Pennsylvania Dumpster Diving Laws
Pennsylvania has no specific dumpster diving laws, so standard search and seizure principles apply. Generally, the legality of dumpster diving depends on whether or not a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in containers of personal property left on the curb or otherwise located outdoors. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided that no person "has a legitimate expectation of privacy in his discarded property. . . ." This means that people generally give up any expectation of privacy when they put their refuse on the curb or otherwise place it outdoors in a fashion where someone else could recover it.
Pennsylvania courts have held that individuals do run the risk of encountering the police if they rummage through trash, but the police need reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a crime is occurring or has occurred before they can intervene in any way. If the police simply tell you to leave the trash alone in Pennsylvania, it is advisable to comply even if the person involved owns the trash. If you get into any kind of heated exchange with law enforcement about whether you have the right to go through someone’s trash, you could get arrested for disorderly conduct. However , if you witness or experience an encounter with law enforcement like the one described by the Sixth Circuit in US v Spell that resulted in a dumpster diver getting stamped with a citation, there might be grounds to challenge the charge in a Pennsylvania court, and the charge itself could be enforceable at only the state level.
If there is no probable cause or reasonable suspicion that a crime is occurring, a Pennsylvania police officer cannot stop or detain anyone involved in an act of dumpster diving, or any other type of activity that they find questionable. Spacing your dumpster diving expeditions out with breaks between them may help to avoid drawing the attention of anybody who does not approve of what you are doing, but it is not necessary. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided that "unpredictability alone should not shield criminal activity from detection." This means that the unpredictability of when you do your dumpster diving needs to be factored into whatever you get the police to collect from the trash. As long as you avoid engaging in unusual behavior that may indicate involvement with contraband or illegal activity, you are more likely to succeed in a case involving police intervention.
Legal and Illegal Dumpster Diving Areas
In Pennsylvania, the first thing to consider when planning a dumpster diving expedition is the type of property involved. As in any state, on private property you should never enter without permission. Not only does this include obvious avenues such as back yards where the privacy of the property owners is more important than the salvage operation’s propensity, it also includes any dumpsters that may exist behind or even in front of places of business. Trash belonging to a specific establishment is still that establishment’s property regardless its location; be it out back or out front. The same goes for apartments and other places of residence. No one wants people rummaging through their personal belongings, which is an invasion of privacy as much as it is trespassing.
Public places are generally fair game for dumpster diving but a few issues can arise. The first is municipalities enacting rules and permitting regulations regarding trash containers. While these new rules tend to be more geared toward impeding littering and not trash pickers, careful research of your local municipal codes is always a good idea before getting started. While many cities encourage recycling, none of them will look favorably upon people using the enclosed garbage dumps in park areas or by public facilities. Not only may these places have their own reasonable privacy policies, but there are usually prohibitions against disorderly conduct with regard to the trash. If someone is witnessed collecting items from a closed dumpster, it could be a crime of littering performed by the person who may have tossed their trash into the dumpster in the first place.
Federal lands, like municipal lands, are not exempt from these policies or prohibitions. Just so you know, if you wish to dumpster dive on federal land, you must have some sort of special use permit to do so. This is to prevent vandalism or other incidental damage to property of the federal government, which is a pretty large place and may already have so much garbage it doesn’t know what to do with it all.
Court Decisions Impacting Dumpster Diving in Pennsylvania
Over the past few decades, a couple of court cases have influenced the legal landscape of dumpster diving in Pennsylvania. In 1992, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court addressed the issue in Com. v. Jackson. In this case, the defendant was charged with defiant trespass after he was pulled over by the police while rifling through the contents of an unlocked dumpster placed on a lot owned by a company that had evicted a tenant and planned to tear down the building on the lot. The court ruled that the defendant did indeed commit defiant trespass on the property. The court held that the defendant committed defiant trespass because he had committed the trespass when he crossed the line into the property to retrieve the items in the dumpster. The court ruled that the defendant did not have any permission to be on the property and held that the owner of the property had the right to deny anyone entry into the areas of his property where he had a personal privacy interest. The court found that by placing the dumpster on the property, away from any of the buildings, the property owner had no intention of allowing people to rummage through it and thus had the right to charge the defendant with defiant trespass. In 2003, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania addressed the issue of dumpster diving in Com. v. Brown. In Brown, the defendant was arrested in 1995 for lifting items out of a dumpster and refusing to give them back to the trash collection service. He was charged with theft, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. Brown then made a motion to dismiss the charges due to the lack of evidence of ownership or right of possession on the part of the trash collection service. The court ruled that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to establish that the trash collection service owned the contents of the dumpster. The court ultimately held that the defendant committed the offenses of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. The court’s decision, however, concerned only the offense of theft by unlawful taking. The court ruled that the defendant’s theft of items from the dumpster was tantamount to stealing them directly from the property owner. The court saw this as no different than if the defendant had entered the premises of the property owner and had committed the same conduct. Both of these Pennsylvania court cases differ in their treatment of the legality of dumpster diving. Com. V. Jackson seemed to indicate that dumpster diving in Pennsylvania would always be illegal regardless of whether a dumpster was left in a personal privacy where the owner had a reasonable expectation of privacy, or where the dumpster was left in a place where the suspect was able to glean evidence that the items in the dumpster belonged to the business owner. Com. V. Brown, on the other hand, seemed to indicate that if more persuasive evidence of ownership was presented to the courts as to the items in a dumpster, then it would be likely that the court would deem the items considered "abandoned" that the property owner might otherwise have decided to discard, and thus would be deemed legal for the defendant to take. Given these conflicting precedents, one thing that is for certain is that a court may need to be involved to determine whether the items that a defendant is seeking to take are indeed lawful or unlawful to take and whether the defendant participated in an unlawful act.
