Hmm, Really? I still don't really get it though. Never would've guessed that seeing as how the trash doesn't necessarily belong to the waste management company and it's not like they're gaining benefit like profit from either keeping it or letting others have at it. So I wouldn't assume that would make a worthy lawsuit. They're eating the contents of the trash at their own risk and know full well of the potential consequences ahead of time and it's not like they're paying for it to where it would need to be of a certain standard or quality. Kind of like how lawsuits against McDonalds no longer hold up when they're regarding getting sick or getting fat from eating their food. People know the consequnces and ramifications and are still choosing to eat it.

Most of the dumps around here are secured private property...you'd have to sneak in...in the back of a garbage truck perhaps...then get arrested for trespassing.

[edit] Come to think of it, there is a county recycle center where you take other stuff; big stuff...refrigerators, stoves, furniture etc....only on certain days of certain months... and even chemicals and electronics and stuff, but they watch that pretty close and you can only bring stuff in...and not take stuff out.

Not if its still in unbroken plastic packaging.

Ah, I see. In that case I can kind of see an issue. I don't quite get how someone getting ill off the contents they ate from the trash on private property can classify as a court worthy lawsuit though. If anything it would be the dumpster diver at fault for breaking & entering, terspassing and possibly even theft. The waste management company isn't selling or serving the trash as a service to gain a profit or something so the garbage doesn't need to be of a certain standard and quality. It was in the trash and now at the dump because it's considered waste and needs disposing of. Anyone sane knows that contents found in any garbage can be unsanitary and could cause illness if ingested. So I don't see how someone could rightfully sue the waste management for any sort of damages or suffering. I also don't see how they'd be able to sue the people or business whom tossed out that trash in the first place because they placed it in the correct trash receptacle so anyone digging in there knows it's all garbage. Someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Don't know how that would legally work with 'food', but if you got injured or something...that's why they tend to take extra precautions to 'protect' the 'citizenry' as well as cover their own you know what....


I don't see how a lawsuit could be brought eating from a dumpster in the back of a restaurant tho' because people do it all the time.

They chose to go to the dump, not there fault you decided to move that couch, only to have a bunch of crap fall on you. And most people should know broken glass and metal are probably in there as well.

Dive at your on risk.

There would have to be proven negligence on the part of the dump....if you were there legally and got ran over by a truck or a crane or something fell...They're pretty organized these days it seems...and do observe pretty strict regulations...because people are so sue crazy.

Here they would not allow you to dumpster dive within the confines of a county/public dump or recycle center...it's like "You put that thing here, we'll take care of the rest...goodbye and have a nice day".

It's only certain objects that I wouldn't get, mainly furniture that I'd use every day i.e an office chair. Like the bike would be ok, and at a garage sale, I'd inspect the item fairly closely.
More from the fact that it's from the side of a road or a dumpster though, I just think too much about why it was thrown out or what it could have come in contact with Just me though.

this is the best thread.

the only difference between dumpster diving and yard sales/thrift stores is you don't actually have to pay anything. people are [censored] dumb. BUSINESSES are [censored] dumb. not everything has some sordid history full of betrayal and six explaining why it got chucked in the trash. stores throw out hundreds of dollars worth of perfectly good stuff because of cosmetic blemishes from the factory or malfunctions that basically anybody can take an hour out of their day to repair. every day someone in your neighborhood is going to drag a bit of furniture to the curb that they have no more use for but you could absolutely find a use for. (this is basically how i've furnished my entire house, apart from thrift stores.)

most dumpsters aren't filled to the brim with piles of literal [censored] and most people who go dumpster diving aren't going to be bringing home old loveseats that they found half-buried in piles of literal [censored]. they'll bring home things they can use or things they can sell. it's economical, it's ENVIRONMENTAL, and god bless it it's American as all hell, even if you're doing it in Europe.

i don't know if this is a common thing but when i was a kid my local dump had what was basically a "dump store", where people would leave [censored] that was perfectly fine that they just had no real use for but didn't want to just throw out. it had a shelf full of books that people would pretty much use as a library (take out books, read them, bring them back and get another) until somebody took the shelf itself and it turned into a couple milkcrates full of books for a while. i got stuff from that place that pretty much defined my childhood, from books and [censored] to a complete collection of Infocom text adventures (with feelies!).

food and upholstered furniture are basically where i draw my own line, but i'm not gonna look down on other people for that [censored]. everybody's got their own thing. power to 'em, they're kind of saving the world.

