As the year goes on, take into consideration the temperature highs and lows if your dumpster diving for food. If the weather gets too hot during the day, it may be dangerous to pick food from a previous day, as the conditions can encourage bacterial growth. On the flip side, consider that consistently freezing weather practically turns your dumpster into a fridge, if you enjoy the forbidden perishables of dumpster diving like meats.
Always take rain into account and plan around it when making plans with your dumpster buddies. Rain can ruin loot, especially if dumpsters are left open.
The change of college semesters, or as some call it “hippie Christmas” are golden opportunities for all sorts of goodies that privileged college students leave behind. If there are dorms or fraternities/sororities in your neighborhood, they may be worth checking out around December and May
Time of day:
Can you dumpster dive during the day? Yes, But! you run a high chance of getting caught, since that’s when employees are most likely to be coming and going
I suggest looking up the places you want to dumpster dive at beforehand, taking note of and avoiding going within 2 hours of opening and closing, that way you give employees some time to get out there (and nobody flips their shit and calls the cops)
depending on the company, restaurants and grocery stores are sometimes required to throw out all their refrigerated foods when the power goes out, even if it was only for a moment. So next time there’s a storm or you hear about a power outage, go take a peak at your local hot spots, you may just hit a jackpot.
Feel free to add on anything I missed. Be safe and go dumpster diving! ♻️
A Good Example:
When the w.ho/e F00ds in my area had a power outage during the last hurricane, they had an industrial dumpster full of perishables for anyone to take (for reference, they usually throw compostable produce in a locked bin and everything else in a trash compactor) so this was a rare but fruitful opportunity my comrades and our Mutual Aid group