On Dumpster Diving Summary

In the esteemed collection 50 Essays, the editors recognize Lars Eighner’s On Dumpster Diving through his capability of heightening the degree and compelling concept of dumpster diving etiquette. Eighner redefines words such as “Dumpster,” by making it its own proper noun, which brings a sense of formality. He cajoles the reader’s perspective towards Dumpster diving in a positive outlook by referring it as an art and that it’s not anomalous for “respectable employed people...find something tempting sticking out of a dumpster” and “brag that they found this or that piece of trash” (108). Eighner exposes the audience the truth behind homelessness; however he also depicts that not all homeless people are winos causing trouble in the neighborhood,

First I will summarize an excerpt out of Heather Roger's essay, Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage published in 2005. Second I will summarize Lars Eighner essay On Dumpster Diving published in 1995. Our government needs to immediately enforce a set of strict standardized laws that carefully regulate and monitor the disposal of todays and more importantly tomorrow trash. I will argue that this is necessary for large corporations and businesses to deduce their consumption. Finally I will argue that we need to educate the public about the importance and need to restrict our consumption to secure our future.

A quote often used is, "One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” This describes Eighner’s feelings perfectly. At one point he stated, "People throw away perfectly good stuff, a lot of perfectly good stuff."(384) This proves the point that once someone throws something away, it doesn't mean it is trash, just ready for a change of ownership. Eighner few dumpster diving as an art because of all the cool stuff he finds on a regular. Things such as: clothes, type writer, love letters, ragdolls et cetera. He mentioned that he hardly ever pick up things without envisioning the

In the essay “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner, Eighner talks about materialism and wealth. He explains his process of dumpster diving and the best places to go to dumpster dive. Eighner incorporates tone, detail, irony, observation, and ethos throughout his essay.

Having more material possessions makes people less grateful for what they have and more likely to be wasteful. In his essay, Eighner describes how college students “throw out many good things, including food.” Because the students are accustomed to having so many material possessions, they do not think twice before throwing a portion of it into the dumpster. On the other hand, Eighner thinks of himself as very non-materialistic, so he only takes what he needs and is not wasteful because he does not have many remains or unused items to throw away. It might not seem

Homelessness has been an increasingly difficult problem to solve within America. Though it affects many, nearly one-fourth of homeless people are veterans, most of which have served in Vietnam or have had an honorable discharge. “Dumpster Diving,” by Lars Eichner is a nonfiction short story about how society is quick to judge people based on their possessions. Eichner narrates this short story as a homeless man forced to survive by living off of the discarded materials of the people whom are more privileged than him. His tone throughout the story is sarcastic and condescending toward the educated audience he is projecting to, often lying and making fun of them. Eichner urges the audience to gain more respect for

Homelessness is increasing every year and effecting Americans of different age, ethnicity and religion. In Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” he explains what he went through while being homeless. He describes how and what foods someone should be looking for and to always be conscious of what one is eating because there is always a reason why something has been thrown out. He continues to go into detail about other items that can be found in the dumpster like sheets to sleep on and pieces of paper to write on. Things that can keep him busy through the day. Eighner carefully explains to his readers how being a dumpster diver has become a life style for the homeless and this is how they survive. It’s a way of living and they are comfortable

In the American society, a lot of things are being thrown away. Sometimes those things that is been tossed are still valuable to us. There are also times that people that dumpster dive are not all homeless or poor anymore. I don’t think this changes people’s thinking dumpster diving will raise awareness neither will reduce the amount of stuff thrown away. I think is it simply showing that we can not control what is being thrown out and from being a throwaway society. The essay “Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner talks about his own experience of living out of a dumpster. In his essay, it illustrates how wasteful people can be sometimes. people not only throwing food but also furniture, clothing and other household items.

Dumpster Diving is an essay written by Lars Eighner. The Texan and former homeless man who roamed the streets searching for food from unpleasant sites in order to help him survive the harsh times. His loss of income made him to get food from garbage sites, which he refers to as ‘Dumpster’ He wrote this essay to express his experience as a homeless and destitute person. The essay gives a detailed explanation of how people like him struggle to get food from dump sites and the dangers they face. Eighner used basic English to describe the process of scavenging and its consequences in the essay.

As shown to us by Eighner, one does not have to posses everything in the world in order to achieve a pleasant life. As explained by Eighner most dumpster divers go through a hoarding stage in which they want to have everything they see some kind of value in: “All the Dumpster divers I have known come to the point of trying to acquire everything they touch” (145). This is exactly what happens in our consumer world, buying items our friends own just because they are the latest trend or they look cool. We want to have everything in

Compare and Contrast The essay “The Tyranny of Choice” by Berry Schwartz and “Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner talk about being confronted by choices. In the “The Tyranny of Choice” Schwartz says “increased choice means we have more happy people? Not at all.” The essay “Dumpster Diving” Eighner talks about people “scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what.

A) A contemporary problem raised in “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner Is the amount of wealth spent by consumers, and the effect of that. Consumers spend too much money and waste even more when they throw food and clothing away. In the essay he explains the way of life as an scavenger and how to demonstrate how people are able to live by the minimal resources although most consumers continue to buy things they do not need and continue to waste resources that may be valuable to others. Aside from food, he additionally describes the emotional impact that living out of a dumpster can have on a person. He describes finding sad things such as "abandoned teddy bears, shredded wedding books, and pets lying in state." Seeing the pets makes him think about his dog Lizbeth and how she is likely to end up with a dumpster as her final resting place, as Eighner does not see himself having a place for her before she passes on. Rummaging causes Eighner to consider how much individuals underestimate, including the way that they can purchase something new to replace something old that they have discarded. He feels frustrated because of the individuals who don 't have that extravagance.

Every person in America is guilty of this almost daily in some way or another, and that is wasting food by either letting it rot in your refrigerator, taking too much at dinner and throwing what is left into the garbage for some varmint to rummage through later, or even in the production process by throwing away a perfectly good potato because it doesn’t meet the size requirement for processing. In America, it’s something we don’t think about; rather it’s just a habit that causes us to lose money on that wasted food. Something we seem to forget about, however, is the fact that there are starving people in other parts of the world that could have benefitted from that. Contrariwise, American’s are not the only ones that can be accused of

Growing up my mom would always say “vas a desear que tengas esa mota de comida cuando Dios venga y te mueras de hambre!” or “you’re going to wish you had that speck of food when God comes and you're starving!” Maybe it is the fact that our culture revolves around food or that her family was close to starving when she was growing up, either way, my mother considered wasting food a sin. Whether I am at a birthday party, holiday dinner, or getting street tacos at 1 a.m. after work, food is embedded in the happiest moments of my life. Given that I was raised to not only enjoy but respect food I am interested to learn why so many students at UCR don’t take food waste into consideration. I imagine that many UCR students are uninformed, overestimate the amount of food they intend to consume, and don’t have the time or means to reflect on the harmful effects of food waste.

Nevertheless, the common misconception linked to graduating College students is that they are well-rounded adults, who have done their time and are ready and able to enter the working force and go on with their lives. The fact of the matter is that not all recent college students are mature and knowledgeable on their community and the world at large. “Teens who volunteer increase their knowledge of the world and the problems that face it” (“Youths”). This quote is not only applicable to teens, but college students as well; unfortunately, college students become isolated from the rest of the world while they are in their course of study and do not make time to give back to the community that helped them become who they are.