“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”: Unveiling Hidden Gems through Dumpster Diving

At that time in my life I was at the mercy of my mother who was chronically homeless. She ended up placing me and my younger brother in CAS care (CAS stands for Children’s Aid Society, its like Canada’s version of CPS) when she got evicted (we were on the street) from our apartment in Toronto. My mom was never a dumpster diver herself, she claims “its my daughter’s crazy free spirit that gives her these ideas”. I quit for a brief time in my late teens/early 20s when I went to Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. I started back up again once I got my license and a car in my 3rd year of university. My most horrifying memory of dumpster diving during this period was finding live animals in the PJ’s Pets dumpster. More specifically I was finding live beardies (Bearded Dragons) in their dumpsters. This was back in 2007-ish so unfortunately I do not have any photos/videos. PJ’s Pets no longer exists (they went out of business). <a href="https://juliapak-633.medium.com/one-mans-trash-is-another-man-s-treasure-unveiling-hidden-gems-through-dumpster-diving-c6a576b01d19">Learn More</a>