Retail stores often throw out perfectly good products if they sustain even the slightest damage or sit on shelves too long. During a dumpster dive to save these unused items, one Redditor found an impressive haul of craft books.
Not only did they prevent needless waste, but the Redditor decided to donate their haul to children and teens in need.
In a viral Reddit post, this user posted a photo of their bounty. The Redditor recovered stacks of drawing and coloring books, cookbooks, crochet and knitting books, and children's books by digging through a dumpster at a Michaels craft store.
"I work for a residential psych unit for teens, and my best friend is a social worker, so I'll start there first," the Redditor writes regarding their plans for donating the books.
They are also considering donating some of the books to hospitals for children, parents, and family members to enjoy in waiting rooms and during long hospital stays.
Dumpster diving can help people cut back on costs, especially for items like food, clothing, and in this case, art supplies. You never know what treasures you'll find sorting through dumpsters outside of grocery stores, retail markets, and commercial complexes.
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Dumpster diving is legal in all 50 states and can even help protect the environment.
The U.S. produces astronomical amounts of waste every year, which is especially prevalent in retail.
Retailers often throw out returned goods, which amounts to 5 billion pounds of goods each year. And roughly 80 billion pounds of food waste end up in landfills annually, and 9.6 billion pounds of this food waste comes from grocery stores alone.
Dumpster diving can help combat this waste. Through just one dumpster dive, this Redditor prevented stacks of unread books from wasting away in a landfill.
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Redditors praised the user for donating their finds to those in need in the comment section and were shocked the books were in a dumpster.
"Amazing! Hate that they were throwing it out," one user comments. "So glad you rescued them! Looks like some fun titles to look through!"
Another Redditor says, "I can't believe all of that would go to waste!"
"Thank you for bringing some joy and relief to others," a user writes.
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