Dumpster diving is a lot more fun than shopping in Fairbanks. Generally, there is better variety. It is a lot cheaper, and there is the added excitement relevant to yard sales and treasure hunts where you never know what you are going to find. It is a system that works for a lot of people. Some of the transfer sites, such as the one right by the U, have special areas for reuse. Since the “good stuff” is not always sorted into the reuse areas, people dumpster dive for finds. These treasure hunters were threatened last week by local lawmakers.

The borough was considering placing a ban on dumpster diving, but unanimously voted down after Fairbanksans joined together to give testimony at the meeting about how much dumpster diving meant to them. I am very glad they decided against placing a ridiculous ban on a recycling program that has proved very useful to the community.

Some say that dumpster diving is not safe. Like anything, there are unsafe ways to dumpster dive. You would not want to be mid-dive in a dumpster when the truck comes to knock the thing upside down, but I think the adversaries of dumpster diving are more concerned about how the most notorious dumpster divers can make theirs and the neighboring property look trashy. In a few extreme cases, I can understand how this would be upsetting to neighbors.

There are the examples of different properties that have become pretty bad looking. For example, the property near the Turtle Club in Fox is littered shoulder-high with junk scavenged from the nearby transfer site. The property owner has showed no signs of changing. These hordes of junk become an issue because neighbors complain that it brings down prices of neighboring property.

This is a poor excuse to outlaw dumpster diving in the borough. First of all, people who have a compulsion to horde will find things to accumulate even if dumpster diving is illegal.

There is no comprehensive recycling program in Fairbanks at this moment, but many people are utilizing what they can find in the dumpsters and putting it to good use. While officials finance studies and wonder about how to fix the problem of all this waste we produce, there are people out t here who are actually contributing to a solution and now the government wants to stop them with pricy law enforcement.

The current plan is to have people trained in ticketing individuals found to be dumpster diving and putting more restrictions on what people can haul away from transfer sites.

In a society that is plagued by waste and senseless consumerism, I think reusing things is a noble pursuit.