A dumpster diver says she's found $2MILLION worth of thrown-away goods - including a $500 Dyson hairdryer, a $400 Le Creuset cookware and a $500 robot vacuum.
Jennifer Lleras, 40, started digging around in the dumpsters 20 years ago at college.
And while she's now a full time marketing agency owner with enough money to live on, she enjoys "rescuing" goods thrown away by stores so they don't go to waste.
She sorts and donates most of what she finds to charities, schools, women's shelters and libraries, but sometimes keeps "treasures".
Jennifer said she once found a $500 Dyson air wrap hairdryer, complete with all the attachments - in perfect condition - as well as a $500 Roomba vacuum cleaner.
She's also saved a $400 Le Creuset Dutch oven, designer handbags and pricey jewellery.
Jennifer's home is now kitted out with a full home security system, robot vacuums on every floor, a voice-activated bin and high-end cookware - all sourced from dumpsters.
She often finds giant bags full of unworn clothes, beauty supplies, non-perishable food packages, books and school supplies.
Jennifer said "nothing makes me happier than when I'm finding things I can donate" - but loves to find the odd luxury item that she'd never buy for herself, too.
She sometimes ends up in tears at how wasteful big retail suppliers can be.
Mum-of-two Jennifer, from Baltimore, Maryland, US, said: "I find it fun - it's like treasure hunting.
"I go maybe once a week - I just go whenever I'm out running an errand, I'll go check out the dumpsters.
"I have even gifted dumpster finds to family before - my sister loves when I find decorations and kitchenware to go in her home.
"I don't think it saves me a ton of money because I keep things I like, not things I need.
"But thinking of everything I've found, it works out about $100k a year."
Jennifer first started the hobby after an art professor suggested she have a hunt through a dumpster for materials.
Now married with a house, two teenage children and a successful marketing business, she still likes to have a rummage when she sees a dumpster.
When she finds a haul of goods, she loads them into her truck before taking them back to her home to sort through.
Even if items have sustained a bit of damage in the dumpster, she'll do DIY to make them useable again before she distributes them.
Jennifer said: "I do keep a bit for myself but I'm not a hoarder.
"My house isn't cluttered but if I find things I need or can use, I will hold onto them.
"You can't dumpster dive anywhere - Maryland has quite relaxed laws around this so it's OK for me to do here.
"I do get asked if I'm poor and that's why I do it - but it's just a hobby for me.
"I do it more because I can help others than myself."
Jennifer said: "It is really fun but sometimes it does make me sad - once I found a dumpster full of kids art supplies. That really affected me.
"I get a lot of feedback from the places I donate to. They're very thankful."
Jennifer Lleras, 40, started digging around in the dumpsters 20 years ago at college.
And while she's now a full time marketing agency owner with enough money to live on, she enjoys "rescuing" goods thrown away by stores so they don't go to waste.
She sorts and donates most of what she finds to charities, schools, women's shelters and libraries, but sometimes keeps "treasures".
Jennifer said she once found a $500 Dyson air wrap hairdryer, complete with all the attachments - in perfect condition - as well as a $500 Roomba vacuum cleaner.
She's also saved a $400 Le Creuset Dutch oven, designer handbags and pricey jewellery.
Jennifer's home is now kitted out with a full home security system, robot vacuums on every floor, a voice-activated bin and high-end cookware - all sourced from dumpsters.
She often finds giant bags full of unworn clothes, beauty supplies, non-perishable food packages, books and school supplies.
Jennifer said "nothing makes me happier than when I'm finding things I can donate" - but loves to find the odd luxury item that she'd never buy for herself, too.
She sometimes ends up in tears at how wasteful big retail suppliers can be.
Mum-of-two Jennifer, from Baltimore, Maryland, US, said: "I find it fun - it's like treasure hunting.
"I go maybe once a week - I just go whenever I'm out running an errand, I'll go check out the dumpsters.
"I have even gifted dumpster finds to family before - my sister loves when I find decorations and kitchenware to go in her home.
"I don't think it saves me a ton of money because I keep things I like, not things I need.
"But thinking of everything I've found, it works out about $100k a year."
Jennifer first started the hobby after an art professor suggested she have a hunt through a dumpster for materials.
Now married with a house, two teenage children and a successful marketing business, she still likes to have a rummage when she sees a dumpster.
When she finds a haul of goods, she loads them into her truck before taking them back to her home to sort through.
Even if items have sustained a bit of damage in the dumpster, she'll do DIY to make them useable again before she distributes them.
