EXACTLY!!! Those are my thoughts, and you put it so well. The first rule, or strategy of recycling is to REUSE. If someone finds anything in a dumpster or trash that they need or will use, it saves the planet the materials and transport pollution to make that item again.
I’ve often thought that reusing from trash should be legal and encouraged, if done safely and neatly. If we care about the Earth, it should be legal.
Taking things from donation bins = bad.
Taking things that they have decided to throw away and not sell? I don’t see a problem with it. They’ve already decided they don’t want to sell it.
I mean stealing from the donation bins.
Because it was donated to the store to sell. It’s not a free for all, and that’s stealing.
Taking things the store has decided to throw away, though? Fair game.
I think it's stealing strictly because there is posted signage saying it's illegal to take from them. Is it morally wrong to steal something you would die without from a business that has plenty and would happily watch you die? No, steal a loaf of bread to feed your family.
Not to mention the stores are mainly all grifters ripping people off anyway. Don’t know why people are so righteous about these stores as if they are out there solving homelessness and poverty.
You do this for small mom and pop shops, not large corporations. Thrift stores are even worse in my opinion. They give the illusion of keeping things out of the landfill and donating profit but it’s all just great PR. They throw away perfectly good items and do so little for the actual community.
Diving for me is about keeping things from the landfill. I buy what I need and want. If I find it in the trash I’ve done more good than that corporation will ever do. I don’t feel bad at all.
I say keep doing it. I feel nothing should be thrown away that can be used by someone else. They are the ones in the wrong. They could be selling these items at a deep discount instead of throwing them out.
Why don't you keep doing it and make a small donation for the things you take (that they've thrown away).....
My girlfriend works for goodwill and they’ve accepted people dumpster dive, they just ask people to wait until all employees are gone otherwise it’s a liability if you get cut on broken glass or something (which there will be a lot of!)
Of course. People give stuff to them for free so it avoids the landfill. They resell it or toss it back into the trash. You rescue it from the trash. There's not a single thing unethical about that.
I think dumpster diving no matter the place of origin is for the most part ethical. You are saving stuff from the landfill which pollutes our earth. The unethical people are the businesses that throw perfect conditioned items away because they didn’t make money off of them. Especially when there are so many homeless people. I don’t understand how clothing/shoe retailer are morally okay with throwing them away, oppose to donating them to people in need.
I worked at a high-end women’s clothing chain, where they destroyed leather coats and other expensive items, before throwing them in the dumpster. The company figured they’d lose sales if people gleaned their clothing from their dumpster, rather than buying it in the store. This makes no practical sense, and it was painful to watch a manager cut up leather items with a scissors. No good came of this, for anyone.
At some point in my life I owned a $500 leather jacket, back when $500 was also my rent a block from the beach. I think I would vomit if I saw someone destroying a leather jacket. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that.
Hey, thank you for taking the time to let me know how much that image bothered you, too. The particular manager was a twisted person, a sadistic, mean bully. She knew how much I cared about the Earth and nature, and hated throwing 100’s of reusable, perfect plastic bags, packing materials, etc. in the trash. She’d never give me permission to recycle anything myself, and actually took pleasure at cutting up the gorgeous, perfect leather coats in front of me, while I was working in the back of the store. What creates that kind of sadistic, selfish bully? She certainly had a lot of self hatred, and passed it on to the world around her, even the Earth. May we always strive to be compassionate.
I found like 4 silver brooches in a thrift store dumpster and made like $80. I used to dive that one all the time and always found awesome stuff. Still have the sick Indiana Jones hat I found in there like 15 years ago 😅
I did about 20 years ago, then they erected a 12' chainliked fence with barbed wire at the top and triple padlocked it. It's become one of the most expensive "thrift" chains in my area. There used to be other divers there too sometimes. I found the Ball Book of Canning, canning jars, Legos and other toys and other good stuff. Now it's a crap "thrift" store that gets a little bit of used stuff and a lot of rejects from places like JCPenney and other chain stores. With ridiculous prices. Oh and they sell way past the expiration date food now also, and new household goods.
