Dumpster Diving

Has anyone heard of dumpster diving? I learned about it this weekend- a girl on youtube goes to ulta's dumpster out back and digs through to find perfume bottles, ditched samplers, and even new items that were never used. The rational person in me thinks that's really disgusting, but the weirdo in me is itching to go and see what treasures I can find. Someone, please either talk me out of this, or talk me into it. What do you think?

If you want to see what it looks like/what she found, google "dumpster dive sephora".

I want to hear your thoughts!

I used to "dumpster dive" at home improvement stores like lowes and home depot. But that's a whole different story.

Icky and illegal...but show the goods if you find some =)

It is illegal. Everything in the dumpster is still their property until it is picked up. Then it becomes the property of the trash removal service. Free stuff is cool, but going to jail for stealing is not.

I was in my Ulta just last week though and had picked up several items from the clearance racks. When I went to pay for them, the sales clerk pointed out that all the bar codes had been marked with a black marker and explained that they were already removed from inventory and were supposed to be thrown away. She said she hated tossing stuff and gave all of the items to me for free. I walked out only paying $6 for over $100 in products. Maybe you could ask a sales associate instead of dumpster diving?

When houses in my neighborhood were being built people were diving on a regular basis.  One of my neighbors noticed that a huge amount of flooring that was used in my kitchen was in there.  They passed it on to me.  Nice to know that if it needs patched I have plenty!  Some of the extra material was left in the house by the builders (a whole box of tile and a bag of grout, along with some carpet).  

When I worked at Bath and Body Works we had a lot of dumpster divers.  When a tester got below 50% we had to throw it out.  It was against company policy to give it away, but it definitely happened.  I'm a bit of a germaphobe, so I couldn't imagine using something that was possibly contaminated.  Sealed items would be a whole different ballgame!  LOL!

eastofthesun said:

Has anyone heard of dumpster diving? I learned about it this weekend- a girl on youtube goes to ulta's dumpster out back and digs through to find perfume bottles, ditched samplers, and even new items that were never used. The rational person in me thinks that's really disgusting, but the weirdo in me is itching to go and see what treasures I can find. Someone, please either talk me out of this, or talk me into it. What do you think?

If you want to see what it looks like/what she found, google "dumpster dive sephora".

I want to hear your thoughts!

Click to expand...

My mother use to dumpster dive at RiteAid. It's amazing how much NEW stuff is thrown out because their policies won't allow them to donate it. Shameful.

zadidoll said:

My mother use to dumpster dive at RiteAid. It's amazing how much NEW stuff is thrown out because their policies won't allow them to donate it. Shameful.

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At VS we had to physically destroy everything (cut, rip, dump out) that was damaged out so that dumpster divers could not return it. It made me sick. I'm talking like a tshirt with 1 gem that fell off, a beauty product that was opened or leaked a tiny bit, any little thing. A lot of companies won't bother with donation because they'd have to ensure it doesn't get returned (target puts black lines on all the tags of what they donate to Goodwill).
Back in the day at Party America (now Party City), we just threw everything away once it was on clearance long enough, although they actually let employees take it home unlike VS who would not even let us use it for employee incentives. Tons of Halloween costumes though, straight to the garbage every year. 10 years later I still put out my free fog machine for Halloween every year /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I've never done it, but I have read about it. I don't find anything wrong with it. In fact, I find it more problematic that companies can be so wasteful. However, I think diving for makeup is a little more iffy as far as hygiene goes than home goods are.

If you do decide to try it, be careful. While I personally don't think it's wrong, as others have reiterated, dumpster diving is illegal. A lot of places have cameras installed outside, near the dumpsters. Make sure to wear thick clothing, gloves, and tennis shoes in case of broken glass. Just an FYI, some places send the stuff that didn't sell back to the manufacturer, destroy the products so they can't be used, or they lock their dumpsters.

I'm glad that this generated so much discussion! It's very interesting and saddening how much waste some companies generate. That VS story breaks my heart. Go Target for donating!

