Dumpster diving is deadly dangerous
Sometime in January of 2020 a woman was reported missing in Greensboro, NC. Her last sighting was at the discount store Five Below behind which she collected items from a dumpster. Police determined that the lady never emerged from the dumpster before it was serviced by a garbage collecting truck. The woman’s remains were found in a landfill sometime in February 2020.
The Burlington North Carolina, police department said, "This case sheds light on the dangers associated with dumpster diving", while making a statement after the incident occurred. They went on to warn everyone that, "The commonly known practice of 'dumpster diving' is not safe."
Diving into residential and commercial dumpsters for food, clothes, and many other items has been a common practice for decades. Dumpster diving is a way to look for treasures in someone else’s garbage container. Dumpster diving can also be practiced by environmentally concerned people, who dive into dumpsters looking for discarded products that can be recycled. The goal is to reduce the carbon footprint and minimize the volume of plastic, food, paper and metal intended for disposal at the landfill. But there are myriad health and safety risks associated with the practice. Health experts have warned against dumpster diving for food because it can be contaminated with bacteria when left outside for too long. Dumpsters are also sprayed with pesticides, and even washing food or material recovered can’t thoroughly clean off contaminants, a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found.
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As a team of Waste Management Professionals, we don’t recommend dumpster diving. From a safety perspective, it is clearly a dangerous practice. The recyclables shall be separated from the garbage before placing the trash into a dumpster.
- Published: 2020-02-21T19:28:27-08:00
- Author: Laura Schmidt, Dumpster Rentals Customer Supp
