Dumpster diving, while gaining popularity in US cities, poses a serious safety risk for participants and creates liability for property owners. Whether diving for food, electronics, furniture, or other miscellaneous items, entering a dumpster always creates a possibility for physical, personal, and health risks, not to mention the liability to the dumpster rental company.

Physical Safety

Garbage, by its very nature, is dangerous to those handling the discarded items. Entering a dumpster or sifting through rubbish is dangerous to physical safety. Leaning over the edge of open-top industrial dumpsters can cause cracked ribs and injuries to the head due to falling over the side. Dumpster contents may cause cuts, bruises, and other abrasions. Dumpsters are also loaded with germs and bacteria that can cause serious illness to the dumpster diver.

Personal Safety

Personal safety is always a concern when entering a dumpster. Confrontations from property owners, police officers, other divers, and vandals may lead to physical injury or legal issues. Since dumpster diving is primarily a night-time activity, you run the risk of running into less than scrupulous characters who may pose a danger to your health and welfare. Being caught with garbage in your possession that includes personally identifying information including addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers, or other financial information may lead to major legal procedures and penalties, whether you intended to use the information or not.

Health Risks

Dumpsters often contain broken, out of date, or potentially poisonous materials. Dumpsters often contain chemical bottles from used cleaning supplies, sharp objects, broken glass, metal objects with sharp edges, and even used needles. Cuts and abrasions stemming from these objects risk infection, tetanus, and other diseases. Often times, especially in urban areas, drug users throw their needles into nearby dumpsters. This creates a very real risk for disease and exposure to illegal drug substances.

Protect Yourself

Avoid dumpster diving. If you wish to accumulate belongings through trash, look for things set next to trash receptacles. Do yourself a favor and walk up to the owner, asking for permission to remove the item of your interest. Do not enter trash containers.

This article was written by Sherman Rogers of All-waste Dumpster Rental Company. All Waste, LLC was started in 1998 with a single Mack truck and 12 roll-off dumpsters. Today Rogers runs an all-Mack fleet of 18 trucks and more than 1200 dumpsters. Other services include portable storage containers, trash pick-up, and delivery of landscaping supplies including mulch, sod, top-soil, and crush aggregate. services Macomb County, Shelby, Eastpointe, Mt. Clemens, St. Clair Shores, New Baltimore, Richmond, Detroit, Troy and neighboring cities in the Metro Detroit Michigan area.