Thrift stores are grift stores more and more. I am amazed they have dumpsters as they go over anything you try and give them with a fine toothed comb.
I used to do moving and garbage runs, and I would get calls from people with stuff, wanting me to take it to the salvo or good will, and I would have to spend a lot of time with them asking if they sent photos or what not to them of the stuff so they were expecting it cause I have no issue hauling it from your house to their place, though it sucks cause there is always a line and the place you have to turn around to get out was very ill designed. But the one place the stuff can NOT stay is in the back of my truck. People would assure me the thrift store would want there stuff and I would only do those runs if they agreed that they would pay the return trucking if they did not. The dump here has tipping fees so it costs to put stuff in the dump. FWIW I was right much more than I was wrong about the thrift place wanting the stuff. Just in case you are thinking of giving, they tend to be a lot more forgiving with small stuff. Go there with a couch or a dresser and be ready for them to say no thanks, but in reality, how many of the things can they warehouse?
Personally I would have zero moral issue picking from them. IMHO when I was a kid, they helped the community, they would come and get unwanted stuff, they would deliver big stuff to needy people, and the stores were inexpensive and a real asset to the community. Now they make as much as they can and the use if for their in more cases than not religion based programs. They are in no way I can see an asset to the community anymore. YMMV and sorry for the bit of a rant.
I do it regularly from one close to my house . It's going to the dump anyway so anything you rescue from it gets a chance for a second chance. I'm amazed by how much stuff they throw out. Perfectly good stuff, but I guess they have limited shelf space and after it's been there for a while off to the dumpster it goes. I've gotten my wife several designer purses. More shoes than I can count. If I can't use it I give it to someone that can. Some of it goes to the pile of stuff that's yard sale bound. If we don't save it it's just filling up the dump anyway so definitely don't feel bad or guilty about doing it .
Thank you, I do feel better about it 😊
I was truly baffled that the items weren't even broken! It's so sad to think that even the perfectly good items I donate have a chance of being thrown in the dumpster anyways.
I wonder if the employees throwing it out would be relieved to see someone taking things out of the dumpster. Like I would think the people who run the place want to reduce waste, otherwise they wouldn't run a second hand store. It must hurt their soul a bit to throw some of that stuff out. There's only so much they can do.
The thrift store by house is my absolute favorite place to score treasures.
People will dump their unwanted goods behind the store before or after-hours.
HOWEVER, the store's policy is that they will not take any donations left outside the store if they're closed.
So those goods go straight to the dumpster.
Then straight to me lol
Another however...and something that I do take into consideration, is that the homeless community is also aware of this excellent trash to treasure trove and they frequent the property.
So, I try to limit taking clothing, bedding, personal items, etc.
There is a difference between taking from the donation bin and the dumpster. Donation bin is wrong, dumpster is fair game. My kid worked at a goodwill and had to throw out all kind of stuff because they had too many of that item on the shelves or they just didn’t want it and thought it wasn’t worth storing or shipping it.
this makes no sense. it's in the dumpster. if you don't take it, that's not helping anyone who benefits from their charity. it's literally in the garbage. 🤦♀️
Yeah I know it doesn't make sense lol I think I'm just thinking about how I could have bought those items in the store but I passed them up. I guess I'm afraid I would stop buying things from them and hoping cool stuff ends up in the trash instead?
if its a gooooooodwiiiillll, perfectly good stuff likely gets thrown out at random, so id say its okay. either way, i believe its okay to do since its stuff they dont want to try to sell anyway
Used to work at a Thrift Store and taking shit out of the dumpster would have meant less work for me anyway. I would however warn everyone not to loot baby items, or just much of anything made for kids - particularly baby furniture. If a thrift store is half-assing their job (many do not even do that much) they check the recalls for baby items and a few other things before putting them out and risking liability. If they're recalled, and baby/kid items get recalled ALL the time, then it goes straight to the dumpster.
