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There’s a stereotype that dumpster diving is only for people who are financially struggling and have no other choice. But in reality, many do it as a way to reduce waste, help the environment, and give perfectly good items a second life instead of letting them end up in a landfill.
Below, we’ve gathered some amazing finds shared on the Dumpster Diving subreddit. From beautiful furniture to pricey electronics and untouched food, these discoveries show that one person’s trash really can be another’s treasure. Scroll down to see them.
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#1
Pizza Owner Found Out That People Are Eating From The Shop's Garbage. This Is What He Did
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#2
Found This Little Guy In The Trash. Good News We Adopted The Trash Baby Say Hello To Jello
#3
Was Not Expecting To Find These 😢
I’ve been trash picking for a couple years now, just for fun because I love finding cool things. Never in a million years would I have imagined finding something so heartbreaking. Last night, I found 5 kittens abandoned with no food or water. They were left in a box sitting beside a clothes and shoes donation bin.
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
People who do this s*u*c*k the Big Kahuna! A pox and a thousand voodoo curses on them!
#4
My Favorite Dumpster Dive
#5
Not Sure If This Counts But I Saved These Treasures From The Trash My Boss Was Throwing Away
#6
It's Been A Good Week
#7
Found A Telescope Next To The Dumpster After A Tenant Moved Out. It Works!
#8
Technicaly In Front Of The Dumpster But Still
#9
Always Look In Cigar Boxes (14k)
#10
My Schools Dumpster
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
That’s sacrilegious! They could have donated it to the city library to resell or even to a thrift store!
#11
Super Old Books I Found In A Library Dumpster
#12
I Turned Into The Wrong Apartment Complex At Just The Right Time ☺️
#13
They Called It Trash, I Called It A Custom Project. Two Of My Dumpster Dive Stools Fully Restored
#14
I Really Needed This Moral Boost
I recently lost everything so my dog and I are homeless. I really needed something to go right. I've been at a friend's house cleaning and testing everything. Everything was very well taken care of and almost all the games are complete in box.
ABC NrEleven FCK CENSORISM 1 day ago
Who in their right mind would throw that out? Even if you can't appreciate the gem you're owning, this has to sell for a lot!?
#15
Found Under A Construction Dumpster Yesterday
#16
Legendary Pull Today. Thousands Of Fruit Veg And Flower Seeds
#17
Favorite Find!!!
#18
Thanks For Never Cleaning This And Then Throwing It Out! <3
sturmwesen 1 day ago
In all seriousness: clean your fans and hairdryers.I do the hairdryers monthly and fans twice a year. it's a game changer for effectiveness and indoor air quality
#19
My Work Threw It Away
My boss threw this in the rear of the store for storage ( to never use again). I asked him about taking it home and he let me. As far as I know, there is still quarters in it.
#20
The Curb Gods Have Smiled Upon Me Today
#21
My Late Husband Were Curb Picking And We Found A $100 Gift Card To Some Fancy Restaurant And We Enjoyed A Free Steak Lunch After Church
#22
First Time Diving And I Hit The Jackpot
#23
Found This
#24
Second Haul Ever!
#25
I Found A Baby Dumpster Diver When I Was Dropping Off At The Local Food Pantry
#26
Dumpster Mantle Turned Into Christmas Decoration!
#27
Today's Find Sweet
#28
Found Castle Grayskull
#29
I Found A $2000 Gaming Laptop Last Night
#30
If You Throw Money Away, I'm Gonna Collect And Claim It! Just Saying
#32
Sorority Sister House Dumpster
Upstaged75 1 day ago (edited)
If you check out colleges after the end of the school year you can find some pretty awesome stuff! After I graduated I was the last person out of the dorms and couldn't believe it. I was staying in town and moving into an apartment so I was able to get a bunch of things I needed for free.
#33
Who Would Throw This Away???
#34
Epson Projector From School Dumpster
#35
Found In Its Box In The Trash, Was Shocked To Find It Worked
ABC NrEleven FCK CENSORISM 1 day ago
I mean, it's only 43", so that's basically trash and it was right where it belonged. /s, I don't get this trend to 70" TVs in your average 15 sqm living room 🤣
#36
Skip Dive (With Permission From The Home Buyer) Jackpot! 18k Gold, Platinum And Diamond Edwardian Ring
Spittnimage 1 day ago
Now she's clutching her pearls because she can't find her great-grandmother's ring.
