Campus Dumpster Diving: Korean Style

Because there are no dumpsters on campus, we were not sure how to go about finding treasures as students moved out and (hopefully) left stuff of value behind.  After many walks around the dorms during their moving week (see previous post), we discovered that the ajeemas (the pink 'cleaning' ajeemas - who seem friendlier than the lawn-care 'blue' ajeemas) were key to this process. 

Pink ajeemas taking out trash and recycling.  This happened several times a day during moving week.

Ajeema carts all get wheeled uphill, past this smoker's hut behind the dorms

 

 

 

(note the 3 fire extinguishers)

The Place Furniture Goes to Die.

 Recycling (plastic, cans, glass) seems to go on the ground to the right; everything else seems to go in the very rusted-out metal box thing.

 
Did we find treasures?  Yes, we did. And it was wonderful that the students are serious about recycling, so we could skip the metal and glass recycling bags (the plastic bags often had some decent stuff we needed, like hangers and baskets).  It was also lovely that the bags were transparent, so we didn't need to rip them all open.

Now, it was no easy task sneaking into here without the ajeemas or the smokers noticing, as we were a wee bit uncomfortable being seen as the Americans-who-dig-in-trash-like-poor-people.  We mostly went at dusk (7:30pm was good - its black night here by 8:10pm).  We found MUCH less stuff than at Dordt.

The most common items we found: shoes/sandals (Koreans are serious about shoes, remember - there are separate shoes for outdoors, for the shower, for wearing inside the house, etc.), umbrellas (we found dozens every day - as the ajeemas clean each dorm, they gather and bundle them up - we try them all out and take the good ones to the "free" rack behind the faculty dorm across campus), and "bathroom baskets" - fairly sturdy 10" x 6" x 6" plastic bins that I'm using for toiletries, cords, food, etc. 

Useful/best items: a three-drawer nightstand on wheels; art supplies (paint, markers, crayons, brushes, etc.); three desk lamps (needed new bulbs); spray paint; pots/pans.  : )