"There is a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness." attributed to Dave Barry.
 

DUMPING, verb, to go looking for places where people threw away cans, hopefully in large numbers!

Cans are everywhere!  Members of the Rusty Bunch have found them in the woods, under buildings, in old wells, in caves, in attics, in old outhouse pits, in the trucks of junked cars, along hillsides, in walls, on lake bottoms, in racetracks, etc.  Although a lot of pre-World War Two cans were recycled in scrap metal drives during the war, many more were tossed aside.   The earliest beer cans used to say "When Empty, Throw Away."   An early ad by a can company actually showed a fisherman in a boat about to throw his empty can into the lake!   While a lot of the cans have long since rusted away, a lot are still out there.  The oldest cans were made of a heavier gage of metal and had thick coatings of paint. Soaking them in a bath of citric acid overnight often cleans much of the rust.  Moreover, the mystery of wondering what you will find, or have found, as well as the thrill of the hunt that makes dumping so much fun. 

This section has several pages.

• Cleaning Cans  How to clean those treasures you found!
  
• My Dumping Story  A story about my first dumping trip.
  
• Dumping Pictures Photos from dumping trips from 2009-2013.
  
• Dumping Pictures #2: Photos from trips made between 2003-2008.
  
• Why Cans Were Tossed Away Just Anywhere  Old cans encouraged drinkers to just toss the cans anywhere. 
  
• Youtube Videos  Watch some dumping videos I took while in New England.

Some Photos

 This is a "before" photo of cans I found at a great dump in Virginia the first week of March, 2001 while dumping with two buddies from the Rusty Bunch.

 

Below is the "after" photo of the same cans above!

Below is a humorous look at those of us who don't mind putting a dumper of a can we need, especially a rare one, on the shelf along with the cans in good condition.  The Rustoon, written and drawn by Andy Galamba, is from the Rusty Bunch's newsletter, Rustlings.  Used with permission by the artist.