After an incredible dumpster diving haul, one Redditor had way more food than they could possibly use, so they gave it away.
Dumpster diving is an incredible way to save money and reduce the amount of waste in the community. Despite the objections of businesses, this activity is legal in all 50 states — and while not everything in the trash is safe to salvage, many new dumpster divers are stunned at the amount of perfectly good food and other products thrown away every day.
This Redditor has been successfully raiding trash cans in their area for a while now — sometimes a little too successfully.
"We have this situation about three times a week," they said in a post about their most recent haul. They then shared photos of what they found: piles of bakery bread, boxes of donuts, bag after bag of fresh lettuce, packaged sandwiches, tubs of dip, and even a wrapped watermelon quarter.
It was far too much food for one family, so the original poster said they wanted to share. "Several families come to get their free food," they said. "We must have saved thousands of euros of food by now."
Their photos show several community members selecting food from the boxes that the original poster lined up outside.
Much of the food that businesses throw in the trash each day isn't actually spoiled. It may be close to its "sell-by" date, meaning that it's less fresh than shoppers might like, but in many cases, it's still safe to eat. Rescuing it from the garbage saves dumpster divers money and keeps the discards out of the local landfill.
Commenters on r/DumpsterDiving agreed. "The world needs more people like you!" said one user.
Another Redditor said, "This is what a hero looks like!"
A few users were interested in how the original poster gets such a good haul so often. "My whole family works together to do this," they explained in one comment. In another, they added, "We have 'deals' with other producers where we get what's left at the end of the day … Can't go into detail here since it could get [people] in trouble and could end what we have going."
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