Posted on 12/10/2022 3:52:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
People have hunted for discarded goods in dumpsters and trash cans for decades. But in the last few years, it's developed a massive following on TikTok, with dozens of people chronicling their dumpster diving excursions, proudly posting their hauls, and raising awareness about the excessive, unnecessary waste from some businesses.
The yield for these dives seems especially bountiful around holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, where stores have specific seasonal stock they can't sell after the fact.
In the last week, creators have uploaded dozens of new videos of dives and hauls under the hashtag "#DumpsterDiving," which has amassed nearly three billion views on the platform.
Tiffany She'ree, a popular dumpster diving influencer with over 2.7 million followers under the handle "dumpsterdivingmama," posted a TikTok on Thursday showing her claiming a massive heap of Christmas-themed soaps outside a World Market store. Earlier in the week, she went through a Party City dumpster and found a smattering of Thanksgiving goodies: a turkey gobbler costume, an apple orchard welcome sign, hay bales, wine bags, pumpkin decor, and tea lights. A few weeks after Halloween, she found a myriad of costumes and a giant pillar of decorative skulls.
The range of items that TikTok dumpster divers have found is stunning, and some hunters have even hauled home expensive products like LEGO Star Wars kits, Apple AirPods, and Gucci ties. One forager said she discovered over $1,600 in items from a Spirit Halloween dumpster.
Some of the biggest dumpster diving influencers are very explicit about their mission to curb waste and raise awareness about the misuse of leftover, unsold store items.
Salty Stella, a TikToker with over 1.2 million followers, shared a video last week of how upset she was after discovering piles of food—KIND snack bars, soups, juice, sodas—in one dumpster.
"You wanna see some shit?" she said at the start of the video. "Look at all the ramen I'm collecting. You wanna tell me ramen goes bad?"
Anna Sacks, a TikToker from New York City with over 400,000 followers, is known as "The Trashwalker." She frequently shares videos of the binned goods she's found. Her hauls run the gamut from designer ties and puffy North Face coats to a potty training kit and medical insulin supplies.
In her videos, Sacks frequently draws attention to wasteful city tendencies and proposes alternatives like donating or recycling instead of discarding items. Her Twitter bio describes her effort as trying to "divert as much as possible from landfill/incineration, create systemic change & raise consciousness." She has called for "donate not dump legislation" for hygiene products that could be used to help people in shelters.
"Corporations don't want people to see the overproduction, the wastefulness, the lack of donation," Sacks told The New York Times in an interview in November. "To change behavior, it's important to expose the wastefulness."
Bump
Will never forget Kramer’s dumpster diving prowess.
Not specifically dumpster diving, but while checking the coinstar machine at a local Wally World on Thursday, I found a 1942 Washington Quarter, and a 1964 Roosevelt Dime. I love people who don’t know what they have.
Sometimes you can find an eclair in a trash can.
Or bear claws in a dumpster.
They are probably breaking at least two laws.
22 times face.
For some really good stuff, hit a University Campus when school lets out for the Summer. I’m talking the ritzy Ivy League type of school.
Pizza places dump unused dough at the end of the day. Supermarkets dump expired stuff that is still good.
I couldn’t believe someone just left it in the coin return slot.
Maybe it was rejected due to some check on weight or density or bounce.
How do you “check” a coinstar machine?
Without unnecessary waste, what would these people do?
You peek at the coin return slot to see if there was any rejected money. Any coins 90% silver always get rejected.
I believe it has to do with the weight. 90% silver coins are slightly heavier than modern day coins.
Cool. I will do that.
Remember, it is the liberals that won’t let the grocery stores and restaurants give out free food. It has to go through the dumpster first.......................
Most times you’ll strike-out, but once in a while, someone leaves rejected change in the coin return. Sometimes it’s foreign, and sometimes it was rejected because the change was too dirty.
Also good to know when I dump my change bucket.
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