毕业季“断舍离”太彻底？美国大学的垃圾桶藏着LV

For College Students, It’s Summer Vacation. For Scavengers, It’s Christmas.

大学生放暑假，拾荒者过年了

Valentino sneakers that retail for $980.

零售价为980美元的华伦天奴运动鞋。

A Tovala toaster oven, originally $390.

原价390美元的托瓦拉牌烤吐司机。

A Clear Home Design Lucite table, which would have cost $899 – except in this case, it was free.

透明家居设计款有机玻璃桌，原价899美元，但这个是免费的。

Lena Geller found those items, and many others, in the trash room of her apartment building in Durham, N. C., after scores of Duke University students had moved out at the end of the spring semester.

在杜克大学的几十名学生于春季学期末搬家离开后，莉娜·盖勒在位于北卡罗来纳州达勒姆城的公寓楼垃圾房里发现了这些物品，以及其他许多东西。

“It feels wrong for this much stuff to have been thrown out,” Ms. Geller wrote in an article for INDY Week, where she’s a staff writer.

“这么多东西被扔掉感觉不太对，”盖勒在为《INDY周刊》撰写的一篇文章中写道，她是受雇于该杂志的撰稿人。

She kept a spreadsheet of the roughly 70 items she found in the trash, estimating, after doing some research, that they originally retailed for $6,600 in total.

她把在垃圾堆中找到的约70件物品列成电子表格，经过一番调查后，估算这些物品的原零售价总计为6600美元。

“I’ve had a few friends text me after reading the piece, like, ‘We should put together some kind of business plan’,” Ms. Geller, 26, said in an interview.

“有几个朋友读完这篇文章后发短信给我，说‘我们应该一起做一个商业计划’，”26岁的盖勒在接受采访时说。

“It does feel like most of the stuff that I got was just sitting there. I do think there’s a lot of money to be made.”

“我找到的大部分东西确实就好像是直接放在那里。我确实认为可以从中赚到很多钱。”

Every year, as graduation season ends, many departing students throw away or simply abandon expensive household items and luxury goods instead of donating or taking them back home.

每年随着毕业季结束，许多搬离公寓的学生将昂贵的家居物品和奢侈品直接扔掉或丢弃，而不是捐赠或带回家。

Local residents and scavengers are stepping in, rescuing items to reuse or sell, then touting their finds on social media.

于是当地居民和拾荒者上场抢救物品，以便再利用或出售，然后在社交媒体上鼓吹他们淘到的宝物。

Peter Valley, a 47-year-old software company founder, has been selling discarded books from college students for years.

47岁的软件公司创始人彼得·瓦利多年来一直在转卖被大学生丢弃的旧书。

To him, and many other scavengers, college campuses are a virtually inexhaustible source of goods that can be resold, kept or donated.

对他以及许多其他拾荒者来说，大学校园几乎是取之不尽的宝库，有无数的物品可以转售、自留或捐赠。

“My earliest success was dumpster diving at Caltech in Pasadena,” he said.

“我最初的成功是在帕萨迪纳城的加州理工学院翻垃圾箱，” 他说。

“My girlfriend and I dumpster-dived a couple thousand dollars’ worth of books from the campus recycling center.

“我和女友从校园回收中心的垃圾箱里捡到了价值几千美元的书。

That was a big ‘aha’ moment, where I realized that this could be a real business.”

那个时候我惊觉，这可以成为一门真正的生意。”

These days, Mr. Valley is primarily focused on his software business.

如今瓦利主要专注于自己的软件业务。

Reselling books nets him a monthly income in what he describes as a “low four-figure amount”.

转卖书籍为他带来了每月“小几千”的净收入。

At his peak, he said, he had five-figure months.

他说，最高曾有过月入五位数的时候。

College campus dumpster diving isn’t new but social media has given it prominence.

在大学校园里翻垃圾桶并不是新鲜事，但社交媒体让它变得引人注目。

At the University of Wisconsin, a stretch of August has long been known as “Hippie Christmas” because so many students deposit their unwanted belongings on front lawns.

在威斯康星大学，每年八月的某段时间素来被称为“嬉皮士圣诞节”，因为大量学生会将不需要的物品堆放在楼房前面的草坪上。

Bostonians, who live in something of a giant college town, devoutly mark “Allston Christmas” each September.

生活在巨型大学城的波士顿人每年九月都会虔诚地庆祝“奥尔斯顿圣诞”。（注：奥尔斯顿圣诞指每年9月租约结束时，波士顿奥尔斯顿区的居民会把不需要的家具等物品放在路边，由人们自取。）

In a 1991 essay, Lars Eighner, who became famous for chronicling his experiences with homelessness, said that he focused his scavenging on a college town and that he found “it advantageous to keep an eye on the academic calendar”.

