Diving through the bins to the shops of shame and the fight against waste
Diving through the bins to the shops of shame and the fight against waste
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On the third Duane Reade of the evening, Anna Sacks, 31, a dumpster diver who goes by @thetrashwalker on TikTok, hit the jackpot. Half a dozen clear trash bags lay along Second Avenue not far from her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Kneeling on the ground, Ms. Sacks untied the bags with a hand glove and, using her iPhone flashlight, pulled out her loot: Tresemmé hairspray. Rimmel London Stay Glossy Lip Gloss. Two sachets of Ghirardelli sea salt caramels. Six bags of Cretors popcorn mix. Wet mop refills. A Febreze air freshener. Foot warmers. A bottle of Motrin. All unopened, in the packaging and far from the best before date.
"Oh my God," said Ms. Sacks as she pulled out a six-pack with one may be missing. "My mom loves Diet Dr Pepper."
The total value may have been $75, but the money wasn't the issue. Ms Sacks, a former investment banking analyst, films her "trash walks", as she calls them, and posts the videos to expose what she sees as the waste of retailers throwing away returned, damaged or unwanted instead of reusing them. .
Fed up with the debauched practice, dumpster divers like Ms. Sacks have started posting videos of their haul on TikTok in recent years as a way to shame companies and raise awareness of wasteful behavior.
To hear more audio stories from publications like the New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
On the third Duane Reade of the evening, Anna Sacks, 31, a dumpster diver who goes by @thetrashwalker on TikTok, hit the jackpot. Half a dozen clear trash bags lay along Second Avenue not far from her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Kneeling on the ground, Ms. Sacks untied the bags with a hand glove and, using her iPhone flashlight, pulled out her loot: Tresemmé hairspray. Rimmel London Stay Glossy Lip Gloss. Two sachets of Ghirardelli sea salt caramels. Six bags of Cretors popcorn mix. Wet mop refills. A Febreze air freshener. Foot warmers. A bottle of Motrin. All unopened, in the packaging and far from the best before date.
"Oh my God," said Ms. Sacks as she pulled out a six-pack with one may be missing. "My mom loves Diet Dr Pepper."
The total value may have been $75, but the money wasn't the issue. Ms Sacks, a former investment banking analyst, films her "trash walks", as she calls them, and posts the videos to expose what she sees as the waste of retailers throwing away returned, damaged or unwanted instead of reusing them. .
Fed up with the debauched practice, dumpster divers like Ms. Sacks have started posting videos of their haul on TikTok in recent years as a way to shame companies and raise awareness of wasteful behavior.
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