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From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Gordon Hlavenka)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Silicon Valley Dumpster Crawl: The ideal Hacker Holiday?
Message-ID: <26dd2765-39a.1sci.electronics-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 30 Aug 90 17:55:04 GMT
References: <1990Aug27.174333.15870@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Lines: 34


>The question is though, is such a crawl possible, or do such companies
>have locks and guards and policies to prevent such things?  Has
>anybody grown up in the area having done this as a kid?

Strictly speaking, items in a dumpster remain the property of whoever put
them there until the disposal company personnel touch the dumpster.  Then
the stuff belongs to the disposal company.  AT NO TIME does that great stuff
belong to _you_.  Thus, garbagepicking is actually THEFT.

The above information came to me, a confirmed, unabashed, incurable
garbagepicker, from my father, a cop.

Some companies will probably lock their trash.  Many reasons, but all of
them come down to:  keep out.  The harder they make it for you to get in,
the more they mean it.

But not to despair:  A lot of outfits don't care.  Locally, for instance,
there is a third-party repair center run by one of those three-letter
outfits.  They operate out of a strip mall, and their dumpster is a nightly
treasure chest!  (Trust me, I know)

My experience is Chicago area, but I would imagine the Valley would be
similar.  My advice:  Search out the good places, and good luck!

Another option:  With all the environmental concern happening these days,
new dumping regulations are going into effect all the time.  You may find
that it's ILLEGAL to discard PCBs, batteries, etc in the trash.  It's quite
possible that companies are throwing them away anyhow.  If you play your
cards right, you might set yourself up to be PAID to haul the stuff away
for them.  This is how some of the best surplus companies started...

-----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka            cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Disclaimer:                Yeah, I said it.  So what?