[Neoshadow42]

I would never do it, but I lived with a guy a number of years ago, and he would religiously dumpster-dive to the point where he never did regular grocery shopping.

I rarely ate the fresh food he'd bring back, especially because the guy loved seafood, but he would often come back with boxes and boxes of perfectly fine food, drink & random things for around the house like cutlery, tools, whatever. Boxed & Canned food, cereals, etc.

He once cycled home with what I can only describe as a pallet of Coca Cola.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

When I was a teen, my friends and I would dumpster dive the Pepsi distributor. We'd usually find stuff like Diet Dr. Pepper, but sometimes there'd be Pepsi or Mt. Dew. We'd usually load up my friend's trunk with Diet Dr. Pepper and take them out to his ranch to shoot them. Also I found some old Macs at my school one time, that was sweet

[Scoundreller]

I just don’t understand why they don’t drain them. Gotta be cheaper than landfilling/tipping fees, but maybe they’re sending them to a recycler that does that part for them.

[bombcar]

Time. It costs the dude five minutes to dump an entire expired pallet and opening each can to drain it would take hours. It’ll all be compressed in the machines anyway, even if they bother recycling ( they often don’t).

[don-code]

I also lived with someone who did this - he called himself a "freegan". My roommates and I frequently worried about him unintentionally ingesting rat poison.

[andai]

Same! (I think I lived with the same guy ;)

You'd be amazed what perfectly good things stores throw away because it's past the best before date.

[doubled112]

I can't be the only person who thinks the Coca-Cola is just fine a day past that number.

[sct202]

There are salvage grocery stores that sell products like that. They're usually easier to find if you're near an Amish settlement.