dumpster diving

noun

variants or Dumpster diving

: the practice of searching through public trash receptacles for edible food or discarded items that retain some use or value

When he talks about his experiment in dumpster diving, Ferrell emphasizes that he had advantages that most people who scrounge for a living do not—his own house, a pickup truck, and a wife with a job.

—Tom Bartlett

Today, Mr. Jones … subsists by Dumpster diving, doing odd jobs and, when he sees the opportunity, scavenging scrap metal.

—John Eligon

… a freegan is a person who has decided to boycott capitalist society by severely curtailing consumption of resources through reusing, recycling and Dumpster diving.

—Raina Kelley

In Boulder, an affluent town of 96,700, where houses are demolished to make way for mansions, Dumpster diving for building supplies may have found its cultural moment.

—Hillary Rosner

dumpster diver noun

or Dumpster diver

As my trash pile got larger, I turned around and she was sorting through the trash like you might see a dumpster diver in the inner city.

—Collins Doughtie

As avid flea market and yard sale goers, eBay addicts, and Dumpster divers, we have always ended up with extra furniture.

—Martha Stewart Living

Examples of dumpster diving in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Close reading this sentence near the beginning of his own essay on cliché, the British critic Christopher Ricks does some dumpster diving. —Katie Kadue, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026

Louisville's solid waste ordinance does not disallow dumpster diving on public land. —Lillian Metzmeier, Louisville Courier Journal, 22 Jan. 2026

Compliments of the Los Angeles of thirty years ago, coyote dumpster diving is an urban legend with legs. —Literary Hub, 8 Jan. 2026

Food banks ran out of food, and some people turned to dumpster diving. —Eli Hager, ProPublica, 9 Dec. 2025

While a decades-old Supreme Court decision indirectly permits dumpster diving on public property, the practice could lead to fines and criminal charges. —Christopher Cann, USA Today, 5 Dec. 2025

For the locals who couldn’t afford one of his instruments, dumpster diving to obtain a guitar was frequent and critical. —Nate Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2025

The consequences of this are 100-loss seasons and dumpster diving for free agents past their prime. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 30 Apr. 2025

What are the rules for dumpster diving in California? —Fernanda Galan, Sacbee.com, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dumpster diving

• arriving
• conniving
• contriving
• depriving
• deriving
• reviving
• surviving
• driving
• striving
• thriving