A WOMAN has revealed how she has found £4,000 worth of items including Christmas lights and tampons by going through rubbish bins.
Veronica Moyer, 32, has picked up a hobby of “dumpster diving” rescuing new products from the bins alongside her husband Ian, 38.
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The lorry driver from Santa Ynez, California, US spends three times a week going through the bins and has found brand new things such as clothes and books.
She 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 donates most of the clothes, books and pet food she finds to charities and the homeless.
She had her first taste of dumpster diving in June 2022 and hasn’t stopped since.
“We go to the store bins, and they have chucked out so much stuff,” she added.
“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 through bins.
“The other night we found about £80 work 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.”
She admits she has received negative comments daily about her hobby- but estimates she has saved between £2,800 and £4,000 worth of items so far this year alone.
She said: “People call me dirty. 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.”
