Are Dumpster Divers Identity Thieves? (Post by guest blogger Christina Nellemann)

Today, Christina Nellemann is our guest blogger. She lives in the Reno area and has written about Dumpster Diving in the past for the Sierra Club's Sierra Magazine. You can read the article she wrote for them here: Talkin' Trash: Down in the Dumpster.

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As someone who has Dumpster dived in the past and continues to look out for perfectly good items that have been thrown in the trash, I feel I can recognize a big difference between Dumpster divers and identity thieves.

While researching my article for the Sierra Club, I spoke to dozens of people who Dumpster dive and found them to be educated, bright, creative and entrepreneurial. Many Dumpster divers are sometimes able to furnish their home, feed their families and make money selling items they have found in the trash. I think it is brilliant when someone can fix and sell or reuse something that another person has no use for.

What I did not find from these people was the desire to steal personal information. In fact, most of them who had found personal information such as credit card or bank statements were shocked that people were not shredding their statements. As a sometime diver, I have no desire to steal someone's personal information or participate in any kind of identity theft. I wouldn't even know how to start!

In short, Dumpster diving is for environmentalists and identity theft is for thieves.

Please, rather than throwing out items you don't want, take them to a local thrift store, give them to charity or take them down to the Really, Really Free Market in downtown Reno. Someone is sure to get some use out of what you don't want.

Really, Really Free Market Link:

http://tinyurl.com/6e52sw

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In addition to being a sometime diver, Christina Nellemann has the design company Feline Design. You can read more about her design inspiration and dreams at her blog, The Nest Or view her professional organization and decluttering blog: www.declutterlife.blogspot.com. If you are interested in tiny houses, she writes a weekly post for The Tiny House Blog by Kent Griswold.