Dumpster Diving

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at the back of an office building in Central London

Dumpster diving (DD), is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential Waste to find items that have been discarded for being unusable by their owners, but may be useful to the Dumpster diver. The practice of Dumpster diving is also known variously urban foraging, binning, alley surfing, D-Mart, Dumpstering, garbaging, garbage picking, garbage gleaning, skip-raiding, skip diving, skipping, skipweaselling, tatting, skallywagging, or trashing. Garbing, on the other hand, is when you throw something into the garbage. The term originates from the best-known manufacturer of commercial Dustbin, "Dumpster (term)" and the fanciful image of someone leaping head first into a dumpster as if a swimming pool. In practice, The size and design of most dumpsters to easily accept trash, also make it possible to retrieve many items from the outside of dumpster without having to "dive" inside. Dumpster Divers can range anywhere from people just walking by, to riding bicycles with panniers, to pushing shopping cart, to driving trucks, and more. In rural areas and some ancient agricultural societies, DD was similarly called gleaning and some medieval houses had "poor boxes" where still edible food was placed for the poor to take.

Rationale Traditionally, most people who resort to dumpster-diving do it out of economic necessity, such as the karung guni, the rag and bone man, waste picker, and junk man or bin hoker, as parodied in Steptoe and Son are people who make their living by sorting and trading trash. Others practice DD for various reasons like; thrill of the hunt seekers, people with creative outlet (They look for things to use in ways other than originally intended), students for discarded things to fix and reuse in experiments, and artists look for material in dumpsters. The interior designer Carol Tanzi (aka "Goddess of Garbage") uses re-cycled material in her designshttp://www.goddessofgarbage.com as does Vincent Jones, who creates art from discarded computer circuit boards and other found items. Still others go DD to indulge in their curiosity for unusual items.

There are also several ethical arguments that some believe justify dumpster-diving. One is that dumpster diving, by Reuse resources, is a Environmentalism endeavor. Another belief is, since many poorer people cannot afford to buy "expensive" items at market price, that any irregular, blemished, or damaged items should naturally be priced closer to their ability to pay. To dispose of these imperfect items is looked on by the poor as being economically inefficient, economically insensitive, and a hindrance to their ability to acquire goods that most people can afford. An example is discarded food that might have slight imperfections, that is near or exceed its use by date, or that is simply being replaced by newer stock. Many retailers are reluctant to sell this stock at reduced prices due to the belief that people will buy it instead of the higher priced newer stock; that extra handling time is required; and that there are liability risks.

Perishable food items, unsuitable for sale or use, can often be acquired by dumpster diving at bakeries, Supermarket, or restaurants and “safely” used after removing the unusable bits and decontaminating. Offices, factory, department stores, and other commercial establishments also may throw out nonperishable items that are irregular, were returned, have minor damages, or are replaced by newer inventory. Generally, the more perishable and inexpensive the item, the more likely it will be disposed of intact. Otherwise, most items tend to be in a state of disrepair that will require some work by the dumpster diver to make the items usable.

Many times consumer electronics, mainly computers, because of their rapid depreciation, obsolescence, cost to repair, or expense to upgrade, are dumped. Frequently, owners of functional computers find it easier to dump computers rather than donate because many non-profits and schools are unable or unwilling to work with used equipment. Some organizations like Geeks Into The Streets, reBOOT, Free Geek and Computerbank try to computer recycling for charity or educational use. Waste pickers who find computers tend to strip them for their parts and metals then discard the rest.

Overview In the United States, Canada, and Europe, supermarkets will routinely donate food according to a Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, or by health laws are required to discard food items before the shelf life, because of overstock, minor imperfections, spoilage, or blemishes. Often, this food can be made "safe" for consumption if proper decontamination and spoiled ruminates are removed.

The practice of dumpster diving can be anything from a single spontaneous act upon seeing a useful item in the garbage to an individual's Simple living lifestyle. For example, freeganism uses skills, acquired by those with few other options, to obtain goods or food. Others who deliberately choose to dive are private investigators or police seeking information and material for official purposes. Dumpstering is also associated with "Curbing", or rummaging through trash on city sidewalk curbs. Discarded furniture, electronics, appliances, books, and clothing are all commonly found.