We had two dumpsters, and the recalled stuff went into the compactor immediately, but just be wary.
Did you have to put that title to eliminate holier-than-thou Redditors starting a mega thread of why dumpster diving is wrong when you just wanted to share? Cause I get that vibe. ;)
Have you tried asking them?
A thrift store I went to was completely fine with this and even encouraged it. It was a smaller shop owned by a local charity and they just didn't have the room took keep every good donation on the sleeves until it sold. Sometimes they'd just have to throw things out to make room for items that would move faster. They'd make a point of putting anything good off to the side of the dumpster during the day, and finally move it into the dumpster at night when they closed. They figured as long as it gets used a little more before heading to a landfill they're still making the world slightly better.
They were also affiliated with a church and mostly ran by elderly volunteers which meant anything that an 80 year old Christian woman considered too offensive went straight to the trash. I got a lot of cool beer glasses this way.
Worked at a thrift and we did throwaway items all the time perfectly fine stuff but there’s just always something being brought in some of it just has to get thrown out sadly
I regularly dive at a dumpster behind a thrift store. Those items will go to trash if I don't rescue them. Thrift store receives donation bags where the good stuff is at the bottom and crappy stuff at top. The staff will throw away the whole bag. Plus many people dump donations, meaning they leave donations out in the open when the store is closed. So the staff discards those items. So please always save from dumpsters
My former neighbor paid her monthly rent by dumpster diving at thrift stores and reselling big brand names at stores that buy them like style encore and platos.
(It also paid for her meth, and the meth fueled her dumpster diving addiction. Not that I think anyone here is on meth.)
She really made so much money. Every time I passed her she'd have a bunch of stuff to give me and her car was always so full of stuff that the only available seat was the driver seat. It really was insane.
They guard it at my favorite savers like it’s gold. Fine crush it, let it all get rain soaked, was gonna upcycle…. Just shows if it isn’t gonna make them a good profit, right in the landfills. They care not.
Why wouldn't it be any more or less ethical than any other store? It's all going to the dump anyways
I don't know lol, my brain is weird. I guess as long as I continue to shop there for the things I would normally buy it'll be a non issue.
I think anything that avoids the landfil is ethical
This is my theory. Dumpster diving to divert things from a landfill is a public service.
Legit
EXACTLY!!! Those are my thoughts, and you put it so well. The first rule, or strategy of recycling is to REUSE. If someone finds anything in a dumpster or trash that they need or will use, it saves the planet the materials and transport pollution to make that item again. I’ve often thought that reusing from trash should be legal and encouraged, if done safely and neatly. If we care about the Earth, it should be legal.
Taking things from donation bins = bad. Taking things that they have decided to throw away and not sell? I don’t see a problem with it. They’ve already decided they don’t want to sell it.
I agree with this 💯
Why? If it's a donation, why should it matter who gets it or how
I mean stealing from the donation bins. Because it was donated to the store to sell. It’s not a free for all, and that’s stealing. Taking things the store has decided to throw away, though? Fair game.
The store didn’t pay for it, it was donated. The store isn’t a person and it’s selling someone’s trash. Who does it hurt to steal it?
I think it's stealing strictly because there is posted signage saying it's illegal to take from them. Is it morally wrong to steal something you would die without from a business that has plenty and would happily watch you die? No, steal a loaf of bread to feed your family.
Not to mention the stores are mainly all grifters ripping people off anyway. Don’t know why people are so righteous about these stores as if they are out there solving homelessness and poverty.
