The law in terms of 'dumpster diving'

Because dumpsters are usually located on private premises people may occasionally get in trouble for trespassing while dumpster diving, though the law is enforced with varying degrees of rigor. Dumpster diving per se is often legal when not specifically prohibited by law. Abandonment of property is another principle of law which applies to recovering materials via dumpster diving. Police (and possibly other) searches of dumpsters and like discards are also generally not violations; evidence seized in this way has been permitted in many criminal trials. The doctrine is less well established in regard to civil litigation.

Companies run by private investigators specializing in dumpster diving have sprung up as a result of the need for discreet, undetected retrieval of documents and evidence for civil and criminal trials. Private investigators have also written books on "P.I. technique" in which dumpster diving or its equivalent "wastebasket recovery" figures prominently.

• In the United States The California v. Greenwood case in the U.S. Supreme Court held that there is no common law expectation of privacy fordiscarded materials. There are however limits to what can legally be taken from a company's refuse. In a 1983 Minnesota case involving the theft of customer lists from a garbage can, Tennant Company v. Advance Machine Company, the owner of the discarded information was awarded$500,000 in damages.

• Dumpster diving in England and Wales may qualify as theft within the Theft Act 1968 or as common-law theft in Scotland, though there is very little enforcement in practice.

• In Italy, a law issued in 2000 declared dumpster diving to be legal.

• In Sweden, the contents of a dumpster is the property of the owner of the dumpster so taking items from a dumpster is technically theft.

• In Germany, the contents of a dumpster is the property of the owner of the dumpster so taking items from a dumpster is technically theft. However the police will routinely disregard dumpster divers due to the zero value of the items - there is only one case known of an actual prosecution: the thieves were arrested on assumed burglary as they had surmounted a fence and the supermarket owner made a complaint on theft later.

• In Canada, The Trespass to Property Act - legislation dating back to the British North America Act of 1867 - grants property owners and security guards the power to ban anyone from their premises, for any reason, permanently. This is done by issuing a notice to the intruder, who will only be breaking the law on return. A recent case involved a police officer who retrieved a discarded weapon from trash as evidence; the Judge ruled it as legal without a warrant, so some have speculated this is enough backing for anyone to raid garbage.

• A Belgian dumpster diver and eco-activist nicknamed Ollie was detained for a month for dumpster diving accused of theft and burglary. He was arrested on 25 February, 2009, for taking food out of a dumpster of AD Delhaize in Bruges. His trial evoked protests in Belgium against restrictions of taking discarded food.