Dumpster diving is practiced differently in countries whose commercial disposal practices are different from the developed world. In many economically developing countries, food is rarely thrown away unless it is rotten. In many countries, charities collect excess food from supermarkets and restaurants and distribute it to the needy. Dumpster divers, Karung guni, and Rag and bone man in these countries may concentrate on looking for usable items or scrap materials to sell.

British television shows have even featured home renovations and decoration using salvaged materials. Changing Rooms (TV show) is one such show, broadcast on BBC One. Recovery of still-useful items from discards is well-known in other cultures as well; James Fallows noted it in his book written about his time living in Japan. However, much of the richness attributed to dumpster diving in Japan ended with the collapse of the nation's Japanese asset price bubble in 1990. In the U.K Steptoe and Son and the U.S remake Sanford and Son showed the life of a junk man.

Dumpster diving, taken to an academic level, is used as a tool for garbologys, who study the sociology and archeology of trash in modern life. There is a major outpost of academic garbology at the University of Arizona, directed for some decades by William Rathje.

Another activity associated with dumpster diving is recycling collection. People often go through dumpsters and other trash containers looking for Aluminum can, often soda cans, or other recyclable materials. In some places these can be sold to Recycling or scrap yards. Recycling is also possible with other materials such as copper, lead, and other scrap metals. Because dumpsters are not a reliable source of scrap metal for the poor, some proactive “recyclers” may resort to stripping buildings and other installations of their valuable metals like brass fixtures, copper roofing, pipes, and wiring. This kind of scavenging has been reported in the United States, the former Soviet Union, Argentina, and others when either scrap prices or unemployment rates soar. This kind of activity produces a negative rather than a positive gain for society and can create unexpected effects, like a very large fire in some Brooklyn waterfront warehouses in May of 2006.

Information diving All too often, dumpsters can be an inadvertent source of information. Unwanted files, letters, memos, photographs, IDs, and more have been found in dumpsters. This oversight is a result of many people never considering that sensitive items like passwords, credit card numbers, and personal information they throw in the trash could be recovered anywhere from the dumpster to the landfill. This recovered information is sometimes used by criminals for fraudulent purposes (see also so-called "identity theft" and physical information security). Rarely is such information usable to a dumpster diver and many times DD's have contacted the police or owners of items that are unusual to find in dumpsters (wallets and purses).

Targeted information diving was more common in the 1980s due to lax security; when businesses became aware of the need for increased security in the early 1990s, sensitive documents were Paper shredder before being placed in dumpsters. Security mythology still portrays the stereotypical lone hackers or malicious black hats commonly using this technique, but this may be more of an urban legend because social engineering (computer security) is often easier, more productive, and is more predictable sources than dumpsters.

Experienced information diving (uncommon for dumpster divers) is commonly practiced by "Consumer protection" and news organizations seeking information on groups they are investigating. The Trinity Foundation (Dallas) successfully used this technique to report on the activities of televangelist Robert Tilton, and has also obtained information on Benny Hinn using this practice.

Legal status Because dumpsters are usually located on private premises, dumpster diving is illegal in some parts of the United States, though the law is enforced with varying degrees of rigor. The California v. Greenwood case in the U.S. Supreme Court held that there is no common law expectation of privacy for post-consumer waste. Dumpster diving per se is probably legal when not specifically prohibited by state or local law.

Police (and possibly other) searches of dumpsters and like discards are not violations; Evidence (law) Search and seizure in this way has been permitted in many criminal procedure. The doctrine is less well established in regard to civil litigation. Similarly in the United Kingdom, while dumpster diving in England and Wales may qualify as theft within the Theft Act 1968 or as common-law theft in Scotland there is very little enforcement in practice.

Private investigators have written books on "P.I. technique" in which dumpster diving or its equivalent "wastebasket recovery," figures prominently.

