A dumpster diver's haul was so outrageous that they were accused of theft. In reality, their find seemingly showed just how much waste can occur in the corporate world.
What's happening?
Over a series of three Reddit posts, the dumpster diver shared how they landed thousands of dollars' worth of brand-new conduit fittings in the box. In their first post and a follow-up comment on the "r/DumpsterDiving" subreddit, they revealed the dumpster was that of an electrical distributor. They speculated that they'd intercepted an organized crime scheme.
When the same thing happened again at the dumpster, though, they admitted their theory didn't make a ton of sense in a follow-up post. From the two dumpster dives, they estimated their total haul was around $22,000 in retail value.
Selling the goods wasn't so easy, though. They took to the "r/electrical" subreddit for some help with a revised estimate of $35,000 in retail value. Redditors were immediately suspicious of the find.
The original poster defended themselves by explaining their side of the story. After speaking with a forklift operator, they said the store was no longer doing business with a particular vendor, eliminating the need to carry overlapping stock of Topaz fittings.
Under their contract with the old vendor, they couldn't slash the prices of the Topaz fittings for a fire sale. Nor did they have room to stock them on their shelves to sell at full price.
"I'm not a thief," the OP insisted. "Just a very lucky dumpster diver."
In a final update, they revealed they ended up selling everything for $5,000 to four different electricians, with the last transaction at a massive markdown.
Why is this sort of potential waste important?
If we take the dumpster diver at their word, there would have been an extraordinary amount of waste if they didn't step in. If all these products went to landfill, it would be thousands of dollars worth of goods for naught — not to mention all the pollution and resources to produce and ship the items.
If it were diverted for recycling, that would be better, even though it still would require significant energy and resources to turn the products into scrap metal.
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$200 or more 💰 Overall, a rigid vendor contract in this case appeared to create a serious loophole for waste. The scenario is somewhat similar to how mismanagement can result in massive amounts of discarded materials on construction sites. Along those lines, in the food world, an imbalance between supply and demand can also lead to waste.
What's being done about waste more broadly?
Redditors proposed several ideas for the OP and the electrical distributor.
"Habitat for Humanity would love to have these donated to them for home building projects," a user suggested.
Other posters suggested that the staffers be allowed to take the materials home as the OP did. It's good that they found homes for all the fittings, but there should be a better system to address unsold products.
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