way. He also raids skips for wood to use on their little woodburner .... must be in the genes ...
So have you disposed of or gained via this route ...

[Thomzo]

I got a lovely huge galvenised plant pot for the garden as well as some great wood for the fire. My ex used to make all sorts from "skip wood". People kept asking him what tree "skip wood" came from

I picked up a bucket the other day. It was the sort that you use with a mop. The plastic bit for wringing out the mop was broken but the bucket was fine.

On the other side though, you can't leave anything outside here. I put a brand new door mat down outside my front door and within 48 hours it had gone. I have had to bolt the new one down.

Zoe

[ilan]

One of my favorite pastimes is skip diving . Living in london my father heats his house and mine with scrap wood from skips etc indeed we have a couple of local builders who drop off loads of wood to save getting a skip . great place to find old bricks etc for garden paths and edging etc

[Silver Ether]

"skipwood tree " I like it .... We were both gobsmacked yesterday as we walked through Bridgnorth... in the High Street there was a skip full of lovely timber ... a shop being gutted... just no room to store it left here and we dont have a wood burner to use it on ... you would think in a rural area some one would have snapped it up ...

[Thurston Garden]

I once picked up a perfectly good coffee table in Edinburgh - as a poor student at the time, I was very pleased with this find.

My mother, years ago pulled a lace tablecloth from the skip at the local dump. It has now done more than 20 Christmas dinners - it was in perfect condition and just needed a clean!

[Silver Ether]

oh forgot that ... I got at table of the dump .... well my fella got it ... its a lovely piece of timber too ...

[Thomzo]

Well I have an experiment going on at the moment. My old TV aerial is now sitting just outside my front garden. I want to see how long before it goes

[Silver Ether]

I have been looking for stuff to put out as an experiment ... cant find anything .... does that mean I am really good at recycling ....

[Annpan]

As far as I am aware the things that have been put in a skip are still private property - better to ask first - I suppose they could be selling it as scrap themselves... or summat

In Glasgow the stuff gets left out on the street the day the "cleansing" come to take it away, if you put it out the night before it is usually gone by the morning because people just take it to use it themselves (I picked up some parts of a storage system this way) I regularly saw groups of people (some with a van) who would trail the streets on cleansing day to pick up reusable bits and pieces

[Lord Azrael]

No point me doing that where I live, as it would still be there years later...actually, some stuff still is! I live miles from the main road on farmland so at least my stuff's safe

[Stonehead]

When restoring a house, I found the best way to get unwanted items "salvaged" or "freecycled" was to put them in the front garden with a big sign saying "please do not remove". It worked every time - but it may just have been a London thing...

[possum]

Over here in NZ, there is a place called supershed and people who take stuff to the tip put anything they think still has a use to one side and it ends up at supershed. You can buy it exceptionally cheaply. I have a bathroom cabinet, from very solid wood - I think rimu waiting to be stripped and put up, cost $5 or 2GBP.
They have one section that I will be making use of soon. Here it is fashionable to have a plastic bathroom sink set into a cabinet, so loads of perfectly decent china sinks are being ripped out, we will need half a dozen soon, so guess where they are being sourced from?

[Karen_D]

I wonder if you put the stuff on the street instead of paying the council to collect it ??? would the scrap men be more effcient?

The scrap men around here are very efficient. We call them Tatters and in our area we have at least three a week. No-one bothers taking an old appliance to the tip or calling the council, just stick it in front of your house and it's gone in a couple of days or wait until you hear them coming and get them to fetch it.

Personally, I think they do a good job of recycling what would otherwise go to landfill.

[Silver Ether]

Karen we have noticed an upsurge of "Tatters" here we are only up the road near Dudley ... I think it has something to do with the price of scrap going up....

[Eigon]

My mum calls 'skip diving' 'wombling'. She lives in Greece, and the rubbish collection is not from individual houses, but from skips on the street corners, daily in summer, I think. She's picked up quite a few things like chairs and bar stools when bars are refurbishing for the new season.