New homeowner horrified after discovering previous owner's massive mistake deep in yard: 'I did not expect so much'

One man's trash is another man's trouble.

A Redditor hoping to plant some fruit trees in their backyard was horrified to find tons of trash buried by the previous homeowner. They shared photos of their disappointing discovery to r/mildlyinfuriating.

"While trying to plant a cherry tree in my yard I kept hitting hard things about 4 [inches] below the surface. I was really hoping they'd be some large cool stones I could add to my landscaping, but nope. It was just bottles and bottles and bottles and tons more broken glass bottles," they wrote. "This is not my first experience finding trash in my yard. When we first bought the place 5 years ago we cleared out a lot of garbage from the backyard but I did not expect so much underneath the soil."

In just one small section of their yard, the Redditor dug up an entire bucket's worth of broken glass and bottles.

Unfortunately, burying trash in the backyard was a fairly common practice, and this homeowner is another victim of improper waste management of the past. Homeowners frequently find landfill leftovers from previous owners, such as shredded rubber tires or bundles of wires and cables.

Glass can be infinitely recycled without losing quality, so it's a shame the previous owner decided to bury the bottles instead of recycling them. In a landfill, glass "could take up to 1,000,000 years to properly biodegrade," per Brown Recycling.

If properly recycled, however, glass can be back on the shelf in as little as 30 days, according to the Glass Packaging Institute. The recycling process uses less energy and generates less pollution than new glass production. Plus, it conserves resources.

Glass is great for upcycling too. Sauce jars become coffee cups, hot sauce bottles transform into candle holders, and syrup bottles turn into salt and pepper shakers.

Commenters were shocked to see just how much trash was buried in the original poster's yard.

"I would definitely do some tests to see how much lead is in the soil, if you're planning on growing fruits or vegetables," one user suggested. "Really sucks that someone would trash the place like that."

"You might want to garden in containers, rather than the soil," another Redditor recommended.

"You know that fruit trees will intake heavy metals and other toxins in your soil. Those same toxins will be in your fruit," a third commenter warned.

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