I am totally with you on this I can't consider it stealing, free stuff is free
THIS ^^^^^^
You do this for small mom and pop shops, not large corporations. Thrift stores are even worse in my opinion. They give the illusion of keeping things out of the landfill and donating profit but it’s all just great PR. They throw away perfectly good items and do so little for the actual community. Diving for me is about keeping things from the landfill. I buy what I need and want. If I find it in the trash I’ve done more good than that corporation will ever do. I don’t feel bad at all.
I say keep doing it. I feel nothing should be thrown away that can be used by someone else. They are the ones in the wrong. They could be selling these items at a deep discount instead of throwing them out. Why don't you keep doing it and make a small donation for the things you take (that they've thrown away).....
These things would end up in a landfill if people don’t pick them up. If you never shopped there again it would be ethical.
I will say yes because you are doing something good for the environment, you taking it is much better than it being dumped in landfill
Dumpster diving is always ethically okay, they’re quite literally throwing it to a landfill
Depends on if it is dumpster or donation diving
I definitely made sure I only took from the actual dumpster! But yeah, everyone definitely needs to make the distinction!
I didn't read your text with post so sorry for the ignorance. Hope you can enjoy the utility and savings that come with your find!
My girlfriend works for goodwill and they’ve accepted people dumpster dive, they just ask people to wait until all employees are gone otherwise it’s a liability if you get cut on broken glass or something (which there will be a lot of!)
It’s literally being thrown away.
Of course. People give stuff to them for free so it avoids the landfill. They resell it or toss it back into the trash. You rescue it from the trash. There's not a single thing unethical about that.
I think dumpster diving no matter the place of origin is for the most part ethical. You are saving stuff from the landfill which pollutes our earth. The unethical people are the businesses that throw perfect conditioned items away because they didn’t make money off of them. Especially when there are so many homeless people. I don’t understand how clothing/shoe retailer are morally okay with throwing them away, oppose to donating them to people in need.
💯
I worked at a high-end women’s clothing chain, where they destroyed leather coats and other expensive items, before throwing them in the dumpster. The company figured they’d lose sales if people gleaned their clothing from their dumpster, rather than buying it in the store. This makes no practical sense, and it was painful to watch a manager cut up leather items with a scissors. No good came of this, for anyone.
At some point in my life I owned a $500 leather jacket, back when $500 was also my rent a block from the beach. I think I would vomit if I saw someone destroying a leather jacket. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that.
Hey, thank you for taking the time to let me know how much that image bothered you, too. The particular manager was a twisted person, a sadistic, mean bully. She knew how much I cared about the Earth and nature, and hated throwing 100’s of reusable, perfect plastic bags, packing materials, etc. in the trash. She’d never give me permission to recycle anything myself, and actually took pleasure at cutting up the gorgeous, perfect leather coats in front of me, while I was working in the back of the store. What creates that kind of sadistic, selfish bully? She certainly had a lot of self hatred, and passed it on to the world around her, even the Earth. May we always strive to be compassionate.
I found like 4 silver brooches in a thrift store dumpster and made like $80. I used to dive that one all the time and always found awesome stuff. Still have the sick Indiana Jones hat I found in there like 15 years ago 😅
? A dumpster is a dumpster lol.
I did about 20 years ago, then they erected a 12' chainliked fence with barbed wire at the top and triple padlocked it. It's become one of the most expensive "thrift" chains in my area. There used to be other divers there too sometimes. I found the Ball Book of Canning, canning jars, Legos and other toys and other good stuff. Now it's a crap "thrift" store that gets a little bit of used stuff and a lot of rejects from places like JCPenney and other chain stores. With ridiculous prices. Oh and they sell way past the expiration date food now also, and new household goods.
Thrift stores are grift stores more and more. I am amazed they have dumpsters as they go over anything you try and give them with a fine toothed comb. I used to do moving and garbage runs, and I would get calls from people with stuff, wanting me to take it to the salvo or good will, and I would have to spend a lot of time with them asking if they sent photos or what not to them of the stuff so they were expecting it cause I have no issue hauling it from your house to their place, though it sucks cause there is always a line and the place you have to turn around to get out was very ill designed. But the one place the stuff can NOT stay is in the back of my truck. People would assure me the thrift store would want there stuff and I would only do those runs if they agreed that they would pay the return trucking if they did not. The dump here has tipping fees so it costs to put stuff in the dump. FWIW I was right much more than I was wrong about the thrift place wanting the stuff. Just in case you are thinking of giving, they tend to be a lot more forgiving with small stuff. Go there with a couch or a dresser and be ready for them to say no thanks, but in reality, how many of the things can they warehouse? Personally I would have zero moral issue picking from them. IMHO when I was a kid, they helped the community, they would come and get unwanted stuff, they would deliver big stuff to needy people, and the stores were inexpensive and a real asset to the community. Now they make as much as they can and the use if for their in more cases than not religion based programs. They are in no way I can see an asset to the community anymore. YMMV and sorry for the bit of a rant.
I do it regularly from one close to my house . It's going to the dump anyway so anything you rescue from it gets a chance for a second chance. I'm amazed by how much stuff they throw out. Perfectly good stuff, but I guess they have limited shelf space and after it's been there for a while off to the dumpster it goes. I've gotten my wife several designer purses. More shoes than I can count. If I can't use it I give it to someone that can. Some of it goes to the pile of stuff that's yard sale bound. If we don't save it it's just filling up the dump anyway so definitely don't feel bad or guilty about doing it .
Thank you, I do feel better about it 😊 I was truly baffled that the items weren't even broken! It's so sad to think that even the perfectly good items I donate have a chance of being thrown in the dumpster anyways. I wonder if the employees throwing it out would be relieved to see someone taking things out of the dumpster. Like I would think the people who run the place want to reduce waste, otherwise they wouldn't run a second hand store. It must hurt their soul a bit to throw some of that stuff out. There's only so much they can do.
The thrift store by house is my absolute favorite place to score treasures. People will dump their unwanted goods behind the store before or after-hours. HOWEVER, the store's policy is that they will not take any donations left outside the store if they're closed. So those goods go straight to the dumpster. Then straight to me lol Another however...and something that I do take into consideration, is that the homeless community is also aware of this excellent trash to treasure trove and they frequent the property. So, I try to limit taking clothing, bedding, personal items, etc.
It’s all ethically sound
It’s in a bin for Gods sake and thrift stores are massive scams nowdays mostly anyway, there’s not much charity going on with them anymore.
It’s the best kind of ethically OK
Garbage is garbage.
Thrown out is thrown out.
There is a difference between taking from the donation bin and the dumpster. Donation bin is wrong, dumpster is fair game. My kid worked at a goodwill and had to throw out all kind of stuff because they had too many of that item on the shelves or they just didn’t want it and thought it wasn’t worth storing or shipping it.
It’s all going to the landfill. Trash. Garbage. Pick away and find cool stuff and save the planet.
The ethics of no waste living are among the best ethics. Enjoy.
this makes no sense. it's in the dumpster. if you don't take it, that's not helping anyone who benefits from their charity. it's literally in the garbage. 🤦♀️
Yeah I know it doesn't make sense lol I think I'm just thinking about how I could have bought those items in the store but I passed them up. I guess I'm afraid I would stop buying things from them and hoping cool stuff ends up in the trash instead?
if its a gooooooodwiiiillll, perfectly good stuff likely gets thrown out at random, so id say its okay. either way, i believe its okay to do since its stuff they dont want to try to sell anyway
I mean. Is it ethical for them to throw away good items anyway?
Trash is trash. Dive away.
If it’s goodwill, then okay to steal from corrupt thieves. Also, did work at a landfill, we have a nice thrift shop, and some random good stuff.
100% ethically fine, go forth and pilfer. They’re going a step beyond putting it in a free pile out front, at that point it’s you or a landfill
Used to work at a Thrift Store and taking shit out of the dumpster would have meant less work for me anyway. I would however warn everyone not to loot baby items, or just much of anything made for kids - particularly baby furniture. If a thrift store is half-assing their job (many do not even do that much) they check the recalls for baby items and a few other things before putting them out and risking liability. If they're recalled, and baby/kid items get recalled ALL the time, then it goes straight to the dumpster. We had two dumpsters, and the recalled stuff went into the compactor immediately, but just be wary.
The most ethical
Did you have to put that title to eliminate holier-than-thou Redditors starting a mega thread of why dumpster diving is wrong when you just wanted to share? Cause I get that vibe. ;)
So long as you're not re-selling expired food like that one dude here tried to do once.
Maybe extra ethical
Have you tried asking them? A thrift store I went to was completely fine with this and even encouraged it. It was a smaller shop owned by a local charity and they just didn't have the room took keep every good donation on the sleeves until it sold. Sometimes they'd just have to throw things out to make room for items that would move faster. They'd make a point of putting anything good off to the side of the dumpster during the day, and finally move it into the dumpster at night when they closed. They figured as long as it gets used a little more before heading to a landfill they're still making the world slightly better. They were also affiliated with a church and mostly ran by elderly volunteers which meant anything that an 80 year old Christian woman considered too offensive went straight to the trash. I got a lot of cool beer glasses this way.
Huh, I never really thought to ask! I'm not sure how these folks would feel about it.
Take the items back as donations and find out!
Anyone in Evansville,IN who wants to go with me? LOL
Yes
Yes - people donated, second hand threw it away .. it is fine, right?
Those shower hooks are cute
Right?! I guess most curtains come with their own hooks so no one needs just 4... I asked everyone if they needed/wanted some but they said no 😔
Yes! It was being thrown away
yes
Psshhh duh
Do it!
It’s 2024. My ethics are so far in the rear view mirror now you’d need the Hubble telescope to find them
Those hooks are super cute good find!
It's going to go to the landfill anyway, I'd say it's perfectly ethical to reduce the amount of trash on this planet
Worked at a thrift and we did throwaway items all the time perfectly fine stuff but there’s just always something being brought in some of it just has to get thrown out sadly
Yes, or it's going to a landfill
The question of, is it it legal or does the store manager mind ? Will give you the same answer
I regularly dive at a dumpster behind a thrift store. Those items will go to trash if I don't rescue them. Thrift store receives donation bags where the good stuff is at the bottom and crappy stuff at top. The staff will throw away the whole bag. Plus many people dump donations, meaning they leave donations out in the open when the store is closed. So the staff discards those items. So please always save from dumpsters
It's ok.
My former neighbor paid her monthly rent by dumpster diving at thrift stores and reselling big brand names at stores that buy them like style encore and platos. (It also paid for her meth, and the meth fueled her dumpster diving addiction. Not that I think anyone here is on meth.)
Being able to afford meth is considerably less sucky than my life is currently.
She really made so much money. Every time I passed her she'd have a bunch of stuff to give me and her car was always so full of stuff that the only available seat was the driver seat. It really was insane.
If you do sell them you could always donate the proceeds back!
Omg, I'm such a dummy!! I don't know why I didn't think of that myself!! Thanks 😊
Yes
I'll allow it.
They guard it at my favorite savers like it’s gold. Fine crush it, let it all get rain soaked, was gonna upcycle…. Just shows if it isn’t gonna make them a good profit, right in the landfills. They care not.
Absolutely, I don’t understand thrift stores. They stock the garbage and throw away the treasures. I love DD’ing at thrift stores or nearby!
Mine has a sign up saying its prohibited and considered theft :/
Yeah I'm definitely worried about that too. It's part of why I walked away, I was afraid there would be cameras
[удалено]
Why are you here?
What does the law say? I mean if that is considered someones property then you're basically stealing..
You’re the problem with society