The old adage that one man’s junk is another’s treasure has never been truer. On most afternoons in Coronado, you can glimpse people cruising along alleys looking for discards residents have placed next to their garbage bins or dumpsters. It’s called “alley shopping” by many, while others refer to it as dumpster diving. In truth, few actually crawl into dumpsters; instead they simply pick up items left out — items they presume to be intended for the trash.
The list of found items is endless. Local “alley shoppers” report finding computers, appliances, clothes, bedding, and even old roller blades. In fact, alley shopping has accrued a small but dedicated following. A blog devoted to frugal living, All Things Frugal, calls alley shopping “a great resource,” liking it to a “treasure hunt.”
The concept has been around for years — so long, in fact, that there are well developed rules of alley shopping etiquette, summed up by All Things Frugal: don’t go behind a closed fence, don’t leave a mess, and take only what you need.
For the “shoppers” it’s a great way find an item you need at a price [free] that can’t be beat. For people leaving things out, it’s a quick and easy way to get rid of something that you don’t need anymore.
“People have been doing for years here,” said longtime Coronado resident Jan Clark. “If they have stuff they want to get rid of right away, they just put it out back and wait for somebody to come along and pick it up.”
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Clark has disposed of items via the alley herself. As recently as a few weeks ago, she was cleaning out her garage and found odd scraps of metal, a wastebasket and 20-year-old milk cartons. None of fit into her blue recycle bin. “I set them out and they were gone in a heartbeat,” she said. She even saw the two women who took the items as she was bring out more discards. “They thanked me as they left,” Clark said.
Still the Coronado Police Department cautions people against the practice. Due to the fact that encouraging people to take items left in they alley can lead to crime, “it’s not illegal, but it’s something that we don’t recommend,” said Lea Corbin of the Coronado Police Department’s Community Relations/Training division.
While many of the people trolling alleys are simply looking for something they need or might need, others are looking for an unlocked garage door or an item left in the breeze way. Alley shopping gives potential thieves a plausible excuse to lurk in alleys.
Corbin points to a recent example of a patrol officer who came across a person removing a bike from an alley breezeway and loading it into his van. When the officer stopped him, the man said he thought someone had left it out for someone to take. Since it’s something people do all the time, the bicycle snatcher had a point. This was not an isolated example; Corbin said that there have been a number of similar incidents in recent years.
Of course, both residents and the CPD are also aware that not everyone driving down alleys looking for found items are thieves. “We know that many people collect discards [to] recycle or repurpose them,” Corburn said.
For example, local artist Natalie Thompson, whose work was recently featured in an e-Coronado.com article, keeps an eye out in local alleys looking for discarded surfboards that she turns into works of art.
Still, rather than leaving discarded items in the alley, Corbin recommends “donating them to a charity or waiting for bulk pickup day.” Bulk pickup days are offered in Coronado by EDCO twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. In 2015, the bulk pickup days will be between May 4–8 and October 5–9, on your regular trash day.
You can put any large or bulky item out on these bulk pickup days EDCO will haul it away. The disposal company isn’t choosy. With the exception of hazardous waste, such as paint or old batteries, the company will haul away just about anything – “broken appliances, water haters, furniture, old mattresses and miscellaneous household clutter,” said EDCO spokesperson Yvette Snyder. While some of these items do wind up in the county’s landfill, most are recycled, according to Snyder.
Charities also make good use of the donated discards. Organizations such as the Salvation Army, AmVets, and Goodwill have been collecting discards and recycling them in their thrift shops for decades. Resale profits help fund the organizations programs. For example, donating an old bicycle to the Salvation Army may help feed a needy family or protect a young girl from the sex trade, while a donation to Goodwill might help a disabled person learn skills that allows him to get a job and gain independence. AmVets uses proceeds from donated items to provide services to veterans in myriad ways. They’ve helped more than 24,000 veterans with compensation claims, and helped fund national monuments honoring the military, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the USS Arizona Memorial.
Clark, the local resident who recently left discarded items in the alley, gives discards to Am-Vets as well, but she points out that some items charities cannot resell or use, and as such there are items that the organizations will not accept. The Salvation Army, for example, won’t take used mattresses.
One other reason for the popularity of leaving discarded items out in alleys to be claimed by scavengers? Donating to these worthwhile organizations takes a bit of planning and occasionally a trip to the organizations’ collection centers. And as Clark pointed out, with our busy lives, we sometimes simply don’t have the time.
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Gloria Tierney
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
