Dumpster diver salvages $5K worth of new items

By Emma Dunn via SWNS

A "dumpster diver" spends three nights a week rescuing Christmas lights, period products and mannequins from trash with her husband – and has salvaged $5,000 worth of new items.

Veronica Moyer, 32, became obsessed with picking through bins and has now made it a hobby that she does with her husband, Ian, 38, a farmer.

She took up “dumpster diving” with her friend, Liz, and now gets brand-new clothes, books and craft products, among other things.

Veronica donates most of the clothes, books and pet food she finds to charities and the homeless.

Veronica, a truck driver, from Santa Ynez, California, said: “Dumpster diving has become addictive.

“People can survive off food inside dumpsters.

“We go at night and have spent up to seven hours searching before."

“I keep a lot of the craft things.

“Everything is in perfect condition.

“We donate clothes and books and things like that we find.

“Being able to give that to someone who needs it is such a good feeling.”

Veronica had her first taste of dumpster diving in June 2022 and hasn’t stopped since.

“We go to the storage bins, and they have chucked out so much stuff,” she said.

“I like crafty things.

“I got these mannequins that I love, and spray painted them.

“We also find packaged period products and make-up.

“We find a lot of pet food which we pass onto animal shelters.

“We also find a lot of food thrown away, but we don’t touch that for contamination reasons.”

Veronica convinced her husband, Ian, to come on her night dives with her and the pair now like to go three to four times a week – spending an average of two hours scavenging.

“The other night we found about $90 worth of magazines in perfect condition,” she said.

“We give books and magazines to care homes for residents to read.

“We found heavy kids' coats which we went to give to homeless people ourselves.

“They're just thankful.”

Veronica receives comments daily about her dumpster diving hobby.

“People call me dirty,” she said.

“Some people are just not kind.

“I find a lot of art stuff in dumpsters and like to keep it.

“I’ve spent seven hours looking through bins before.

“You can get so much for free.”

Veronica estimates that she has saved around $5,000 worth of items so far this year alone.

These are the items Veronica has found dumpster diving:

• Books
• New magazines
• Coats
• Clothes
• Mannequins
• Spray paint
• Paint
• Christmas lights
• Period products
• Wooden decorations
• Dispenser
• Colouring books
• Printer
• Record player
• Christmas lights