How can I find out if Dumpster Diving is legal where I live?
(Personaly I live in GA, USA, but It would be nice tou know other locations as well)
Don’t Knock the Hobby untill you’ve given it a try. At the right places, at the right times, you can make a steal. (My first dive scored me 250 dollars worth MSRP of items.)
I know that personal trash can be grabbed by the cops, for evidence, because the trasher no longer owns it. As long as it’s at the curb, I assume.
God bless the internet -
Told ya! TV never lies. 
Really? What’s are the right times and places?
I’ve grabbed a neighbours old pressure washer or portable tv… but those were beat up and I only wanted to take them apart. Who tosses $100 items?
In my parents’ neighborhood there used to be a guy who went around with a truck every trash day.
My parents loved it because it was easier than recycling.
For some reason, and we’re not sure why, the city made him stop doing it.
Once a year, our fine city of Cumberland has a “big item” pick up. This is where you can put old furniture, appliances, etc. at the curb, and the city will pick up, instead of having to take to the dump. I don’t know about the official legality of it, but lots of people around here go from place to place, picking, and the cops (who are pretty bored around here, and will do such things as come unlock your car when you’ve left your keys in the car) don’t say anything.
Personally, I’m glad to see something I’ve put out at the curb get picked up by a person who doesn’t work for the city. I’d rather the stuff find a good home than go crowd the dump some more!
An afterthought: If trash picking is illegal where you live, and, like me, you’d rather someone who could use it would take it, could you circumnavigate the law by putting a sign on the stuff: Free to good home, or some such? I know that, recently, I’ve been de-cluttering my house; a couple of times, I’ve put boxes full of perfectly good stuff that I don’t want anymore down on the bus stop bench; on the box, I put a sign that says FREE: IF YOU CAN USE IT, PLEASE TAKE IT
Sorry for the hijack.
As mentioned in Astro’s link, there has been a Supreme Court case declaring garbage property of no one so that should cover the whole USA.
HOWEVER, if you’re making a lot of noise late at night, being sloppy and strewing trash around, or you go into a fenced or padlocked enclosure to get to a dumpster you stand a good chance of getting cited for breaking a noise ordinance, littering, or trespassing.
Make sure that dumpster isn’t on private property. If it is, get permission to search it first.
Dishonest employees sometimes put stolen stuff in dumpsters, so I guess you could be charged with possession.
The Dive I refered to in the opening thread here, was while I was an employee of a store in a mall. (Game Store) We had “real” trash to take out one day, and being low on the ladder it was my job to do so. The date was Dec 31 1999, a store (I don’t know if it was nationwide) called “Learningsmith” had closed and went out of business- even resulting to selling fixtures and shelves in its last weeks. Items where more picked over than some K-marts.
(I browsed their during my break, for cheap holiday gifts)
Any way, I tossed my stores garbage, and saw one item in good conditon (Un opened, still in shrinkwrap) in the dumpster/ compactor and I fished it out, this lead to more and more items, and I found a box to put the items in. We where over staffed that day (Inventory and Returns from Christmas) and I took my second break just fishing through the items - halfway into the dumpster. Learningsmith left prices on most of the items, and some of them where similiar to items my store sold (I fished out an unopen mancala board, 5 cents cheaper than what we sold ours for) and still other items had MSRP and other prices listed on them from the manufacturer.
Among the Items I ‘bought’ at what I called the “100% off Learningsmith Relocation to the basement sale” were;
(most of these items had little to no damge, and where not opened)
a 50 dollar C++ Book (I had good intentions for this at the time, yet never had the time to learn this computer langauge or use the book… I beleive disks where included)
3 Zoob Construction Sets which I beleive where around 30 dollars each.
1 aforementioned Mancala set: 10 dollars
1 Set of 4 brain teaser puzzles (physical objects that had to be taken apart or put together in a certain way) Price for this was 15 bucks… I sold this item at a yard sale for 5 bucks…
One “PhotoMosaics” book. Paperback Im sure we all remember these, pictures made from tons of smaller pictures, real fadish in 1999, after those Stereograms flopped. I think this was around 12 bucks.
