Dumpster Dive

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A dumpster dive happens when someone intentionally searches for something in someone else's pile of refuse.

Someone on a dumpster dive may be looking for things to reuse or to sell to recyclers, improperly destroyed confidential information to misuse, or evidence of a crime.

Not to be confused with Trash Landing (a pile of refuse breaks one's fall).

Examples of Dumpster Dive include:

Live Action TV

• Several times in CSI, Law & Order, and other Police Procedurals. (Let CSI fans expand this.)
• Steptoe and Son and its American counterpart Sanford and Son are about "rag and bone men".

Real Life

• When a company replaces old computers with new computers, geeks will search the company's dumpster for equipment.
• Freeganism, a sustainable living philosophy that includes dumpster diving to not waste food.
• Dumpster diving is a living in Manshiyat Naser, whose residents live off Cairo's garbage, making it one of Cracked.com's The 6 Weirdest Cities People Actually Live In.
• Identity thieves searching for people's personally identifying information in dumpsters.
• This trope is Older Than Radio: In 19th-century London, dumpster divers were called Rag-and-bone men.