In article ,
"Tom J" wrote:

You may also be a thief!! Do you have permission to dumpster dive in a
dumpster on Wal-Mart's private property? That dumpster may contain
merchandise going to a recycling center, or it may contain stolen goods, and
you may be an accomplice, not knowing it. You could do jail time if you don't
have permission and are caught.

Tom J

In 1988 the US Supreme Court ruled that trash-picking is legal. But there
are centuries-old precident laws going back even to Jolly Old England that
establish as a veritable "right" for scavengers to obtain & keep or sell
anything they find in the trash. A very few cities have nevertheless put
restrictions on dumpster diving & local laws should be checked at the
library (does no good to ask the police who won't know, won't look it up,
but might say it's illegal rather than admit they don't know & don't care
if its legal or not).

Exceptions are when dumpsters are locked, are inside gates, or posted no
trespassing, or when special municiple restrictions on recycle bins as
distinct from dumpsters of mixed refuse. By & large when it's in the
trash, it's fair game, whether you're the cops going through the trash
looking for evidence without a search warrant (don't need one), a crazy
nosy neighbor reading then posting on the web someone's discarded
correspondence (no legal right to privacy if it is thrown in the trash), a
hungry homeless guy looking for pizza rinds, a craftsperson looking for
junk to weld together into "art", a junk dealer looking for salable
freebies, a major recycling company contracting with the city or county
but NOT with whoever threw out the garbage, or a dumpster diving hobbyist.


The illegal part would be depositing your own trash in someone else's
dumpster; circumventing a lock; or leaving a mess. When trash is on the
curb or alley, there is not even a trespassing issue, but on business
tarmacks or parking lots the issue of trespassing can become clouded,
though if legal access is generally permitted for customers, so too it is
for dumpster divers. Garbage left on a property that does not permit
general access is illegal to take -- that worn out couch on the curb is
legal to take, but the when it was still sitting on the front lawn getting
rained on & moldy, it was still the homeowner's personal possession. There
are also "intellectual property" issues; if I throw out a manuscript for
an original short story & you find it, it's yours, but you can't publish
it; or if you find a computer harddrive, it's yours, but the software on
it might not be legally transferable; & so on.

Most dumpster diving is behind retail shops. The restriction (with
exceptions) is usually a lock, not a law. No lock, no prohibition.
Dumpster diving has become so common, though, that more cities feel the
need to regulate diving, as sometimes guys with big trucks drive through
alleys getting recyclables & whatnot, & sometimes bums leave nuisance
calling-cards like all the black plastic bags ripped open & scattered
about a parking lot. A few states are more concerned with taxing the
microbusinesses of dumpster divers who scrounge & sell enough stuff to
make a living without being detected by the taxing authorities.

Habitual dumpster divers sometimes keep photocopies of articles on the
Supreme Court ruling to give to irate shopowners who threaten to call the
cops on dumpster divers. Politely informing them of the law, as long as
it's not rudely expressed, & your reassurance that you'll be following the
law & leaving no mess, usually shuts them up. If the owner doesn't care if
it's legal or not but just wants you to go the hell away, they will have
to post a no-trespassing sign or put a lock on their dumpster. As many do.
Otherwise, if it's in the trash, you can have it.

Of course, some businesses put stuff out back beside the dumpster with the
EXPECTATION that it will be hauled away by dumpster divers, & they're glad
of it, it keeps them from having to pay for a bigger dumpster.

Dumpster diving activists:
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark...807/index.html
http://www.spub.ksu.edu/ISSUES/v100/...pstr-page.html
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm
http://members.aol.com/TheDumpsterLa...mpsterlady.htm

The seriously bad side-effect of dumpster diving is the great many
businesses that throw out credit card information. Last year Congress once
again failed to pass a law requiring businesses to discard c.c.
information safely by returning it to a bank or shredding it; Visa &
Mastercard persistently lobbies against such laws. The majority of
illegally used c.c. numbers are obtained by dumpster diving. Yet people
worry about emailing such information, which is still the minority source
of stolen numbers (and even hackers rely on info found in dumpsters,
dumpsters being a good place to find passwords). If your personal stats
are in the trash, they can be legally taken by anyone who finds them, but
their use of them might be illegal. See he
http://www.iss.net/security_center/a...ng/default.htm

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/