With multiple stores caught trashing unsold products, dumpster diving has become an increasingly lucrative opportunity for thrifty consumers.
One dumpster diver shared their recent findings at a CVS in the r/DumpsterDiving subreddit, a forum filled with advice, information, and first-hand accounts about trash treasures.
A series of photos displayed a variety of unopened cookies, vitamins, probiotics, baby items, food products, and more, all looking good as new and untouched.
"Dumpster was overflowing with bags of merchandise … Had to leave the rest due to my trunk being completely full," the dumpster diver explained beneath his post.
While dumpster diving is typically sluffed off as "gross," communities like r/DumpsterDiving are demonstrating to more and more people just how much is being thrown away each day and how beneficial the effort can be — not only personally but also for the environment.
🗣️ Should grocery stores be allowed to throw away food that is still OK to eat?
🔘 YES 👍
🔘 NO 👎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Excess inventory is a growing problem valued at more than $250 billion in the United States alone. It's estimated that 21 billion pounds of textiles are thrown out every year. An estimated 30% of the food in American grocery stores ends up being thrown away as retail stores generate about 16 billion pounds of food waste each year.
Certain organizations and companies are doing their part to help. Creating more awareness is always key. Any little thing we can do that keeps less in the landfill is a great success. As seen above, everyone's definition of trash is different.
A word of advice — before you head out on a 2 a.m. hunt, be aware that while dumpster diving is legal in all 50 states, there are usually local trespassing regulations to abide by.
While someone warned that there could be a very good reason these items were tossed, the original poster agreed, saying, "Absolutely and that's why using common sense when picking is needed. Doubled packed foods or air/water tight packaging is always a good sign, but you want to look over each item individually and clean them."
One user simply said, "Thank you for saving food waste."
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