On Dumpster Diving Summary

Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving” is a story about himself and how he went from having a nice job, and a family to living in the streets as a homeless man accompanied by his dog named Lizbeth. Eighner began Dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. Eighner shows how dumpster diving is a full time j ob that requires a lot of effort but following certain rules can help someone to become efficient. Eighner describes his experiences on the street and the art of Dumpster diving. Eighner finds Dumpster Diving an art. Each story he tells the reader, bring us another rule of Dumpster Diving. One rule from Eighner we learn about is a good place and time to look for food and other items that could be useful. When he tells us about his time at the pizza place we learn that different location allow for a better yield. …show more content…
He mentions that students throw out many excellent things, including food. He found out that they seem to throw more stuff out between moves and at the end of semesters. Most of the items throw out are discarded by slight imperfections, or just because some are almost expired. Eighner also mentions in general people throw away perfectly good stuff and a lot of it. But he only collects things that he can use immediately. He does not let himself be belittled by others. When Eighner is scavenging through trash, he takes caution not to judge the consumers by their waste, whether its pills, documents, or other personal items. Lars Eighner teaches us that we waste way more then we think we do, and it is in our nature. We also learn that we do not need as much as we think we do. Eighner shows us that we rely more on materialistic