Dumpster diving
A lot of good stuff goes to waste.
What you might find
This section has not been filled in yet. discussion This section should probably be organized into "food" and "non-food"
How to get started
This section has not been filled in yet. discussion This section should start with a "legality" section, or just: "First, make sure it's legal in your jurisdiction. In most parts of the world, it is - garbage is considered public property - it's not stealing if the previous owner had every intention to get rid of it." Gotta create the /Legality subpage, breaking things down by country or region. For places where it isn't legal (Germany for example?), encourage links to campaign pages to make it legal. discussion TALK: Should this page actually be called trash picking? Should there be 2 pages (the dumpster diving page focusing more on recovering waste from businesses maybe)? Or just one? discussion Also mention about sharing with others, stuff that's in good condition put it neatly on a bench somewhere maybe (+challenges wrt that)
FAQ
This section has not been filled in yet. discussion DRAFT: "But aren't you taking away from homeless / poorer people?" No. In western countries, almost half of all food goes to waste, while less than 1% of people pick the trash regularly. There is simply far more food in the trash than people ever get to. Most of it never gets taken, except by the garbage trucks. Same goes for non-food items. Exception: Areas with a high population of homeless people. In this case, don't take ready-to-eat food; leave it there if there's a good chance someone else might find it. Same with any found clothing that isn't too dirty or wet. But still take items such as flour or kitchenware, which aren't very useful for people who don't have a kitchen. Consider picking the trash in middle-class/suburban areas instead, where there's even more stuff being wasted and even fewer people taking it.