在1991年的一篇文章中，以记录流浪汉经历而闻名的拉斯·艾纳表示，他主要在大学城捡垃圾，并发现“留意校历是很有好处的”。

At the same time, anxiety about climate change is rising among young people.

与此同时，年轻人对气候变化的焦虑情绪正在加剧。

Rescuing and wearing someone else’s Lululemon shorts is one way to fight back against pollution and wastefulness.

拯救被别人扔掉的Lululemon短裤并且自己穿，这是对抗污染与浪费的一种方式。

“It’s truly transgressive because it’s stepping out of that idea that we have to be consumers,” said Lisa Beiswenger, an assistant professor at Saint Francis University who taught a class on dumpster diving at the University of Akron.

“这确实是一种打破常规的行为，因为它跳出了我们必须是消费者的观念，”圣弗朗西斯大学助理教授丽莎·贝斯温格说，她曾在阿克伦大学教授关于翻垃圾箱的课程。

Her students discovered that the 300 million tons of waste Americans generate annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, include plenty of stuff that can be used, worn or eaten by someone else.

她的学生们发现，美国人每年产生的3亿吨垃圾中（数据来自美国环境保护署），包含大量可供他人使用、穿着、食用的物品。

Too Much Junk

垃圾太多

Blame the “Amazonification” of the American economy, said Rosalie E. Kerr, director of sustainability at Dartmouth College.

达特茅斯学院可持续发展主任罗莎莉·E. 克尔表示，这要归咎于美国经济的“亚马逊化”。

“If you’re going to a party, and the theme of that party is the 1920s, you can go on Amazon and buy a plastic 1920s outfit for $17 with one click. And that’s really irresistible.”

“如果你要参加一个派对，派对的主题是20世纪20年代，那么你可以在亚马逊上花17美元一键购买一套塑料材质的20年代复古服装。这实在令人难以抗拒。”

College move-out season adds a twist because students need to clear out quickly.

大学搬家季又增添了一些变数，因为学生们需要迅速清空宿舍。

Many discover that, in the previous nine months, they’ve accrued far too many goods to store or bring home.

许多人发现，在过去的九个月里，他们积攒了太多物品，既无法存放，也无法带回家。

Into the dumpster the Jazz Age flapper outfit goes.

于是爵士时代摩登女郎的装扮被扔进了垃圾箱。

Then come the dumpster divers.

接着垃圾箱淘宝大队就上场了。

On social media, many marvel at their finds.

在社交媒体上，许多人对他们的发现感到惊叹。

Someone threw away what? You found that?

你说有人扔掉了什么？你竟然找到了那个？

Some colleges have tried to address the waste.

一些高校已尝试解决浪费问题。

Georgetown, for example, organizes a donation drive intended to align with “the university’s Catholic and Jesuit mission”, according to an email sent to students, urging them to leave items at one of four sites on campus.

例如，根据发给学生的电子邮件，乔治城大学组织了一场捐赠活动，旨在践行“该校的天主教和耶稣会使命”，敦促学生将废弃物品留在校园内四个指定地点之一。

The email said that, last year, the school “diverted over 49,000 ibs. of material, valued at almost $334,000.”

邮件提到，去年学校“转移了超过4.9万磅废弃物品，价值近33.4万美元”。

But sustainability experts say that on many campuses, such efforts are either limited or nonexistent, leaving dumpster divers to perform an important service.

但是可持续发展专家表示，在许多校园，此类举措要么很有限，要么根本不存在，这使得翻垃圾箱的人起到了重要作用。

Anna Sacks, a Manhattan-based waste expert, criticized Columbia University for not doing nearly enough to make sure that students can either donate or resell items like mini fridges, which are too cumbersome to carry home.

曼哈顿的废弃物专家安娜·萨克斯批评哥伦比亚大学没有投入足够努力，确保学生能够捐赠或转售迷你冰箱等过于笨重而不便带回家的物品。

At the same time, access to campus has been heavily restricted, making it an all but impregnable dumpster diving destination.

与此同时，出入校园受到严格限制，翻垃圾箱的人根本无法进入校园。

(A spokeswoman for Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.)

（哥伦比亚大学的一位女发言人没有回应本刊的置评请求。）

Scavenging veterans say that anyone wishing to join their ranks should look for schools with high populations of international students, who are unlikely to haul televisions on transoceanic flights.

拾荒老手们表示，想去垃圾箱淘宝的人应该找国际学生比例高的学校，因为这些学生不太可能把电视机搬上越洋航班。

For both safety and camaraderie, go with a group.

为了安全和情谊，最好结伴同行。

And do remember that you’re going to be sorting trash.

并且要记住，你将需要对垃圾进行分类。

“I bring hand sanitizer,” Ms. Sacks said.

“我会带上洗手液，” 萨克斯说。