Jennifer said: "I do keep a bit for myself but I'm not a hoarder.
"My house isn't cluttered but if I find things I need or can use, I will hold onto them.
"You can't dumpster dive anywhere - Maryland has quite relaxed laws around this so it's OK for me to do here.
"I do get asked if I'm poor and that's why I do it - but it's just a hobby for me.
"I do it more because I can help others than myself."
Jennifer said: "It is really fun but sometimes it does make me sad - once I found a dumpster full of kids art supplies. That really affected me.
"I get a lot of feedback from the places I donate to. They're very thankful."
Category
đŸ˜¹
FunTranscript
00:00 You guys are never going to f***ing believe me when I tell you there's whole Lego sets.
00:11 They filled the whole bottom of the dumpster with stuff, with toys that they're getting
00:18 rid of.
00:19 But then they put all this heavy stuff on top of it so nobody could access it or get
00:24 it.
00:25 I can't believe you can't do this.
00:29 You can't throw away whole boxes of unopened Legos.
00:33 This is crazy.
00:36 And markers, puzzles, a ton of these.
00:44 I'm seriously, I'm like holding back tears right now.
00:47 This should all be donated.
00:49 And I'm also getting ready to cry because I'm going to get to donate this.
00:52 Alright, we're at the Aggressive Party City dumpster.
00:58 Holy s***.
01:02 Oh my god.
01:04 Oh my god, this is insane.
01:07 Get ready for my husband to be aggravated with me because I'm going to fill my truck
01:11 up with party supplies.
01:14 Oh my god y'all, these are heavy.
01:19 How much, somebody look this up, how much are these?
01:21 These are like so heavy.
01:23 Holy s***.
01:26 Look at these cute little eat drink be happy signs.
01:32 Oh my god, who needs streamers?
01:37 This is ridiculous.
01:42 So it looks like I'm totally going to find something.
01:45 Yes!
01:46 Oh my goodness, they threw out, oh oh oh look, donation alert.
01:50 Are you kidding me?
01:52 Look they threw out all these play sets.
01:54 They threw one of those out last week.
01:57 Alright so there are 26 of these.
01:59 So these will get donated to this church group that I know that does a special Christmas
02:04 shop for low income parents.
02:06 And they can just take whatever toys they want.
02:08 So these are going to be for some really lucky kids.
02:12 Alright so this is what we're working with trying to get out.
02:20 So yeah just like last week all these party supplies I will be donating to underprivileged
02:27 kids.
02:28 Cause party supplies are super expensive.
02:32 Alright so how is this for a haul?
02:34 I have enough here to throw a million parties.
02:38 And I can tell you right now this is not $100 worth of party supplies and what I've already
02:44 put in the truck.
02:45 This is like $1000.
02:49 So if anybody was wondering these Olaf and Sven, you put air in them.
02:55 They're bouncy balls.
02:56 Those are so freaking cute.
02:57 Alright I know I was just here yesterday but they had so many non-perishable items in here
03:05 and I was able to stop at the food pantry and I was like I better come back just in
03:10 case.
03:11 Look at the ramen.
03:12 Look at the ramen.
03:13 My food pantry asks specifically for ramen.
03:17 I need my grabber.
03:19 Alright so it did rain so I just want to make sure nothing is wet.
03:27 So I grabbed another.
03:28 So those are, those are damp.
03:29 So I'm going to actually take them out of the box.
03:30 I swear to god this pharmacy throws away a pantry's worth of food every single freaking
03:45 day.
03:46 We need to talk about this.
03:47 I get sick of it.
03:48 People, it is a myth that you can get sued for donating food.
03:55 If you're a restaurant, if you're a business, if you're a person, you are protected by the
04:01 Emerson Good Samaritan Act if you are doing good will.
04:06 If you're donating food, if you're trying to reduce waste, as long as you're taking
04:12 proper safety precautions and things like that, there's no reason why restaurants and
04:20 businesses like Walgreens can't take the food that they're scraping from their shelves off
04:27 into a garbage bag and throwing away.
04:31 I don't know how they do it.
04:32 I honestly don't know how they sleep at night.
04:35 It's crazy to me.
04:36 All right, so I just hit a jackpot at the five below.
04:47 There's so much stuff in here.
04:50 I'm going to definitely have to do some sort of haul of some sort.
04:58 There's a lot of food, which I would love to take all of it, but I'm in such a rush
05:08 and I don't want to be late to where I'm headed.
05:13 So I'm just like desperately going to get as much as I can.