Pinching from a skip. Yes or No?

[Rainyrunway]

My NDN are having renovations done and they have a skip outside their house full of random stuff. I just saw someone drive past, then reverse the car, get out and start rummaging. They grabbed a couple of bits out, stuck in their car and drove off. I found it quite funny (but a bit cheeky) personally and dont think id mind if someone knicked something from a skip outside my house. But it got me thinking. Would you do it? Is it ok? Or is it's stealing?

It's fine to take from skips so long as you don't leave a mess - it's diverting stuff from landfill and freeing up more space for the owner.

Not ok to add stuff to skips though.

I once had so many people knocking on my door asking to take rubbish from our skip that I put a sign on the front door saying help yourself! Should have saved the cost of the skip and just left a pile on the drive.

Not a problem providing you only take what is actually in the skip. We had a skip when DM died and I had to stop some thieving bastards taking the wrought iron gates we'd removed to get the skip on the drive! Someone else had to be stopped from taking the bloody plant pots!

Bloody hell!

We did this once, before getting the skip we put loads of stuff in our garden with a sign. Old rusty bikes at the front, as we knew a scrap metal man would take the lot.

in the end we got a smaller skip than we originally needed.

I'd always ask first! Mainly because you don't know the full story of what is there.

Our old neighbours decided to DIY replacing their guttering - which had asbestos in it. It was piled up outside the house to package up for council collection, woke up in the morning and a load of it was gone! Odd thing to take, no idea if the person that nicked it even knew what they'd taken.

Always people complain on Facebook and next door when they see people doing this and there's an outrage. I don't see the problem. It's always because its metal which they obviously sell. But if you are throwing it away you can't complain in my opinion!

Think I'd knock and ask if it was okay. Not keen on skip rats.

I would knock on the door and ask first (even if its in a skip).

It's recycling ♻️ and should be promoted, too many useful items go to landfill that others can use. Just knock and ask the owners first.
My heart would break at the dump sometimes when you see kids garden toys and bikes in working order or needingminor repair slung in the skips.
I have retrieved many items from skips and given them a second life or donated them to charity.

My neighbour had a skip while his bathroom was being done.
The builders put some stuff near the skip (not in) temporarily and it was all nicked. The perp was caught on camera and when confronted argued because there was a skip nearby everything on the driveway was fair game.
Even if it was a genuine mistake a quick knock on the door could have prevented it

Personally, if it was on the road I'd consider it fair game, but if it was on a driveway I'd knock and ask.

I don't think there is an issue with taking stuff, as it's going to be ditched otherwise, but I was miffed when someone started wandering around my property to get to it when we had one.

What really pisses me off with skips, however, is the CF neighbours who think "excellent, I'll just chuck some of my rubbish in there too". Get your own skip or go to the tip you tight git!

When we had a skip people knocked and asked. I was delighted. More space for me.

I wouldn't have wanted people adding anything to it.

My DP is always finding things in skips! It means there's more room in the skip for the skip's renter to put other things in so it's doing them a favour really. I think he does ask though if there's people about. He mended our shed with wood he got out of one last year. I don't see the harm at all.

We had a skip at work when we were moving offices we called the magic skip, because it never filled up. We'd him it up cone back the next day and half of it had been taken, who cares we were throwing it away

We once decided to take a selection of plants thrown in a skip, that a family on the next street to us had thrown out. We have a large garden and needed a lot of plants for a few borders. This was middle of summer on a hot day, and all the plants were just emptied on the skip. So we started to bag some up, then a woman came out, and gave us a lecture she had to sweep up after ppl last messed with her skip. We explained it was not us, and we would tidy any thing that fell off. She then made up a price list for the plants so we went to a garden center, and bought new plants. I refused to pay for plants which was in full sun.

Personally, I would knock on the person’s door and ask them for permission before I took something from their skip.

If they were OK with it, then I would take it as it means I get use out of something that would have been dumped.

...and as others have said it's much better than putting extra things in! We had a skip before the last time we moved house to clear the garage and garden a bit etc. and got all kinds of annoying things put in there. Someone put a couple of tyres on top and the skip company charged us extra for them.

It’s interesting to me that more people think that this isn’t ok and yet (on the first page at least - I’m not reading any more!) they don’t appear to have a reason.

i find it worrying that so many people follow rules without question and for no discernible reason.

I wouldn’t do it myself, but it wouldn’t bother me if someone else did. I think it’s far more cheeky to put stuff in someone’s skip than it is to take from it.

When we got our kitchen re-done the builder moved our old fridge out the front to create space to install the new one and within 5 minutes someone had come along completely undetected and taken it 😂it didn’t bother us tbh as it saved us the job of arranging someone to come and pick it up.

My DH's family love a skip. They find all kinds of treasures.

Initially I would be embarrassed by it but I'm well used to it now. Everyone texts my husband when they see a skip local to us😂

Always knock first though.

Well, I mean just because something is sitting in a skip does not automatically give someone the right to take it without permission. It’s still stealing as it doesn’t belong to the person taking it.

I think it’s just good manners to always ask somebody if you want to take something that doesn’t belong to you, regardless if it’s in a skip or not

It's better to ask and thank the person but it's better up cycles than landfill obviously

I had a metal bath under my window I had plans to turn into a water feature and came back to find it gone

I'd knock on the door and ask my neighbour first.

(Co-incidentally BlackBelt barrister addressed this exact point about 30 secs ago.)

The rubbish belongs to the person who threw it out until it is collected by 'whoever" - usually the council, but in this case the skip company. It then belongs to the collector.