Skip raiders?

[Seahorse]

Do you nab stuff out of skips? I used to years ago when I was a penniless student but I've recently started eyeing them up again with a view to useful gardening bits & bobs. I scored a baby bath (aka mini garden pond) and a huge amount of cardboard (aka lottie mulch) today

I think it's technically illegal to make off with someone elses's rubbish but I've never heard of a serious complaint being made!

[phil the shed]

hi seahorse

can't find the link but we had a great chat last year about skips. it's one of those things that when you get a lottie it's law that you can't pass a skip without looking in and seeing if you can use things for recycling on your plot for growing luvleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee things.

[JanieB]

Oh yes. And a few years ago when I was married to a farmer, we had a couple of substantial holes on the farm that were infilled with rubbish. My sil and I used to scavenge there every weekend. We got bawled out once or twice, but it didn't stop us. We were amazed at what people threw out .

[Hans Mum]

from the skip at the end of my street ive had loads of pots and bulbs - builders have gutted this house & garden also got some guttering for shed and maybe enough to plant seeds into

[veg4681]

It's amazing what people will throw in the skip because they just can't be bothered. I always give unwanted but still usable stuffs to charity bags or anyone willing. We tend to go for odd pieces of woods that we can use to make something. We got our planks of wood for our raise bed for free .

[rustylady]

If it's in a skip it's going to be chucked away, so if you have a use for it then help yourself. It's amazing what some people throw away. I don't think it's illegal to take stuff out of a skip, but it's probably not a good idea to dump your rubbish in someone else's skip - that could cause problems.

[Protea]

<sings> I'm a skip digger, i like to dig in skips...<sings>

I've nabbed lots of useful things from skips since having my lottie - tons of carpet in particular (different debate i know), laminate flooring to use as stepping boards on my beds etc..

My friend got me into skip digging, and she's the Queen of the skips! they've had all sorts - garden furniture (like new), indoor furniture (good for students) and other stuff i can't remember (and she doesn't even have an allotment!)

[yoanbob]

It is illigal you have to ask permission but whos gonna say no £90 for a skip, if your making more room for them they love it.
its not classed as unwanted till its in the landfill or wherever else its destined for.

[Flummery]

I've hear it called skip diving! And a Scottish friend of mine calls going through the rubbish (as you do when you know you've chucked an important phone number away) midgie raking!

[sewer rat]

Flum
You sure he or she calls it midgie raking and not "midden raking" ?

[Flummery]

Definitely midgie. Theory being that they congregate around rubbish bins.

[lozza_9]

oh yes I suffer the same problem. Cant drive past a skip without having a little look.

I have never taken anything from one YET but I did once spot someone near me with some type of fencing at the front of their house ( not being used and looked dumped), we was looking to build a new house for our chickens. We knocked on the door and asked them about it, even offered some money but they said no, take it. Worked out it was a Aviery - perfect for the chickens , even had a door, for NOTHING!!!

loz

[shirlthegirl43]

Growing up near Glasgow, I thought the bin men were 'midgie men', as Flum says from the midges. However, my friend (also in Pembrokeshire now) from Arbroath, calls them scaffies, no clue where that comes from though.

[sewer rat]

Okay - just we've always called our rubbish tips "middens" and likewise our daughter is told that her room after her and her pals have been playing in it is frequently "like a midden"
My mother used to call me a wee midden whenever I came in from playing in the garden or out in the woods and was covered in muck.
On the subject of skip raking though, I used to do this for my garden, but now I have bigger fish to fry, I go to bigger places - not many skips would yield me 250 old tyres !!

[Flummery]

Growing up near Glasgow, I thought the bin men were 'midgie men', as Flum says from the midges. However, my friend (also in Pembrokeshire now) from Arbroath, calls them scaffies, no clue where that comes from though.

That's it Shirl. My friend (used to be my boss actually) comes from Glasgow.