A person dumpster divingVideo of impoverished individuals "dumpster diving" at a neighborhood trash dump inKabul
Dumpster diving (alsototting,[1]skipping,[2]skip diving orskip salvage[3][4]) issalvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unwanted items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is not confined todumpsters andskips, and may cover standard household waste containers, curb sides, landfills or small dumps.
Different terms are used to refer to different forms of this activity. For picking materials from thecurbside trash collection, expressions such ascurb shopping,trash picking orstreet scavenging are sometimes used.[5] In the UK, if someone is primarily seeking recyclable metal, they arescrapping, and if they are picking the leftover food from farming left in the fields, they aregleaning.[6] In such instances, unpackaged and hence lower quality food waste is commonly termed scree.
People dumpster dive for clothing, furniture, food, or for various items deemed usable.[7] Many dumpster dive out of necessity due topoverty;[8] others might do it forideological reasons, professionally, academically, for profit (legal and illegal), or even fun.[9]
The term "dumpster diving" emerged in the 1980s, combining "diving" with "dumpster", a large commercialtrash bin.[10] The term "Dumpster" itself comes from the Dempster Dumpster, a brand of bins manufactured by Dempster Brothers beginning in 1937. "Dumpster" becamegenericized by the 1970s.[11][12] According to theOxford English Dictionary, the term "dumpster diving" is chiefly found inAmerican English and first appeared in print in 1983, with the verb "dumpster-dive" appearing a few years later.[10] InBritish English, the practice may be known as "skipping", fromskip, another term for this type of container.[3][4][13]
Alternative names for the practice include bin-diving,[14] containering,[15] D-mart,[16] dumpstering,[17] totting,[1] and skipping.[18] In Australia, garbage picking is called "skip dipping."[6]
The term "binner" is often used to describe individuals who collect recyclable materials for their deposit value. For example, inVancouver, British Columbia, binners, or bottle collectors, search garbage cans and dumpsters forrecyclable materials that can be redeemed for theirdeposit value. On average, these binners earn about $40 a day for several garbage bags full of discarded containers.[19] Some are scammers seeking for receipts to use in committingreturn fraud.[20]
Karung guni,Zabbaleen, therag and bone man,waste picker,junk man or bin hoker are terms for people who make their living by sorting and trading trash. A similar process known asgleaning was practised in rural areas and some ancient agricultural societies, where the residue from farmers' fields was collected.
Some dumpster divers, who self-identify asfreegans, aim to reduce theirecological footprint by living from dumpster-dived-goods,[21] sometimes exclusively.
The activity is performed by people out of necessity in the developing world.[8] Some scavengers perform in organized groups, and some organize on various internet forums and social networking websites.[8] Byreusing, or repurposing, resources destined for thelandfill, dumpster diving is sometimes considered to be anenvironmentalist endeavor,[21] and is thus practiced by many pro-green communities. The wastefulness of consumer society and throw-away culture compels some individuals to rescue usable items (for example, computers orsmartphones, which are frequently discarded due to the extensive use ofplanned obsolescence in the technology industry) from destruction[21] and divert them to those who can make use of the items.
A wide variety of things may be disposed while still repairable or in working condition, making salvage of them a source of potentially free items for personal use, or to sell for profit. Irregular, blemished or damaged items that are still otherwise functional are regularly thrown away.Discarded food that might have slight imperfections, near itsexpiration date, or that is simply being replaced by newer stock is often tossed out despite being still edible.[21] Many retailers are reluctant to sell this stock at reduced prices because of the risks that people will buy it instead of the higher-priced newer stock, that extra handling time is required, and that there areliability risks. In theUnited Kingdom, cookery books have been written on the cooking and consumption of such foods, which has contributed to the popularity of skipping.[citation needed] Artists often use discarded materials retrieved from trash receptacles to create works offound objects orassemblage.[22]
Students have been known to partake in dumpster diving to obtain high tech items for technical projects, or simply to indulge their curiosity for unusual items.[23] Dumpster diving can additionally be used in support of academic research. Garbage picking serves as the main tool forgarbologists, who study thesociology andarcheology of trash in modern life. Private and government investigators may pick through garbage to obtain information for their inquiries. Illegal cigarette consumption may be deduced from discarded packages.
