Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging

Alternative Criminology

by Jeff Ferrell

An illuminating and personal journey through Jeff Ferrell's eight month odyssey of living off the streets

“Patrolling the neighborhoods of central Fort Worth, sorting through trash piles, exploring dumpsters, scanning the streets and the gutters for items lost or discarded, I gathered the city's degraded bounty, then returned home to sort and catalogue the take.”―from the Introduction

In December of 2001 Jeff Ferrell quit his job as tenured professor, moved back to his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and, with a place to live but no real income, began an eight-month odyssey of essentially living off of the street. Empire of Scrounge tells the story of this unusual journey into the often illicit worlds of scrounging, recycling, and second-hand living. Existing as a dumpster diver and trash picker, Ferrell adopted a way of life that was both field research and free-form survival. Riding around on his scrounged BMX bicycle, Ferrell investigated the million-dollar mansions, working-class neighborhoods, middle class suburbs, industrial and commercial strips, and the large downtown area, where he found countless discarded treasures, from unopened presents and new clothes to scrap metal and even food.

Richly illustrated throughout, Empire of Scrounge is both a personal journey and a larger tale about the changing values of American society. Perhaps nowhere else do the fault lines of inequality get reflected so clearly than at the curbside trash can, where one person's garbage often becomes another's bounty. Throughout this engaging narrative, full of a colorful cast of characters, from the mansion living suburbanites to the junk haulers themselves, Ferrell makes a persuasive argument about the dangers of over-consumption. With landfills overflowing, today’s highly disposable culture produces more trash than ever before―and yet the urge to consume seems limitless.

In the end, while picking through the city's trash was often dirty and unpleasant work, unearthing other people's discards proved to be unquestionably illuminating. After all, what we throw away says more about us than what we keep.

Genres: Sustainability, Nonfiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Jeff Ferrell is Professor of Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. His books include Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti and The Politics of Criminology. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Reviews

[Chris Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written like a text book. If this book was edited differently, the content could have jumped to life.

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

*SPOILER ALERT! THIS IS THE WORST BOOK I'VE READ IN YEARS!*

I have to be honest up front that I in fact did not actually read this book in it's entirety, but I did read just over half completely and then skimmed most of the rest. Unfortunately, it was just such a pointless book that I could take no more of it! The format, which is at first engaging, quickly becomes tiresome, as it is just a continual string of 1 page anecdotal stories of trash that he found or people that he avoided contact with.
This was on the verge of becomming a cool book but just did not make it. It seems like the academician author just decided to be a trash scrounger for 2 years and all he had to talk about was barely interesting objects that he found in other peoples garbage. It didn't have much to do with his means of living beyond picking up scrap metal. There was no mention of dumpster diving for food, but a huge amount of time was spent on his weird stalker habit of going through peoples photos and personal papers that they would pitch. I don't think he understands that that is exactly the reason that some people chase scroungers off. You can have the old clothes or cans and bottles, but don't take letters from some old girlfriend that I just threw away. Creep-o. He gives authors, professors, and dumpster divers a bad rap. I could go on, but I've already spent to much time on this waste of a book.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only recommend this book if you have a very strong interest in the subject matter. At first I thought that a really good editor could smooth out the rough patches, delete the abundance of lists, and remove the repetition of anecdotes. But really what this book needs is a wholesale rewrite.

The most interesting pieces are the interactions with people while scrounging, and the more documentary storytelling in the chapter on a city recycling program.

I'm not sorry I checked this book out from the library, but be prepared for some digging and skimming if you do the same.

[Mxel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bunch of shit I already do. Should have written a book about it.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the cross references for cataloging this book is rag pickers. I like that and the idea behind rag pickers. Rag pickers historically, made a living from the detritus of others and were very low on the social scale. Jeff Ferrell, a professor, albeit a rag picker, a dumpster diver, and a guy who lives off of the stuff other people leave behind brings sustainable living into sharp focus. Some might call him a nut, but I think of him as one of the real sustainable livers. He furnishes his house; he finds clothes for himself and others; he finds books and records and doo dads and food. He does lives in a place where he can store much of the bric-a-brac that people throw away and one would have to. There is a picture of his shed, in the back of his house, where he collects and catalogs from screws to appliances. The book is illustrated to a point and inspiring beyond all points.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is about a guy who quits his academic job mid semester and decides he is going to return to Fort Worth and try to live on only what he could find on the street. Dude says he was living with some one who had a minimum wage job. This book has pictures and art the Dude makes with the stuff he finds. He makes lists of the stiff he finds and how he has to store it. He rides around town on a scrounged bike, with scrounged tools and he collects stuff—some stuff he sells on Ebay and he will collect enough copper or other metal to take to the recycler.

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's true, I realized, necessity is the mother of invention; it's a hard-worked wellspring of personal creativity and innovation. . .when nothing of yourself is needed, when everything is bought new and delivered complete, convenience becomes the mother of existential complacency." - Jeff Ferrell

This quote summarizes this fantastic book - fantastic.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The guy loses his job and determines that he'll research and write an ethnography of dumpster diving and trash. He becomes one with his objects. Amazing.

Postscript 2020May23. Re-read while binging Hoarders on Netflix. Marie Kondo's next up

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big YAWN...I really wanted this book to be interesting, but it was just so hard to keep reading.