I've read conflicting info on it being illegal. I've read that it's more up to the local laws. I may give it a try once just to see what it's all about. Of course, if any security or cops, or even just employees come up to me, I'll tell them what I'm doing and if they seem not to like it, I'll just leave and never do it again.

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance, but I feel like it's my duty to try. I hate thinking that perfectly good items are just going to the dumpster.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Those come to mind and I think if it's in the garbage there's nothing wrong (local laws witholding) with going through them as long as you don't A) Make a huge mess B) Try to return the items to the store C)Sue the company for being injured while going through the dumpster. You know, things like that.

Well..... is anyone else thinking about trying this?

I'm definitely wearing pants, long-sleeves, thick boots, gloves, and will probably bring something to pick through it with- like a long stick. I'm not sure.... this is all so soon- I only even found out about this being a thing this past weekend. I don't know...

Anyway, thanks for the input, everyone! I think I'll try to find out if it's legal in my city before I try it.

I think local law determines the legality of dumpster diving. Haven't you ever watched Investigation Discovery where the cops wait until garbage day to collect someone's trash so they can get a DNA sample? They usually say once it's out at the curb, it's considered abandoned property and perfectly legal to pick up. Wether the same goes for dumpsters at stores I'm not sure, but as long as there's no signs stating No Trespassing I'd think you'll be fine.

You can probably call the non emergency police department where you are and get info on local laws regarding dumpster diving.

Private homes use the municipal disposal infrastructure, so it's kind of apples and oranges compared to a business, which has to pay for garbage carting. Legally, it's likely different in most cases. 

Even at a private residence it's illegal here. Even on the curb it belongs to you and then belongs to the waste processing center.  The police can't go onto your property without cause, but they can go through the trash. 

The city I live in actually issues permits to "junkers" so they can pick stuff up at the curb. And you can't put up a "No Trespassing" sign without it being registered with the police department. If it's not registered, it can't be enforced. So that's why you should check the laws in your area first.

At the SiJCP that I work at, a lot of people return things that are still usable. I'm not sure exactly what happens to all of this stuff, although my manager says that they will be simply destroyed if it's been used even once. I can't keep any of it because it's considered stealing and is grounds for termination.

If you do this, please share with us what you've found.

If I went dumpster diving I would go to a greenhouse looking for planters, perennials, and maybe a little something to dress up my yard.  

Yeah, I'm not surprised VS did that since it's the same company as Bath & Body Works. When I worked at B&BW, we had to "damage out" returned products, we'd literally squeeze everything out and then throw it away. But I saw other things that got thrown away without being squeezed out. I always thought about dropping something outside on the way to the dumpster and coming back for it on the way to my car at the end of the night. One time, we were throwing away whole boxes of these really cute plastic Christmas bags and I'd parked right next to the dumpster so I stuck it under my car and went back to working and then just tossed it in the trunk at the end of the night.

HelpMeSleep said:

Yeah, I'm not surprised VS did that since it's the same company as Bath & Body Works. When I worked at B&BW, we had to "damage out" returned products, we'd literally squeeze everything out and then throw it away. But I saw other things that got thrown away without being squeezed out. I always thought about dropping something outside on the way to the dumpster and coming back for it on the way to my car at the end of the night. One time, we were throwing away whole boxes of these really cute plastic Christmas bags and I'd parked right next to the dumpster so I stuck it under my car and went back to working and then just tossed it in the trunk at the end of the night.

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Oh yeah!  I forgot about the squeeze party.  I ended up as a CSM or something (not the manager or assistant, but I was the 'manager on duty' type).  If there was ever a doubt it went in the trash.  I'm sure a few body sprays walked out w/o being trashed.  I remember getting a bunch of stuff at 10 cents a piece when we switched floor sets and stuff.  All of those holiday props, bags, etc -- I swear I had them for YEARS!  And oh yeah, remember those apple baskets they used to use for in-store shopping?  I had about 12 of those.  I kept one and sold the rest at a garage sale, err, I donated them, yeah, that's it.  (No, I didn't work for BBW at that time, lol.)

We had a lot of dumpster divers.  And a lot of cardboard that never got recycled. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />