If one man's trash is another man's treasure, an entire office building's trash is a veritable gold mine.
And for one lucky dumpster diver, a visit to an office building brought with it a great haul of electronic finds. They boasted about their success in the subreddit r/dumpsterdiving, where they shared a photo of various salvaged electronics piled high.
"Found all this in the E-Waste section," they wrote. "Hauled up the Mac, some power banks and every stick of ram from all of the computers. Ended up with about 80gb worth. Solid haul."
One commenter praised their finds, writing, "That's insane!"
Several other commenters, awed by the collection, asked what OP planned to do with their haul. "It's a source of money," they explained. "Just trying to make the most out of the waste these lazy office companies produce."
Indeed, offices are notorious for being a source of dumpster finds, particularly when it comes to electronic waste. Many companies don't want to deal with the complex and expensive process of sorting through the raw materials to recycle them properly, so they just toss them.
"You can pretty much go to any garbage in a downtown office building and it'll be the same," OP explained.
And while this contributes to a massive amount of waste piling up in landfills each year, there is a bright side — if they can be intercepted before they're hauled away, these discarded electronics can make a profitable side hustle.
"Looks like over 1k of stuff there," one commenter calculated. "Wish I found more rack mount servers, lucky find."
🗣️ How do you usually dispose of your old electronics?
🔘 Throw them away 🗑️
🔘 Donate them 📱
🔘 Sell them for cash 💵
🔘 Store them at home 🏠
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
And if you're not a computer or electronics expert, not to worry — there's plenty of lucrative and useful finds that get discarded every day, from clothing to completely fresh food. And not only does every haul save the diver money on various home goods, groceries, and other necessities, but it also keeps the toxic planet-warming landfills from adding even more products to their "garbage lasagnas."
So the next time you find yourself near a retail giant, it might be worth taking a peek out back — you might be able to skip the trip inside after all.
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