Dumpster diving can be hazardous, due to potential exposure tobiohazardous matter, broken glass, and overall unsanitary conditions that may exist in dumpsters.[8][24] In January 2012, inLa Jolla, Swiss-American manAlfonso de Bourbon was killed by a truck while dumpster diving.[25]
Dumpster diving with criminal intentions (Garbage theft)
The unauthorized taking of materials from a dumpster or other waste disposal container is commonly referred to as "garbage theft". Dumpster diving is a different idiom. Due to the typical low value of the stolen goods, garbage theft is not typically recognized as a serious crime, with laws against it frequently focusing on combatingidentity theft instead.[26] Depending on the state or nation's rules surrounding low-level crime, garbage theft may be considered a form of petty theft and subject to a penalty that often entails a brief period of incarceration, a modest fine, or both.[27][28] As aprivacy violation, discarded medical records as trash led to a $140,000 penalty against Massachusetts billing company Goldthwait Associates and a group of pathology offices in 2013[29] and a $400,000 settlement between Midwest Women's Healthcare Specialists and 1,532 clients in Kansas City in 2014.[30]
Identity theft has historically been carried out through garbage theft, with thieves utilizing bank and credit card statements discovered in trash to assume the identity of a victim or access their credit.[31][32]
Criminals have been known to dumpster dive for cash receipts as part of a scheme to steal items and return them for cash, a form ofreturn fraud known as "shoplisting."[33] Police investigating shoplifting inBellingham, Washington, found dozens of receipts from retailers such asThe Home Depot,Rite Aid andFred Meyer, along with a list of items on the receipts.[34] Suspects believed to have taken receipts from trash receptacles nearWalmart locations were arrested forreturn fraud in 2016 inMadison, Wisconsin.[35]
Since dumpsters are usually located on private premises, divers may occasionally get in trouble fortrespassing while dumpster diving, though the law is enforced with varying degrees of rigor.[21] Some businesses may lock dumpsters to prevent pickers from congregating on their property, vandalism to their property, and to limit potential liability if a dumpster diver is injured while on their property.[21]
Police searches of discarded waste as well as similar methods are also generally not considered violations of privacy rights;evidenceseized in this manner has been permitted in manycriminal trials. In the United States this has been affirmed by numerous courts including and up to theSupreme Court, in the decisionCalifornia v. Greenwood. The doctrine is not as well established in regard tocivil litigation.[citation needed]
Companies run by private investigators specializing in such techniques have emerged as a result of the need for discreet, undetected retrieval of documents and evidence for civil and criminal trials. Private investigators have also written books on "P.I. technique" in which dumpster diving or its equivalent "wastebasket recovery" figures prominently.
In 2009, a Belgian dumpster diver and eco-activist nicknamed Ollie was detained for a month for removing food from a garbage can and was accused of theft and burglary. On February 25, 2009, he was arrested for removing food from a garbage can at anAD Delhaize supermarket in Bruges. Ollie's trial evoked protests in Belgium against restrictions from taking discarded food items.[36]
InOntario, Canada, theTrespass to Property Act—legislation dating back to theBritish North America Act 1867[37]—grants property owners and security guards the power to ban anyone from their premises, for any reason, permanently. This is done by issuing a notice to the intruder, who will only be breaking the law upon return.[38] Similar laws exist inPrince Edward Island andSaskatchewan.[39][40] A recent case in Canada, which involved a police officer who retrieved a discarded weapon from a trash receptacle as evidence, created some controversy. The judge ruled the policeman's actions as legal although there was no warrant present, which led some to speculate the event as validation for any Canadian citizen to raid garbage disposals.[37]
Skipping in England and Wales may qualify as theft within theTheft Act 1968[41][original research?] or as common-law theft inScotland, though there is very little enforcement in practice.
In Germany, dumpster diving is referred to as "containern",[42] and a waste container's contents are regarded as the property of the container's owner. Therefore, taking items from such a container is viewed as theft. However, the police will routinely disregard the illegality of garbage picking since the items found are generally of low value. There has only been one known instance where people were prosecuted.[43] In 2009 individuals were arrested on assumed burglary as they had surmounted a supermarket's fence which was then followed by a theft complaint by the owner; the case was suspended.[44]
There are, however, limits to what can legally be taken from a company's refuse. In a 1983Minnesota 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 $500,000 in damages.[46]
Dumpster diving is practiced differently in developed countries than in developing countries.
Food. In many developing countries, food is rarely thrown away unless it is rotten as food is scarce in comparison to developed nations. In countries like the United States, where 40 to 50 percent of food is wasted, the trash contains a lot more food to gather.[47] In many countries, charities collect excess food from supermarkets and restaurants and distribute it to impoverished neighbourhoods. Trash pickers,Karung guni,Zabaleen, andrag and bone men in these countries may concentrate on looking for usable items or scrap materials to sell rather than food items. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, some bakeries,grocery stores, or restaurants will routinely donate food according to aGood Samaritan Food Donation Act, but more often, because of health laws or company policy, they are required to discard food items by theexpiration date, because of overstock, being overly ripened, spoiled, cosmetically imperfect, or blemished.Unsold books from a bookstore near the University of Washington are piled into a dumpster.
