Beer Can Dumping

You've heard of dumpster diving but how about beer can dumping or just dumping? It seems there are a lot of beer can collectors getting into this and if you like the outdoors and walking in the woods, this could be for you!

Most homes, camps or neighborhoods had small dumping areas instead of garbage pickup, particularly in the rural areas. Garbage such as old food, coffee grinds, fruit skins and such were often used in compost piles. Wood and paper was burned and plastic was hardly known. Cans and glass were buried.

If there was a beer drinker in the area, chances are there were plenty of old flat top and cone top cans deposited into that dump! Now you would think the cans would be disintegrated by now but often they are not and the paint on the outside was very durable.

Though the cans look horrible when found, often they can be cleaned in a special cleaning procedure with citrus acid that brings them back to life in a way most of us would never think possible!

These before and after cleaning of dump cans is amazing to me!

This has become a fun hobby for many can collectors and even profitable for a few as many of these cans will be brought back to display condition. While it is unlikely that a dump can will clean up to grade A quality, or even close to it, the older cans are amazingly nice looking and make great additions to many collectors displays. Where else are you going to find cans that old that are affordable?

I love the idea. If I were younger I'd be hitting the woods and doing this. I remember as a teen sifting through dumps and finding all kinds of cone top cans, particularly Duke cans, and just discarding them! That was almost 40 years ago. I wonder if those cans are still there and if they'd clean up!