Plastic recycling facts

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. According to The National Museum of American History, this popular slogan, with its iconic three arrows forming a triangle, embodied a national call to action to save the environment in the 1970s. In that same decade, the first Earth Day happened, the EPA was formed and Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, encouraging recycling and conservation of resources, Enviro Inc. reported.

According to Forbes, the Three R’s sustainability catch-phrase, and the recycling cause it bolstered, remain synonymous with the U.S. environmental movement itself. There’s only one problem: despite being touted as one of the most important personal actions that individuals can take to help the planet, “recycling” – as currently carried out in the U.S.

Dumpster diving, the act of rummaging through commercial or residential waste to find usable items, has long been a source of debate and contention, both in terms of its ethics and its legality. Here, we take a closer look at the legal stance on dumpster diving across various states in the U.S.

The Ethical Implications of Dumpster Diving

Many proponents of dumpster diving see it not just as a means of procuring items but also as an eco-friendly initiative, helping reduce waste. They argue that if items are still usable, they should not be discarded. Critics, however, raise concerns about the safety and hygiene of items retrieved from dumpsters. The ethical debate revolves around waste reduction versus the potential health risks associated with reusing discarded items.