Dumpster Diving for Beauty Products

Lol, that really gives a new spin to an unboxing video, girl peels wilted lettuce leaf off of lip liner and squeals, "it's almost unused! "

I saw a show a few years ago about people who were pretty much getting all of their things from dumpsters--fresh flowers, food, produce, etc. They showed them going around at night (there was an actual term for it but I can't remember--some were groups and others were individual/couples). They actually got quite a bit of decent looking stuff and it looked like the garbage bags were pretty clean. I know I have seen grocery stores dumping food into empty garbage bags (not bags that were used for other garbage). Not sure I would ever do that but they didn't seem to be sick and looked like average, clean people.

I'm not super bothered by it. She got a lot of cleansers and things the look like they hadn't even been opened. I don't think anyone should dip into used eyeshadow and lipstick, although back when I was in my early 20s I used to go to the makeup counter at my local drugstore to do my face up if I was going out after work! 

It takes a lot to gross me out, really. Andrew Zimmern did a piece on a volunteer group in SF that dumpster dives for food, then preps it and serves it to homeless and needy people for free, similar to a soup kitchen. That doesn't bother me - with cooking and washing food items, that doesn't bother me, and eating is necessary to live.

But dumpster diving for cosmetics that you would use, unsterilized, on your face makes me want to hurl.

They all use the same dumpster? I admittedly don't pay that much attention behind every strip mall, but the ones I have paid attention to, each business has its own dumpster. Plus I've worked at plenty of different subways when I was young, and we always had our own, not shared.

Portlandia clip:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuD1oDth6es

I wouldn't be doing it. I don't spend that much on make up and my health is worth more than a free eyeshadow with bacteria.

Our Ulta also has a salon, and I have watched the stylists each lunch back there when I'm getting a cut.  So, even if no food from other places made it in there, the leftover food trash from the workers, all the cut hair, foils from coloring, open and used hair products, dirty waxing strips (they wax), etc. are all in the Ulta dumpster.

If you want to wear cosmetics that may have come in contact with someone's waxed pubic hair, that is your prerogative.  To me, it is gross and disgusting.  

I wouldn't do it... most strip malls have shared dumpsters for the tenants, if I recall correctly. I worked for a medical device company that recycled parts off of dialysis machines, and threw the rest of the unused parts away. Random people quite often would go dumpster-diving thru there to find metal, copper wire, aluminum cans, etc. that they could recycle for $$. A couple doors down from our office suite there was a car-repair place, and some really grody, disgusting stuff got thrown into those dumpsters without being bagged up first.

I thought I also heard before where books would get thrown away in dumpsters behind either Barnes and Noble or Borders, but I also thought I heard it 'technically' isn't legal to take the stuff, either, because the company is writing it off as a loss, or something like that.

I could never dumpster-dive myself, OR be a homicide detective or crime scene investigator who had to do that part of the job.


ETA: just read the linked article, and while it was sort of interesting, it was totally one-sided; I wish they had looked for some input from the store-owner's perspective. There are ALL SORTS of food-safety laws that surround 'best by' dates, expiration dates, etc. and the companies don't have any CHOICE in throwing the items away. It's the regulations they have to adhere to. 

There are a lot of people on Youtube that dumpster dive at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Justice, Michael's, Ulta, Sally's, etc. Some of the stuff they find is amazing.

There was a show on Food Network about all the fruit and veggies that get thrown out because it wasn't "perfect". A bunch of the contestants on the show now wanted to pick the underdog ugly fruit at the store. I would, if it weren't the same high price as the nice looking fruit...

Not that that has anything to do with make up. Our country throws out a lot of perfectly good stuff, you would think they could clearance it, or give it to thrift stores instead...

I already said I wasn't going to try it, and they don't wax pubes at Ulta, at least not at one I've ever been in. But you can be RIGHT because I know you won't rest until you know you've had the last word on this subject.

Make up artists clean all of their brushes and other tools between clients. And they don't swipe lipstick straight from the tube on clients one after the other.

Okay, but seriously... I REALLY want someone who does this to come post on this thread. Please please please, we'll be good (we'll try to be good?)!! Peatlejuice...