#37
Found This Outside My Apartment
#39
Area Wide Yard Sales
Maybe this will help some having conflict on selling things they find. Participated in a community wide yard sale this weekend and made a decent amount in a day. Get that stuff out there and make that money. The economy is a mess.
#40
Rescued A Pile Of Late 90s/2000s Movie Posters
Sara Frazer 1 day ago
"Anastasia" is a top quality animated film! (*sincerely, a 90s child lol)
#41
Concluding The Dumpster Dive Experience Of A Lifetime
#42
Wow ! My Neighbor Threw These Out
43Duckies 1 day ago
My sister is like this: after streaming became common, she tossed most of her physical media, deciding that it was a waste of space. Of course, it turns out that even if you "buy" a film/album on a streaming service (as opposed to just subscribing to the service), it's still gone as soon as the service decide removes it from their catalog!
#43
$200 Worth Of Candy!
#44
Ive Pulled Over 400 Lbs Of Candle Wax
#45
First Big Score
#46
I Rescued All The Squishmallows
#47
NYC Curb Score: $1500 Herman Miller Chair
#48
I Don’t Even Know
#49
Good Timing
#52
I’m In Disbelief- The Whole Cereal Aisle Got Thrown Out
#53
Anyone Else Enjoy Diving For Treasures During The Rain? Toys For Tots Is About To Rainnnnn Gifts!!
#54
Happy New Year
#55
Always Makes Me Sad To Find Homemade Items That Were Clearly Made With Love In The The Trash
#57
My Biggest Find Yet
I’ll go in order from least to most exciting: Pretty banged up Samsung monitor, the Xbox steering wheel controller, Corsair keyboard, Xbox 360 with a 120gb HDD, a ton of baseball cards, and obviously the holy grail of this pull, the pc. I wish I knew more about computers but from what I can say is it has: Msi GeForce Rtx 3060, two stick of Corsair ram, DDR4 boost motherboard.
#60
This Is How A Millennial Can Afford Avocado Toast
#61
An Exciting Afternoon For Dd’ing!
#62
One Of My Better Trash Finds
#63
My Best Find So Far
#64
Wife And I Looked Out Our Window Tonight To See This 75" Samsung Smart TV Resting By The Dumpster
#67
Surviving W Dumpster Food
#69
A Year Supply Of Toilet Paper And Paper Towels. Dumpster Was Generous Yesterday
#70
Christmas Hams Hit The Dumpster Like Clockwork
#71
First Dive Success!!
#72
Maybe The Biggest Haul Yet
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
All of this food was thrown into the dumpster probably because of their "sell by" dates, not their expiration dates. All of it could have been donated to food banks or homeless shelters.
#73
This Week’s Spread And A Dumpster Dinner
#75
The New Kind Of Dumpster Diving
#76
Someone Got Evicted. Dumpster Was Full Of His/Her Stuff
#79
Got A Christmas Sweater For The Community Dog From The Ross Dumpster
#81
Intervened Before They Got Trashed
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
How many onions can you actually eat unless you REALLY love French Onion Soup or Blooming Onions!
#84
Cops Pulled Up Last Night And Gave Me A Warning About Property Inside Being Owned By The Company That Owns The Dumpster
#86
Found These In The Dumpster
#87
Food Insecurity Is A Real Thing And This Sub Has Saved My Family
#89
Treasures Rescued From The Dump From The Other Night
#92
This Week’s Aldi Collection
Kevin Hickey 21 hours ago
The Aldi where I shop is constantly having issues with refrigeration so I would just assume that anything in the dumpster that was supposed to be cold is bad.
#94
Our TV Was Giving Up The Ghost, And Ended Up Finding A 4K TV Being Tossed Out (With Remote!)
#98
Top Shelf Finds!
Did I say that out loud? 1 day ago
Hahaha. For Brits of a certain age, "top shelf" means something very different.
#99
Did You Know The Dow Is 50,000?
#100
Anyone Need Like 20 Chopped Kayaks?
#104
Over $1000 Haul After A Power Outage
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
The produce would be fine but the dairy and meat? I wouldn't chance it!
