Couple Go Dumpster Diving Behind Dollar General, Find Haul Worth $600

A New Jersey couple were left stunned by what they found after going dumpster diving behind a Dollar General store.

A Statista survey of nearly 1,000 U.S. adults found that 21 percent of respondents had tried dumpster diving, the practice of searching through trash containers for unopened and edible food as well as items of value, at least once, while 13 percent were interested in trying it.

For mother-of-two Julia Matthews-Reszler, dumpster diving is something that runs in the family.

“My grandfather, George Matthews, grew up needing to dumpster dive and trash pick for his family as a kid in Elizabeth, New Jersey. As he got older, he continued to do so even when he was okay financially,” Matthews-Reszler told Newsweek.

A keen environmentalist who believed too many perfectly good things ended up in the trash, Matthews-Reszler has memories of joining him as a child on summer days to collect cans off the side of the highway to be sold as scrap.

Often that money would go towards taking her grandma, Barbara, out dancing on the Avon Boardwalk. George sadly passed away in April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, meaning he didn’t get a normal funeral service for his family to mourn his loss.

However, Matthews-Reszler and her husband Brandon have continued his legacy.

“Every day I dumpster dive, I think about how he would be smiling down on me, happy to know that I am making a difference, however small,” she said.

Matthews-Reszler has been making a pretty big difference of late. The haul she and her husband found behind a Dollar General store in New Jersey is a prime example.

Newsweek reached out to Dollar General on multiple occasions for comment.

Looking through the dumpster they were shocked to discover many of the items in there were not even out of date.

“Half was thrown out for being past date by a few days, the oldest ‘Best by’ date was from the start of January 2025,” Matthews-Reszler said. “But there were still a few products whose best by dates were not until October 2025.”

The staggering array of unopened products found, which Matthews-Reszler estimates amounted to around $600 worth of food and other goods, is listed below:

Though it represents an amazing find for any avid dumpster diver, Matthews-Reszler said discovering a haul like this also “feels like a punch to the gut.”

“On one hand, finding $600 worth of food in the trash, brand new name-brand clothing, and so many housing essentials, is a rush. But on the other hand, a flood of grief quickly takes over as we realize how much is going to waste,” she said.

Matthews-Reszler believes many Americans “cannot comprehend the gravity of the situation” when it comes to how much is wasted each and every day. Though Brandon has always been a keen environmentalist, dumpster diving has opened her eyes to it.

“It takes Brandon and I an average of 5 minutes to pull out hundreds of dollars’ worth of brand-new products from one dumpster. Now how many dumpsters do you think are in America? The world? Where is all this trash going? Who’s the problem? Overproduction and overconsumption are a huge issue,” she said.

These questions persist at a time when, like many Americans, Matthews-Reszler and her family are struggling to make ends meet.

“My husband is an extremely hard worker with a good job, and he is a fantastic father,” she said. “But even with a great job, we are living paycheck-to-paycheck, I stay at home with our toddlers because daycare here would be over my yearly salary.”

Thankfully, all of the food they found that day has been put to good use. Some was donated to friends, other bits to the local community. They have also given some of the snacks out to New Jersey’s homeless population.

“We understand this type of food is not the healthiest, but many of these products are name brand, and you should see the smiles it brings to those who needed a pick me up,” Matthews-Reszler said.

The couple have already set up a TikTok account, @trash.monsters4 and regularly post their discoveries to Reddit under the handle u/Common_Relation7694. They have received responses from all over the world, which has made them realize the waste issue is a global problem.

Matthews-Reszler is keen to stress that every item they scavenge is cleaned and disinfected before use. Though dumpster diving is legal in all 50 states, the rules vary from county-to-county, so anyone interested in following their example should check their county’s bylaws.

She also has a message for the critics too, be respectful.

“We know this is not everyone’s cup of tea,” Matthews-Reszler said. “But remember, there are people hungry, and if dumpster diving is a way for them to find perfectly good food to get them by, please respect.”