Best Tips for Legal Dumpster Diving
If you’ve decided that dumpster diving is something you’d like to try, there are some important practical considerations. Follow the following practical advice to make sure you stay safe AND legal.
First, stay safe. This means being smart about your surroundings and approaching your project with a healthy level of respect. It’s recommended to go during business hours that the dumpsters in question will be in use — this means avoiding going during time periods on evenings or weekends that the dumpsters are likely be full of personnel. Always, always make sure you’re paying attention to who might be driving into or out of the area, and avert any distractions. Always ask permission from the property owner and provide them with a written waiver for permission forms or write something simple like "I hereby allow [insert your name] access to the dumpster" and add your signature at the bottom.
Another thing that goes hand in hand with being safe is being respectful. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by anything else that is going on in the lot, keep an eye on a watchful rear, and don’t get too involved in the project to the point that you don’t see the car that just pulled in . Also, don’t bury yourself in the dumpster, and keep your hands where they can be seen, without blocking the path of workers and loading and unloading with machinery, etc.
Depending on where you are in Pennsylvania the laws are a varying degree of restrictive — but the general rule of thumb is that you should be on the look-out for blue dumpsters only, as those are the waste bins that are usually not allowed to be used. If you do come across a dumpster that you think is "free for the taking", again, you don’t want to call unnecessary attention to yourself if you can avoid it; so "shop quietly" and once you’ve gone through it, move on.
Remember – also always read the labels on the trash. While most items are okay to take that don’t have any markings, like pizza boxes and other food items, if you find marked items, i.e., the skull and cross-bones symbol with the red line through it, don’t touch the marked items. This is hazardous waste that could result in the police being called.
If you know you’ll be going somewhere where it’s likely you may get some trouble for going through the bin, you might like to take someone along with you to assist, to keep watch and help the process along, and also be a voice of mouth if you run into any trouble while out on the lot.
Environmental and Ethical Issues
While dumpster diving is often done for financial reasons, there are also environmental reasons to encourage the practice. When fewer items are sent to a landfill, that space in the landfill is preserved and not filled with waste material. Reusing and recycling items, two things dumpster divers are very keen on, are also of great environmental benefit to the community.
Sadly, many people feel they can build a case against dumpster diving, without knowing the facts and without any even consideration for the nature of the items being thrown away. So many people throw away perfectly good items every day without any thought. By taking those items, reaching out to charities who can use them, or by giving them away themselves, those dumpster divers are doing more for the environment than they can realize. They also often end up saving charities money in the process.
On the other hand, some people do throw out items that are not very hygienic. For example, food products are frequently thrown out, but this is only a problem if the items have been opened or otherwise damaged. Dumpster divers need to be careful when it comes to food items, but if they are fresh and have not been opened, they are perfectly fine to eat.
What Are the Alternatives to Dumpster Diving
In addition to dumpster diving, there are many other ways to get second-hand goods for free or reduced prices, and to reduce waste. For instance, a movement in a number of major U.S. cities has been gaining popularity called "freeganism." It is described as, "a lifestyle based on minimizing waste and consumption." It may be best understood or described as "anti-consumerism." "Freegans" are typically defined by getting food ‘rescued’ from grocery stores and restaurants, or seeking to reduce their footprint via voluntary simplicity and the Minimalist Movement. There are also online communities that aggregate local goods for free, such as BuyNothingProject and BuyNothing (which are not officially affiliated). In either of these online freegan communities, an individual, family, or group can post something they want to get rid of, and others in the area can ask if they are interested. Littering is illegal in Pennsylvania, however litter is wasted food. Wasted food cannot typically be recited to as litter. A similar app to FreeCycle.com exists called Olio, which used to focus just on food , but still allows for other items to be posted. There are also other apps that combine location-based services with themes of second-hand or salvaged goods, such as Groundit, Adoptoftheday, and Offerr.
Paid apps exist that will enable you to manually scan barcodes to identify a discount which will work at certain stores. Websites and apps also exist that help you locate stores that have discounts or overstock. Bins exist where you can take unused items (often textiles and household goods) to be sent on to charities for you. There exist "plastic banks" where if you bring plastic grocery bags, you get points which you can trade-in for coupons or reduced purchases in local vendor stores. There exist certain retailers that offer discounts for bringing your own bottles, bags, or containers. Similarly, some doctors, dentists, or stores will also be able to give you rewards if you bring in plastic dental fare containers or packets. There are also apps that pay you money to recycle items. Apps such as Second Use, Trashfirst, and WeReap are all designed to promote recycling and seeks to redirect waste away from landfills. They offer paybacks like higher ranking coupons, reward points, and/or cash for prepping and collecting recyclable or reusable items.