Darryl Baker was shocked to see piles of clothes dumped beside the recycling bins outside her local supermarket. On several trips to the dumpsters she has also found a host of other items, such as “a perfectly decent” Ikea picture frame and children’s scooters. Always on the lookout for ways to save money and appalled by the waste, the thrifty mother-of-two from north London asked supermarket staff if she could take some of it. Permission granted, “I got my children entire new wardrobes,” says Darryl, 39, adding that she’s stuff put away for years to come.
During a six-month stint this year, “I have probably saved hundreds of pounds,” says the freelance journalist. Darryl reels off the names of brands she has salvaged – Ralph Lauren, Nike and The North Face, among others. “My mind was blown,” she says. “This stuff is just strewn all over the floor.” In addition to finding clothing for her children and her nephews and nieces, she keeps some for herself.
Others she donates or sells, including recently getting £30 for a men’s Barbour jacket. Darryl has joined the ranks of so-called dumpster divers – people who rummage through commercial bins for treasures. Motivations include saving money, giving items to charity and disgust at how often perfectly usable items are being consigned to waste – or a combination of all three. Texan Jeff Ferrell has been rooting around in trash for more than 50 years.
“I still dumpster dive every day by bicycle,” says the 72-year old, who lives in Fort Worth, and has written books on the topic. “I still enjoy it as much, or more, than ever.” Jeff considers himself a “bit of Robin Hood mixed with anarchist direct action”, only scrounging in more affluent neighbourhoods and giving away many of his finds. “Almost everything in our home is scrounged, and I never buy, for example, soap or toiletries or medical supplies, or shoes and clothes and tools and garden supplies,” he says. Jeff looks for discarded metal to sell at a scrapyard which, he says, earns him around $150 (£110) every two weeks.
His wife sells his other finds, such as “an antique or piece of jewellery”, on eBay. Through savings and selling the more valuable items, he estimates his finds are worth “tens of thousands of dollars a year”. While dumpster diving may have been considered taboo in the past, it’s now something many people are proud to do and post about online. Millie Diamond, a London-based stylist, posts videos on TikTok of her rummaging through bins.
But she has a very specific aim – to unearth fabrics and clothing that she can salvage and refashion into new items, some of which she then sells. She estimates that one dress she found was worth £600. “I’m a bit of a magpie. I like collecting things off the street or anywhere that there’s a freebie.
If I see something that catches my eye, then I’ll grab it.” Millie, 36, began bin diving after spotting some fabrics discarded by a business that had shut down. “I literally clambered into the bin. It turned out it was loads of vintage clothes.” For Charlotte Bayford in Essex it’s all about timing. Her best finds come when students at Essex University head home for the summer and ditch anything they don’t want to take with them.
This includes half-filled toiletries. “I haven’t bought shampoo for eight years,” says the 44-year-old sales assistant. “I’d say that has saved me some money.” Like other dumpster divers, Charlotte gives a lot of her finds to charity. But she has also filled her house with salvaged objects, and sells on some valuable items.
Food, as long as it remains sealed, is fair game too. “I’ve found tins of Heinz baked beans, perfectly fine. I’m quite happy to eat those,” Charlotte says. But is taking things out of bins and keeping them acceptable in the eyes of the law?
Jeff, who is professor emeritus of sociology at Texas Christian University, says many US cities have made the practice illegal, including New York, Cleveland and Wichita. “Dumpster diving is considered illegal [in such places] because that which is thrown away now belongs to the city… or to the private company that provided trash services,” he explains. Any dumpster diver also risks trespass charges. In Fort Worth, where Jeff lives, items can only be removed from bins if they are on public land, external.
In the UK, Sunjay Versani of Duncan Lewis Solicitors says it depends on the circumstances. “In many cases involving genuinely discarded goods, prosecution is unlikely,” he says. “But there is no general rule that something is free to take simply because it has been put in a skip or bin. If in doubt, the safest approach is to ask the owner or business for permission.” ‘I live with a ghost’ – inside the haunted homes attracting bargain hunters The Sabrina Carpenter clip that helped a 22-year-old make £120,000 a year I paid £30,000 for an ‘influencer’ degree.
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