Fredericton’s trash is this man’s treasure

Colin Richard is a scholar of scraps, a devotee of debris, and a collector of all.

He picks up his treasures at his day job, as the owner of Fredericton Dumpster services.

"In this business, you notice how much stuff we throw out and a lot of times it’s still fully-functioning or you can repurpose it,” said Richard.

“I just started noticing and it's grown in to what it is today 12 years later.”

He says he’s sometimes perplexed by purchasing habits, and the things people throw away.

"We're getting into the holidays right now and everything is Black Friday this, cyber sales this -- I'm not a shopper myself,” Richard said.

“I understand that's what drives the economy, but I do think that we consume too much stuff and I guess my business benefits from it, so it's kind of a double-edged sword,” he said.

Richard has made thousands of saves in his dumpster net, from Fredericton hockey finds, to family photos of a bygone time.

"I grew up a Fredericton Canadiens fan, because they played here and my dad's name is Maurice Richard, just by chance,” Richard said.

“And, one of my good buddies plays for the Montreal Canadiens now so anything with the Canadiens… I definitely keep that stuff. Anything Maple Leafs I give to my brother.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Colin Richard (@frederictondumpstersaves)

Richard is especially a lover of local paraphernalia.

“I've got local hockey stuff, I've got Willie O'Ree stuff, Danny Grant, stuff like that,” Richard said.

But, he doesn’t keep it to just hockey, he collects anything that catches his eye.

Richard's goal for his emporium of odds and ends is to keep items out of the landfill and give them a second life.

"I actually got a map of Lancaster -- Saint John, I don't know the history on that, but I got it framed and gave it as a wedding gift to my cousin and her husband this past summer,” Richard said. “So it's kind of cool to be able to gift something that was saved from the landfill.”

Richard shares his fabulous finds on his Instagram.