Has anyone ever been dumpster diving?

[Purplependant222]

An Instagram account I follow said her and her partner look in the bins behind DIY stores as they’ve found quite a few decent things for their renovations.

I always presumed they’d be locked/cctv/everything spoiled/sent back to suppliers.

I guess with lockdown I’m grasping at things to do..

I haven't, although I was tempted when a house near us was cleared out to have a rummage... they collected it before I could get there though.

My dad was a big fan of routing skips though! Where he worked they were often full of useful stuff and he was forever coming home with his finds. He furnished a home office, got a load of kitchen stuff (well known brand just left returns and some where like a toaster that didn't have instructions or coffee maker 'wrong colour' and the warehouse had an unspoken 'if you want it take it' agreement and some of it is still going 15 years later!), for a while he got decent spirits leftover from bottling so we had a ton of vodka/rum/whiskey and my favourite was when he came home with a massive box of my favourite chocolate that had been chucked because the box was slightly damaged 😁

I had tight fuckers dumping their rubbish in a skip I hired.
Wish one of them would have at least swapped something.

Suppose it would be galling to return an empty skip though if it had been well picked over.

@Kotbullar

There's a show on the TV when some annoying woman turns up at a council tip and grabs stuff off people as they are about to chuck it then recycles it into something. I think they say at the start that you can't just do that. That programme is so annoying!

The programme is called 'money for nothing', which is a joke when you consider what they pay the 'experts' to upcycle it, plus The transport costs to get it to them. On top of that whatever it costs to sell it through a shop/gallery/etc.

And yes, to whoever said the stuff looks too good to throw away. My bet is that an announcement is made in local papers that filming is going to take place, and that if anyone has anything they might want to throw away get on the tv then to email/phone/text etx.

I reckon the people are all actors and they have been given the really good stuff to pretend to take to the tip @ArtyBat.

Hmm. How bad is my stuff, if nobody has raided my skip?!

I don't know what would annoy me more if I hired a skip, people putting things in without asking or taking stuff out.

@Riapia

I had tight fuckers dumping their rubbish in a skip I hired. Wish one of them would have at least swapped something.

Suppose it would be galling to return an empty skip though if it had been well picked over.

Same here. I even caught someone dumping stuff, and they denied it to my face. Can't reason with people like that!

When I was pregnant with DD, I used to go for a wander every afternoon because if I didn't, I got awful night cramps.

One time, I was walking past a house and the lady who lived there was chucking stuff in a skip. She spotted me and said "oh, I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you pregnant?". Bless her, I was 7 months gone but I guess she worried she might offend me.
I said yes and she said, well, if you don't mind, I have lots and lots of lovely baby things, they've only be used on my youngest and I'm not having any more children, would you like them because I was going to put them in the skip otherwise.

Oh. My. God.

The stuff! The stuff she had, it was amazing! I only took a look to be polite as I assumed that if it was going in a skip it would be crap but nope.

My neighbor ended up driving me back as she had brand new tagged clothes and blankets, lovely toys, bootees, bottle warmers, you name it, she had it, all top of the range, all in beautiful condition, must have cost a lot of money.
I took a bottle of wine and abox of chocolates for her afterwards.

About 3 weeks afterwards, spotted a skip with some vintage hifi in and records, knocked and asked may I come back with my DP, we collect vinyl so it would be going to a good home. He was a lovely old man who had no family, was pleased to see it rescued from a skip, he had worked at a record label from the 60s to the late 80s, gave us stacks of vinyl we still have now.
He got a bottle of brandy (we asked what his tipple was). One record he gave us was a rare Jimi Hendrix version of Electric Ladyland, with the naked ladies on the front. Worth a load but we live Hendrix so that's going nowhere.

I love a good skip!

The state constitution offers stronger privacy protections than federal law. While there’s no direct statute addressing dumpster diving, attorneys often point out potential violations through trespass or theft under property law.
The courts’ view in Washington generally protects individuals’ rights to their property until garbage collection occurs. This means store managers and business owners have the right to restrict access to dumpsters located on their property. The diving legality depends largely on location, signage, and public accessibility. For residents wondering is it illegal to dumpster dive near businesses or apartment complexes, the safest choice is to always ask for permission first.
Reference: www.hossjunkremoval.com/is-it-illegal-to-dumpster-dive/