DIY High-Speed Book Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras

Step 2: Material Acquisition: Tools and Why You (Might) Need Them

Often construction dumpsters have objects that are awkward to grab or even too large to fit in a car. For this reason it is good practice to bring some tools. I have a drill and a "sawzall" that come with me when I'm dumpster diving. With these tools, I can remove interesting parts of things, salvage screws and hardware, etc, as well as cut boards in half if they are too big to fit in my car. You should also have a flashlight and heavy gloves to protect your hands.

In terms of this project, I would argue that using recycled materials is actually only a secondary benefit because the environmental benefits of using digital books really add up over time. Using recycled junk isn't just a challenge, it makes walks and watching purposeful, lightens the load on landfills and trucks, and makes up for other areas where you may not be as conscious as you'd like to be. It also sets the precedent that while finding everything at the Home Depot or hardware store is fine, finding the stuff out of the ether is far better.

Comments

[toftej]

Thanks for adding to the legitimacy of this practice. I've been doing this for years. It's amazing the valuable things people throw out.

[daniel_reetz]

You're welcome. on the suggestion of people here and elsewhere, I'm going to make an entire guide to material salvage. I'll post a comment here when it's done.

[mcshawnboy]

Daniel, if you talk to folks in tight economic situations you'll find multisodic episodes on dumpster diving. I knew some fellows with low budgets for groceries who made friends with food service outfit. Providing they left the area tidy advance notice would be provided to them when frozen foods were to be disposed of past the "Sell by date" but not the "Use by date". When just out of H.S. I worked for a large pizza chain that would throw away 100 LBS of "Old" dough per night. I mentioned it to a friend that fed people of meager resources and she started baking bread, pastries and pretzels. When our manager found out he put bleach on it to prevent its use! Also, while in college I worked at a dairy store where the manager would order too much milk. I asked if I could have it and a friend from sca.org made cheese with the Cooks Guild.

[Algag]

I can see both sides of this arguement though, if the manager was letting the food be eaten then people stop buying and just get the free food but if they cant get it free then they are going to pay

[daniel_reetz]

I used to work at a restaurant in Bismarck where they would deliberately mix good (but cold) food with uncooked food or food that fell on the floor so that it was inedible. Staff had to purchase their burgers on breaks instead of eating one that had just "expired". It is a real shame that many of our surpluses cannot be recycled strictly because of profit motive.

[autophile]

It's not even a profit motive, because food that's thrown away would net the business zero money regardless of whether it was still good food or bad food. It's this ridiculous notion that since everything is supposed to have value, it should not be given to anyone (except for some reason to the landfill) unless money is exchanged. They're essentially saying, "If I can't have the money for it, nobody can have it!"

[MahavishnuMan]

Actually, it's more of a legal maneuver. Making the wasted food inedible prevents liability; in the past, people have tried to sue companies because they salvaged wasted food that, due to handling in its disposal, made them ill. Personally, I think two things might help. First, if the managers responsible for restocking paid more attention to trends it would prevent them from ordering a surplus that requires wasteful disposal. Second, if the disposed food were treated with the same care as the food being served the surplus could be salvaged. Both steps would benefit society as a whole - but that would require effort, wouldn't it?

[a_traceur]

Then they should at least sell it on a "Your buy, your risk" liability contract like thing. Then the food doesn't go to waste.

[MahavishnuMan]

Yeah, but take a candid look at your average American: if they won't buy a dented (even at a discount), how in God's name do you think they'll enter a contract (signed, verbal, or implied by purchase) wherein they wave legal recourse should they consume something iffy and get the trots? Personally, I do almost all my grocery shopping at an Amish-owned supermarket that deals in food that would otherwise be discarded by other grocery stores. Granted, you do have to check the "sell by" dates on some things, but it's way cheaper and prevents waste (although I don't do it for the smug factor like some I know). My wife and I tend to spend a total of $250/month on food this way, at the expense of having cereal boxes that have a crushed corner.

[rkundi]

This should be easily fixable. Just change the law so that people can't sue for this reason.

[cannonwashburn]

This topic is a catch 22. If you change the law then someone else will probably suffer for it. The law that prevents stores from selling paste the sale date is was changed to make food banks and kitchens exempt, meaning food banks and kitchens and serve food paste sale date.

[daniel_reetz]

Indeed it would. As materials and energy inevitably become increasingly scarce I suspect such wasteful behavior will be increasingly unacceptable.

[autophile]

I'm a Singularitarian, so I'm kind of hoping that the age of scarcity will be over within 30 years or so :)

[Einr]

 "The age of scarcity" has been over for a long time, at least in western countries. It is all a question of politics.

[autophile]

"Age of Scarcity" refers to that time period in human history when physical resources have been so scarce that a means of determining resource allocation has to be used, e.g. currency or barter. Since all western countries still use currency to allocate those resources, we are not yet out of the age of scarcity.