The book (I think this is close to the title) “Strange and Curious Minds” Paperback, 14 bucks. Incidently, I think Ive gotten the most use out of this item over all the others. The book for those interested, takes a case by case study of Geniuses, and the psychology/fears of their mind. (Einstein, Ted Kazinski (sp) and scores of others are detailed in the book)
An “Authur” (Yes that PBS Cartoon Aardvark) CD rom I estimate the value of that at 8 bucks
A book (Hardback) entitled “If 2”, a book of hypotheticals… which would you rather do out of two worst case senarios. well, along this same vein, a deep thought type book. I think this was around 15 bucks.
A Starwars Episode one Model i gave to a co-worker. again I think this was around 15 bucks.
A couple of wall calendars.
Anyhow, it more than encouraged me to keep the hobby up.
This is all I can think of, again its been almost 4 years. I know with out a doubt there where more items in the dumpster, but perhaps these had been destroyed by the compactor. I also saw one person with a trunkload of items, I Inquired and the response was that they where going to children [It was implied that they where less well off]. I didnt argue with that, I was just curious. Mall dumpsters seem to be semi frequent with trash pickers, mostly by the custodial staff. I also found a lot of the “stripped” paperback books each paperback mentions in another dive, they where all romantic novels, so I though them back.
A friend of mine placed an air conditioner on the curb with a sign: “Free. Works great.” No one would take it. He started getting frustrated and said he would just take it to the dump.
I suggested he put a new sign on it: “$50 OBO.”
He did, and the air conditioner was gone the next morning.
Much of the above discussion concerns trash being used as evidence and the associated 4th Amendment difficulties. It has little to do with the original question, which concerned whether or not it was legal to “dumpster dive,” which I take to mean as “take stuff that people have thrown out.”
In general, common sense applies. If personal property (this doesn’t apply to real property, i.e. land) is abandoned, it is no longer owned by anyone, and if you want it, it’s yours. However, difficulties arise in actually taking possession of the stuff. Garbage collection is a regulated enterprise, and messing with dumpsters or garbage cans can get you in trouble. Going onto private property without permission is trespassing, and if the “abandoned” property is still in someone’s yard there is probably a question as to whether it really is abandoned. Stuff left in the street, an alley, or on the sidewalk is much easier. Even then, an obviously valuable item is probably not going to just be abandoned; if you find a diamond ring in a crack in the sidewalk, the logical conclusion is that somebody lost it, not that they threw it away.
Local ordinances may prohibit going through dumpsters or other garbage containers. This is usually for reasons of health, the safety of the collectors (and the “divers,”) or because the garbage company doesn’t want people damaging their dumpsters. It isn’t (usually; blanket statements are dangerous) because they don’t want people taking property that’s been thrown away.
As to where you can look to find out your local laws, try calling the city attorney. If there’s a particular place that usually has good junk they throw out, you could even call them and ask them if you can go through their stuff before somebody else takes it.
That’s correct, as far as I know. I am not a lawyer, but while a friend was studying in law school, this question came up. It seems your garbage is PUBLIC DOMAIN once you place it at the curb…check with your local lawyer for the fine print. The phrase “the curb” may be assuming the trash is now on a right-of-way or easement owned by your local municipality. Otherwise, it would be trespassing, in the least.
Now, stop talkin’ trash! 
That would depend on how you define ‘garbage’. What if you saw a purse or a wallet on the sidewalkor can? Does that entitle you to it?
In my city found items must be reported to the cops & they keep them for 90 days. If you pick up that purse & a cop comes by with the owner in the car & they see you, don’t you risk arrest? I talked to a cop once about this in SD, Calif, & he said to have no contact with the purse but call the cops first.
Update: New Hampshire Supreme Court rules that garbage is private property. A dissenting opinion refers to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling referred to earlier in this thread.
Interesting. This
from the article says it all, doesn’t it? The Supreme Court didn’t (and can’t) rule on the right of the cops (or the public) to have access to trash, only on the trash owner’s right to privacy.
Done and done, imo.
Peace,
mangeorge
What about recycling? When I was in the suburbs of Chicago, there was a man who came around every trash day and took newspapers. He was always very good about putting things back. One day my mother saw this and told us to wrap them up seperately and throw them out. We did so the guy just hopped out grabbed the bundle and was on his way. But I have read some communites SELL the recyclables. So if you take the “Blue Bags.” you are in effect taking money from the city therefore it isn’t legal?
To add 2 cents to the “what are the right times and places for dumpster diving?” question, think: colleges and universities at the end of the school year. Once I had a summer job cleaning up dorms after the students had left for the year and I was astonished to see how much cool stuff (esp. books and furniture) these kids abandoned as worthless…