Books and periodicals. As proof to publishing houses of unsold merchandise, booksellers will routinely remove the front covers of printed materials to render them destroyed prior to disposing of their remains in the garbage. Though readable, many damaged publications have disclaimers and legal notices against their existence or sale.
Irregular or damaged goods.Offices,factories,department stores, and other commercial establishments may equally throw out non-perishable items that are irregular, were returned, have minor damages, or are replaced by newer inventory. Many items tend to be in such a state of disrepair or so cosmetically flawed that they will require some work to be made usable. For this reason, employees will at times intentionally destroy their items prior to being discarded to prevent them from being reused or resold.
Returned items. Manufacturers often find it cheaper to routinely discard items returned as defective under warranty instead of repairing them, although a device is often repairable or usable as a source of spare parts to repair other, similar discarded devices.
School supplies. At the end of each school year many perfectly useful supplies like pencils, pens, notebooks and art supplies are thrown away.[48]
Electronic waste. Someconsumer electronics are dumped because of their rapid depreciation, obsolescence, cost to repair, or expense to upgrade. Owners of functional computers may find it easier to dump them rather than donate because many nonprofit organizations and schools are unable, or unwilling, to work with used equipment.[49] Occasionally, vendors dispose of unsaleable, non-defective new merchandise as landfill. TheAtari video game burial inAlamogordo, New Mexico, after thevideo game crash of 1983 is a well-known example; a 2014 excavation recovered about 1300 games for curation as museum exhibits or auction.
Clothing. While thrift stores routinely refuse used goods which they cannot cheaply and easily resell, the items which they do accept cost them nothing. There is therefore no shrinkage cost associated with discarding mendable garments, repairable appliances or even working donated items which are overstock or find no buyer after some arbitrary length of time.
Metal. Sometimes waste may contain recyclablemetals and materials that can be reused or sold torecycling plants and scrap yards. The most common recyclable metals found are steel and aluminum.[50]
Wood. Calledurban lumberjacking, to salvage wood either for home heating,[51] or home construction projects.[52]
Empty cans and bottles. Several countries, particularly in Northern Europe have enforced asystem in which empty cans and bottles can be returned to stores for money. Usually the amount received per can/bottle is relatively low, so many simply discard them in dumpsters.[53][54]
Personal Information: cyber attackers may engage in dumpster diving to gather sensitive data, includingIP addresses, bank account details, andSocial Security numbers, by sifting through discarded mail or retrieving items disposed of in bins. Moreover, perpetrators may endeavor to broaden their contact databases by resorting to dumpster diving at corporate premises, aiming to obtain access to confidential and sensitive data, including phone lists or records.[55]
Residential buildings. Clothing, furniture, appliances, and other housewares may be found at residential buildings.
College dormitories. Items may be found at colleges with dormitories at the end of the semester when students throw away many items such as furniture, clothes and electronics.[56]
TheCastle Infinity videogame, after its shutdown in 2005, was brought back from the dead by a fan rescuing itsservers from the trash.[57]
In October 2013, in NorthLondon, three men were arrested and charged under the1824 Vagrancy Act when they were caught taking discarded food: tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and cakes from bins behind anIceland supermarket. The charges were dropped on 29 January 2014 after much public criticism[58] as well as a request by Iceland's chief executive, Malcolm Walker.[59]
In 1996, the source code for the Atari 7800 was discovered in the dumpster of the Atari office when the company closed.[60]
Author John Hoffman wrote two books based on his own dumpster-diving exploits:The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving (1993;ISBN978-1-58160-550-1) andDumpster Diving: The Advanced Course: How to Turn Other People's Trash into Money, Publicity, and Power (2002;ISBN978-1-58160-369-9), and was featured in the documentary DVDThe Ultimate Dive, which was directed by Suzanne Girot and described by theInternet Movie Database as a "Tongue-in-cheek how-to film on the art and science of dumpster diving."
In 2001, dumpster diving was popularized in the bookEvasion, published byCrimethInc.[61]
InKim Stanley Robinson's science fiction novelFifty Degrees Below (2005), the character Frank Vanderwal joins, for a time, a group offreegans (referred to as "fregans" in the novel) who frequently prepare feasts culled from dumpsters;[62] kind-heartedrestaurateurs aid them by setting aside foods which have not been touched by the public.
Jeff Ferrell, Professor of Sociology atTexas Christian University, is the author ofEmpire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging (2005;ISBN978-0-81472-738-6).
British television shows have featured home renovations and decoration using salvaged materials.Changing Rooms (1996–2004) is one such show, broadcast onBBC One.
TLC'sExtreme Cheapskates andExtreme Couponing featured people who regularly dumpster dive to avoid spending money on different items[64]—in the case of the latter, unwanted newspapers and newspaper inserts containing coupons were the subject of dumpster diving.
