Taking Back the Streets: Dumpster Diving in Style
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
London designer Oliver Bishop-Young's work "focuses on skips [Britspeak for dumpsters] and looks at three main areas: exchange of waste materials, re-use of waste and making use of wasted spaces."
While he does wonderful things with dumpsters, turning them into everything from swimming pools to skateboard parks, he has a more serious ambition.
He has developed useful tools to help determine what is in a dumpster, including a mirror because "It can be shameful for some to be seen peering into a skip", a blackboard to provide a catalogue of what is on offer.
He then set up an online system so people can share the knowledge of what they found, so that dumpster divers can go get what they need instead of having to randomly search, a sort of Google Map for dumpster divers.
Dumpsters always seem to be subject to a law of their own; we see them dropped in no parking zones and even bicycle lanes. Oliver Bishop-Young takes advantage of their ubiquity to turn them into places for people as well as a source for useful stuff. ::Skipwaste.org and ::Oliver Bishop-Young via ::Designboom
Other Dumpster renovations:
Transformers: Swintak Turns Dumpster into Boutique Hotel :
TreeHugger on Taking Back the Streets:
Taking back the Streets: Its Called Roadwitching
Turning Parking Spaces into Parks
(Park)ing Day: an Activism Success Again
TreeHugger on Dumpsters and Dumpster Diving
Take a Dive In a Virtual Dumpster
Freeganism: The Art of Dumpster Diving
Zen and the Art of Dumpster Diving
How to Dumpster Dive
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I just can't understand the fascination with a waste receptacle.
what a waste...of time
Well I think this is a good way of thinking. Not only reusing the space but also the reuse of materials. This makes me think about Valencia, Spain where I lived for a while. People left things they didn't need at the dumpsters in the street and other people were walking from dumpster to dumpster all day long, collecting stuff. Great way of recycling!