#105
Well That’s A New One For Me… This Just Makes Me Wonder What They Throw Away! Diving Is Legal Where I Live And No ‘No Trespassing’ Signs
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What do you think ?
Fred 1 day ago
It grieves me how much gets thrown away that someone could use. Things could be offered for free on the Nextdoor web site, for example.
Spencers slave no more 1 day ago
Far too much food that could feed families for days, sometimes weeks, is dumped in bins purely because "we don't make any money" is the business mind set. So much food, found in dumpsters, on this particular thread, should be going to those who need it. One particular post mentioned ~$1000 of food found in a dumpster, how many people could that really feed if it was given to a community pantry/food bank instead of going in the bin?
Load More Replies... Spencers slave no more 1 day ago (edited)
It should be illegal to throw out food that can still be used. Many countries now require supermarkets to donate any safe foodstuffs to food banks, low income neighbourhood schools/kindys/daycares etc. A loaf of bread, some veggies and eggs can feed a family a nutritious meal, quite possibly more than one.
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
So much of the food could have been donated to food banks or to shelters instead of just tossed into the dumpsters. The shelters or food banks would love to receive it. I used to work for an in-store bakery: whatever we didn't sell that day, when we closed, we would wrap and put on shelves near the bakery. Next day, those packaged items where labelled as "day old" and put on the day old shelf. Next day, they were food banked.
Jill 1 day ago
People who got cool things like games, furniture, toys and such really scored big time. People who got nonperishable foods also hit it big. People who took meats, cheeses, eggs and other perishables, what were you thinking? Better to try finding stuff in the next dumpster than take stuff that can and will make you very very sick.
Sapna Sarfare 1 day ago
Am part of this freecycle group where we give away unwanted (but usable for others) stuff away for free or we can ask if someone has it. have got great music CDs, movie DVDs and even bags
Spittnimage 1 day ago
I knew a man who dumpster dived in the 80s when it was assumed you were homeless if you were seen taking food from a dumpster. He didn't get the kind of stuff I've seen here, maybe a few bananas and some lettuce turning brown, a can or two of veggies.
DowntownStevieB 1 day ago
Please be careful with the food diving. A lot of things get tossed for expiration or contamination. Check before you eat.
Fred 1 day ago
It grieves me how much gets thrown away that someone could use. Things could be offered for free on the Nextdoor web site, for example.
Spencers slave no more 1 day ago
Far too much food that could feed families for days, sometimes weeks, is dumped in bins purely because "we don't make any money" is the business mind set. So much food, found in dumpsters, on this particular thread, should be going to those who need it. One particular post mentioned ~$1000 of food found in a dumpster, how many people could that really feed if it was given to a community pantry/food bank instead of going in the bin?
Load More Replies... Spencers slave no more 1 day ago (edited)
It should be illegal to throw out food that can still be used. Many countries now require supermarkets to donate any safe foodstuffs to food banks, low income neighbourhood schools/kindys/daycares etc. A loaf of bread, some veggies and eggs can feed a family a nutritious meal, quite possibly more than one.
TonjaLasagne 1 day ago
So much of the food could have been donated to food banks or to shelters instead of just tossed into the dumpsters. The shelters or food banks would love to receive it. I used to work for an in-store bakery: whatever we didn't sell that day, when we closed, we would wrap and put on shelves near the bakery. Next day, those packaged items where labelled as "day old" and put on the day old shelf. Next day, they were food banked.
Jill 1 day ago
People who got cool things like games, furniture, toys and such really scored big time. People who got nonperishable foods also hit it big. People who took meats, cheeses, eggs and other perishables, what were you thinking? Better to try finding stuff in the next dumpster than take stuff that can and will make you very very sick.
Sapna Sarfare 1 day ago
Am part of this freecycle group where we give away unwanted (but usable for others) stuff away for free or we can ask if someone has it. have got great music CDs, movie DVDs and even bags
Spittnimage 1 day ago
I knew a man who dumpster dived in the 80s when it was assumed you were homeless if you were seen taking food from a dumpster. He didn't get the kind of stuff I've seen here, maybe a few bananas and some lettuce turning brown, a can or two of veggies.
DowntownStevieB 1 day ago
Please be careful with the food diving. A lot of things get tossed for expiration or contamination. Check before you eat.
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