The aftermath of a college football game day tailgate: red solo cups, empty cans, plates and shrink wrap scattered throughout the backyard or driveway.
As one popular saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and in the case of TCU students Devin Gallemore and Chandler Fields, that statement couldn’t be more true. They decided to come up with a trash clean up service for student tailgaters. Together, they are the “Dumpster Divers.”
“It’s Uber for trash,” junior economics major Gallemore said. “It’s on-demand trash pick-up. What we do is if there’s piles of trash on your property that won’t fit into your waste bin and you call us, we’ll come in and take care of it.”
Gallemore said other trash collection services around campus charge students around $100 dollars for a similar service, but their service charges only $20.
Gallemore is the creator of the service and both him and Fields are in the early stages of recruiting more drivers. Drivers for “Dumpster Divers” keep 70 percent of the $20 profit per pickup, roughly $14. The business itself keeps the other 30 percent.
“To go from TCU to the Waste Management dump costs $2.17 in gas,” Gallemore said. “You profit just over $11.”
Gallemore said the idea came to him when he came back to school this year and people kept calling him to take their trash out because he had a truck. He said his partner Chandler Fields ran into the same issue and they both thought it would nice if they could make some money off of taking out the trash.
“We started this to help the TCU community out and make sure things are done the right way to try and reduce littering and illegal dumping,” Fields said.
Both Gallemore and Fields said they were unaware of how popular of a demand the trash service would have until they read about the new Texas littering law and the tailgating fines which allows judges to sentence offenders to 60 hours of community service if caught littering.
More than just making money and helping the community follow the law, Fields said their trash collection service is their way of living up to the mission statement of TCU.
“Part of the TCU mission statement is to ‘educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.'” Fields said. “We want this to be a platform for other students to make a difference that is bigger than themselves.”
Currently, “Dumpster Divers” is not sponsored through TCU, but the two have been in contact with landlords who have expressed interest in using the service.
Both Fields and Gallemore are looking to find a way to put their service on an app where more drivers can register and users can request trash pickups by alerting drivers on duty. They both also hope to sustain the company after college and are looking to expand their business to other colleges and universities.
For more information contact Dumpster Divers at (682) 207-5623.
