Exploring Poverty Through the Lens of On Dumpster Diving

Abstract

Introduction Lars Eighner’s "On Dumpster Diving" is an interesting piece that assesses the American consumer culture and the rooted wastefulness ingrained in society. The author lived a life of scavenging, where he relied on dumpsters for food and livelihood, and from this desperate encounter, she can highlight a critical subject in society today. Lar’s life as a scavenger and living on the streets was dilapidated. She struggled with a lack of quality and sufficient food, poor sanitization, and the mental stigma that came with her lifestyle. She refers to her life on the street as ‘On dumpster Diving’, where she had to gather America’s wasteful resources and put them to use, and she appreciates her scavenging abilities. Eighner provides valuable insights into humanity's questioning of the abundance of resources and their disposability. Throughout her journey as a dumpster, Eighner purports that there is no shame in living on the refuse of others since material things do not define an ideal life. This essay shows Eighner’s journey on dumpster diving on how Americans struggle to make ends meet in a tough American social setting due to the rising cost of living, poor wages, and America’s wasteful consumer culture, which can be influential in living a life of poverty. Poverty Eighner's journey of scavenging and dumpster diving in the streets of Texas exemplifies a life of poverty. Together with her dog Lizbeth who died in 1998, she spent three years on the streets feeding on the refuses of Americans. Rent and affording necessities were a problem; affording them put him on the journey of dumpster diving. “While my dog Lizbeth and I were still living in the house on Avenue B in Austin, as my savings ran out, I put almost all my sporadic income into rent.” (Eighner 5). This shows the survival mode of poverty in Eighner’s life. She obtained clothing, food, medicine, toilet paper, bedding, books, and typewriters from the dumpsters. The life of living on the margins led the author to discernment, concluding that Americans should not be wasteful and that those in poverty should not be afraid to scavenge. Poverty in the United States is caused by systemic issues and economic structures that lead to homelessness or food insecurity. Yet, it is trampled and ignored as an important subject that culminates poverty. Eighner sites the stiff competition of scavenging in places like Los Angeles due to the large population of scavengers and the little experience with other dumpsters (45). This shows that living on the margins and unsustainability is critical yet resources and material abundance is evident among the dumpsters. Life as a dumpster diver taught Eighner adaptability and resilience. She acknowledges that someday she would wish to get off the streets to cater for Lizbeth but it is unrealistic since getting out from poverty is difficult and she could end up in a dumpster. Unfortunately, Eighner elevates dumpster diving as a modern way of self-reliance. The growing population in cities equates to a growing number of dumpsters One can get whatever thing they want from the dumpster ironically worshipping poverty. American Culture of Wastefulness Eighner kept asking the question “Why was this discarded?” since a lot of perfectly good food is found in the dumpsters. She alludes that most dumpsters discard their items due to ignorance, carelessness, or wastefulness. The levels of wastefulness by the dumpsters are saddening. Most things owned by Americans are white elephants and they are not worth the possessor's substance, hence they dump them. American students are the most wasteful individuals especially because they do not work for their money throwing away their reading materials, food, and valuable items such as bank and health records, without thinking about the implications of their actions. “A typical discard is a half jar of peanut butter. Nonorganic peanut butter does not require refrigeration and is unlikely to spoil in any reasonable time. The student does not know that, and since it is Daddy’s money, the student decides not to take a chance.” (Eighner 25) This analogy shows the lack of information in managing resources in American society. Students are rich dumpsters and managing their resources is a huge problem. They tend to throw away everything at the end of their semesters or when their parents are visiting disposing of drugs and alcohol. The American culture does not value sustainability and questions its role...