Grocery stores here throw away thousands of dollars worth of food every month instead of giving it to shelters, homeless, etc. even if it is still good but close to expiration date. Why? Because when they did donate at some point in time, someone got sick or died, sued the store and won.

I think they donate to food banks here where they freeze the nearly rancid meat from Walmart to give out to the needy.
~
Just rusty nails and construction debris the times I went diving.

So then http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/12/12/man-dead-after-garbage-bin-he-slept-in-emptied-in-trash-compactor/ happened just yesterday....
Folks don't sleep in dumpsters no matter how cold it is.

Got a Techniks amp w/ tape deck. My brother resued it from a skip to get the tape player working, when he decided it was beyond repair, he threw it out again. I pillaged it from the bin and it's now hooked up to my PC and has served me as a great amp.

I can't count the amount of times I've read about this in the paper over the years, and it still amazes me at how people make such stupid decisions such as this. Dumpster diving is one thing, using one as your home is just not smart

Wait until december when cash converters starts getting rid of stuff, you can actually see guys smashing up 50" TVs and Xbox 360s/PS3s and then throwing it all into a skip. the selfishness of some people is unbelievable, they could at least donate them to a charity shop.

I know a guy who owns a restaurant, a really nice one too, and he told me he wishes that he could donate food that isn't going to be used. But under North Carolina law, he could get sued if someone gets sick from it. But some states have it included in their "Good Samaritan" laws that if the restaurant had no reason to believe the food was unhealthy than they can't be sued for it. I believe he specifically mentioned Tennessee as being such a state.

It's similar to how if you hurt someone performing first aid but didn't mean to, you can't be sued. This is (literally) a life saver because the chance of fracturing someone's ribs when attempting CPR or the Heimlich maneuver is pretty high. Just like if you donate food to thousands of people the chance of one of them catching a stomach bug is pretty high, but that doesn't undo how many other people were helped. After all, restaurants don't get shut down if one person gets sick off of their rare steak, there has to be an actual problem and actual mismanagement/failure to follow food safety rules by the restaurant.

That and the fact that stuff in the trash isn't saved to be sold later and the majority of contents found in trash receptacles are nothing but garbage. I don't think anoyone is arguing that people and businesses throw out items of use or value sometimes.

Where I live there are non-profit charity type locations where people can drop off their unwanted and unneeded items of use or value. That's where I and a lot of people around here take their things instead of throwing them away or tossing them out waiting for it to be snatched by some random dude.

Here in USA we have this spring cleaning tradition of sorts where people just leave the stuff they don't need or don't want (or just plain trash) roadside, right in front of their houses. Before the trash collection picks it up, other people take advantage of this. (One man's trash is another man's treasure, you know?) Sometime we found some useful things that way.

and let's not forget that landlords have a tendency to throw out a tenants belongings should they leave them unattended for too long after either moving out on their own will, or getting evicted. Either way, there can be some pretty good items to be found in cases like these.

I arranged to have a large house in an upscale neighborhood to myself in Miami back when I was 18. I think it was about 3000 square feet all on one floor. So it sprawled and needed a lot of furniture. Had some friends move in and we filled that place from neighboorhood castoffs. The stuff was really nice. We still can't understand why someone threw out a pool table, but we got it home.

I had a girlfriend back in the 90's who filled her house with furnture from garage sales for about $2000, a tenth of what it should have cost. She went to garage sales in the same kind of neighborhoods. We did find that some people were quite proud of what they had and it showed in the price. Others, just wanted some pocket change in return for not having to haul it off after redecorating.

Since I have watched CSI and other more scinetific shows about the human detritus and now know what people leave behind on uhpolstered furniture. I won't buy that second hand unless I cant take it down to the frame and refoam and reuphpolster it.

Hm, this I didn't know. I guess it's logical land lords would do that... I never thought of it though. But yeah, good point.