Surfing the Waste: A Musical Documentary About Dumpster Diving, a film by Paul Aflalo, Sandra Lombardi and Tomoe Yoshihara, with music composed byAlden Penner and Nic Boshart.[65][66]
I Love Trash (2007), a 30-minute documentary by David Brown and Greg Mann.OCLC'sWorldCat provided a synopsis: "I Love Trash is a documentary about the art of dumpster diving. Starting with an empty apartment, only the clothes they were wearing and a flashlight, David and Greg find everything they might otherwise buy, in trash cans and dumpsters. All their food, clothes, electronics, art materials and entertainment, all out of the trash."[69] Accolades: Skyfest Film and Script Festival, (won 2nd place for Documentary Films[70]); and Lake Michigan Film Competition, (won 3rd place for Documentary films).[71]
The 2010 documentary filmDive!, a short documentary written and directed by Jeremy Seifert, investigates dumpster diving in the Los Angeles area.[72]Dive! premiered in October 2009 at the Gig Harbor Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award. It has gone on to win awards at many other film festivals, including Best Documentary at theDC Independent Film Festival and Best Film at the Dutch Environmental Film Festival.
The Leftovers: A Documentary about People Who Eat Trash (2008), a 28-minuteSwedish documentary by Michael Cavanagh and Kerstin Übelacker.[75] Mykel Bently, Paul Hood, Krystal Trickey, Nick Gill, and Sofia Arborelius (the latter two wereexchange students) joined for this dumpster diver adventure.
From Dumpster To Dinner Plate (2011), an award-winning New Zealandshort documentary directed by Vanessa Hudson. "As the cost of food reaches record highs an underground movement of dumpster divers is rapidly gaining momentum fuelled by consumers who are forced to find creative ways to feed themselves."[76]
^ab"Issue 561". SchNEWS. 22 September 2006. Archived fromthe original on 15 October 2009. Retrieved2009-11-11.
^Ferrell, Jeff (2005).Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging. New York University Press.ISBN978-0-81472-738-6.
^Zimring; Rathje, Carl A; William L. (2012). ISBN 9781412988193. (2012).Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage. Sage Publishing.ISBN9781412988193.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^"Evasion".CrimethInc. 2001. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.A 288 page novel-like narrative,Evasion is one person's travelogue of thievery and trespassing across the country, evading not only arrest, but also the 40-hour workweek and hopeless boredom of modern life. The journey documents a literal and metaphorical reclamation of an individual's life and the spaces surrounding them—scamming, squatting, dumpstering, train hopping and shoplifting...
^Gilles, David Boarder (2021).A Mass Conspiracy to Feed People: Food Not Bombs and the World-class Waste of Global Cities. Duke University Press.ISBN978-1-4780-1441-6.
^Taborelli, Silvia (2008)."Surfing the Waste: A Musical Documentary about Dumpster Diving". NISI MASA, European Network of Young Cinema. Archived fromthe original on November 7, 2014. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.Liz, Mike, Allison, Owain and Alden are five youngsters living in Montreal. They dance, sing and play in this upbeat short film which tells about "dumpster diving". It may sound like a sport, but it's actually a way of life.
^Skyfest Film & Script Festival (2007)."Winners SkyFest I". Green Planet Films. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.
^Seifert, Jeremy (2010)."Dive!". Compeller Pictures. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.Inspired by a curiosity about our country's careless habit of sending food straight to landfills, the multi award-winning documentaryDIVE! follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster-dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles' supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good, edible food... Winner of 21 Awards by Festivals Worldwide.
^Mallis, Alex (2012)."Spoils: Extraordinary Harvest". Analect Films. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.Emulating the tradition of American Direct Cinema, filmmaker Alex Mallis captures intimate portraits of the divers, illuminating a practice as old as agriculture. Mallis' fly-on-the-wall access to these Brooklynites bring us along for a journey through the culture of dumpster diving, offering an unvarnished glimpse into one night of urban harvest.
^A WG Film Production (2008)."A Recycled Road Trip". theleftovers.net. RetrievedNovember 7, 2014.A group of five diverse people have challenged themselves to drive 2000 km down the east coast of Australia in a veggie oil powered van, living on nothing but waste. With zero money but plenty of passion they put both themselves and society to the test.
Encyclopedia of Garbage by Steve Coffel, William L. Rathje;ISBN0-8160-3135-5
Eikenberry, Nicole; Smith, Chery (2005). "Attitudes, beliefs, and prevalence of dumpster diving as a means to obtain food by Midwestern, low-income, urban dwellers".Agriculture and Human Values.22 (2): 187.doi:10.1007/s10460-004-8278-9.S2CID154355061.
