Erin Heschong Mr.

Neuburger ENG Comp 102-127 30 August 2012 Dumpster Experience On Dumpster Diving On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner describes the authors experience as a homeless person who turns unwanted scrap into treasure. Eighner lives quite easily because of the wastefulness of Americans. While he dives through the waste of others, and survives quite easily by following a few simple rules. For example, when picking up some sort of trash he always asks, Why was this discarded?(255). Most people buy more food than they need, and after holidays or when the student returns home, Eighner can use that wasted food to his benefit. Eighner explains, "He begins to understand: people do throw away perfectly good stuff, a lot of perfectly good stuff"(259). Many foods Americans have available to them go uneaten, and those uneaten foods end up rotting or thrown away in a dumpster. After Eighners experience as a homeless person, he has learned when to grab the best food to fill his appetite, where the greatest dumpster location to get fresh groceries okay, and how to determine what food is safe to eat. He discovers that his lack of embarrassment enables him to survive on the wastefulness of humans. (Word 192)

Eighner, Lars. "On Dumpster Diving." Power of Language/Language of Power. Second ed. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011. 253-65. Print. Custom Edition for Ozarks Technical Community College.