Companies run by private investigators specializing in dumpster diving have sprung up around the country as a result of the need for discreet, undetected retrieval of documents and evidence for civil and criminal trials. The following article discusses one company capitalizing on this fast growing field and specializing in the art of legal dumpster diving.

http://blog.a1peoplesearch.com/2007/09/make-200-300-for-digging-through-trash.html

In Italy, a law issued in 2000 declared dumpster diving to be legal.

In Sweden, the contents of a dumpster is the property of the owner of the dumpster so taking items from a dumpster is technically theft.

In Canada, The Trespass to Property Act - a hunk of legislation dating back to the British North America Act of 1867 - grants property owners and their rent-a-cops the power to ban anyone from the premises, for any reason, forever. The catch is, they have to actually ask you to leave - serve you with a notice prohibiting entry - then you have to return for it to be trespassing. And ever since a cop dug through a curbside trash can, looking for a ditched weapon used in a holdup, and the judge ruled that he needed no search warrant to do so, Canada's garbage has become fair game.

There are limits to what can legally be taken from someone's trash. In a 1983 Minnesota case involving the theft of customer lists from a garbage can, Tennant Company v. Advance Machine Company,355 N.W.2d 720 the owner of the discarded information was awarded USD500,000 in damages.

Socioeconomics of Dumpster diving Because some Dumpster divers may be people who are nearer to the poverty level than individuals who don't Dumpster dive, there are economic traits that these DDs hold in common. The main trait is adapting to scarcity and unpredictability of obtaining items that are easily obtained if one has a higher income. The production model that best describes the DD's economic lifestyle is just in case manufacturing. Just in case, states that when the lack of money to buy an item or the shortage of an item is expected in the future, then it is best to have several of these items in storage, "just in case". The ability of DDs to obtain many items at the time it is needed (see Just In Time (business)), often is expensive to DDs because most items available "just in time" are found in stores at full price. This ultimately means that DDs want to hold on to many items that most "just in time" people either throw away or buy as needed. Such items as consumer electronics, refrigerators, cars, tires, and computers, that are expensive to replace or repair immediately, may be kept by DD in greater numbers to insure that a working supply is available, just in case an equipment failure occurs. This results in many people who practice DD having more "stuff" than most people. Taken to the extreme, some dumpster divers cluttered properties may run afoul of a city's Code Enforcement resulting in fines and forced abatement. The result of such legal actions may actually cause additional hardships on people if they are poor or borderline Homelessness. According to the City of Seattle, 1:300 people who tend to Hoarding, may also suffer in some degree from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. It is also believed that this illness is aggravated by poverty in some cases.

Additionally, some individuals have ethical reasons for diving. Many of these people would articulate the wastefulness of consumer society and/or the ability to make use of items that they actually need and would otherwise end up taking space in landfills or dumps by way of "reasons" for what they do.

News and trivia

In the 1960s, Jerry Schneider, using recovered instruction manuals from The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, abused the company's own procedures to acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of telephone equipment over several years until his arrest.

The Castle Infinity game, after its shutdown, was brought back from the dead by rescuing its Server (computing)s from the trash.

Recently, dumpster diving has been popularized in the book Evasion (book), published by CrimethInc.

Food Not Bombs is an anti-hunger organization that gets a significant amount of its food from dumpster diving from the dumpsters at small markets and corporate grocery stores in UK.

December 6, 1983 – Juarez Mexico, A local resident salvaged a discarded radiation therapy machine carrying Cobalt-60. This in turn contaminated another 5,000 metric tons of steel, some of which was sent to the U.S. and Canada.

September 13, 1987 – In the Goiânia accident, scavengers broke open a radiation-therapy machine and sold caesium-137 source as a glowing curiosity. Four hundred were contaminated, four died.

March 18, 2000, 55 Oscars reported stolen were found in a Los Angeles dumpster behind a grocery store. The salvage man, Willie Fulgear, 61, received a $50,000 reward and two tickets to the Oscars. Later, his reward money was stolen from a safe in his apartment.

In an interview in the May 29, 2006 issue of Newsweek, Meetup.com founder Scott Heiferman was asked, "What's the weirdest meetup that's ever come to your attention?" He replied, "Dumpster-diving meetups are very popular...."

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk". Thomas A. Edison