Shortly after I moved away from home, to a brand new city for a brand new job, I found myself in a situation that could've ended horribly. It involved a dumpster. Long story short, I bought something some drink mix that I realized I already had. I had thrown the bag and the receipt in the dumpster behind my apartment before discovering this. So, in order to return the mix, I needed to retrieve the reciept.

The dumpster behind my apartment was on wheels, positioned uneasily on gravel. So, my intelligent self decided to careen over the dumpster to try and receive the bag from the bottom. The dumpster had barely anything in it, which made it unstable on gravel. After three attempts, the dumpster fell over on top of me, and pinned my leg to the gravel.

Oh yeah, it rained the day prior too.

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There I lied helpless on the concrete, baptized in the juices of my apartment dumpster, my leg lodged by the lip of the green monster. I was seconds away from screaming, but I was able to wiggle my shoe off and slide my leg out from under it. I went to work like normal, but was in serious pain. The next day, I couldn't get out of bed. My leg was black, blue, and red, but thankfully not broken. I can still remember calling my mother to tell her. She didn't say this, but the tone of her voice expressed something to the tune of: "I knew I should've never let him move out."

Never did get that receipt nor refund either.

Technically, I was dumpster diving, albeit on my own rented property. Recounting that story got me to wonder if dumpster diving, what is commonly viewed as a crime, is actually illegal in Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin. It's hard to get clear sourcing on the matter, but I did my best to get the answers...

Photo Credits: Canva
Photo Credits: Canva
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According to the website, Findlawdumpster diving is technically legal in all 50 states. This is due to the 1988 Supreme Court ruling State of California v. Greenwood, which declares that searching trash is legal as long as it does not conflict with any city, county, or state ordinances.

In my opinion, the reason dumpster diving is presumed to be illegal is because it often involves breaking the law of trespassing. So, while it might not be illegal to search a dumpster behind an apartment complex, it is technically illegal to trespass on the apartment complex to do such a thing.

Findlaw tried to break down an acceptable form of dumpster diving:

Consider the following example of such an acceptable form of dumpster diving. Let's say that someone is looking through the trash bag that you left on the curb outside your house, where you typically leave trash for pick up by waste management personnel. Given that the curb outside your house is a public space, you can no longer reasonably expect someone to observe the privacy of that place where you left your trash. In other words, it becomes “public domain," and the Fourth Amendment no longer applies. Under the Fourth Amendment, intrusions into private spaces tend to become a problem - per Findlaw

So, that garbage can of your neighbor's that sits by the curb? Free picking as far as the law is concerned, regardless of whether or not you live in Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin. Should it be a dumpster you want to dig through, just make sure it's stationary on concrete, unlike I did.

Read more about the legalities of dumpster diving on Findlaw's website.

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