Craziest Things Garbage Collectors Have Found In The Trash

1. Animal carcasses

Image source/MJ Pest ControlOne American man was unfortunate enough to discover the illegal disposal of several skinned racoons whilst on shift as a garbage collector. Whilst you may wonder where else you could dispose of something like this, there are many haul away dumpsters dedicated to organic matter which would have made this mans job much less distressing.

2. Rat sacrifice

Image source/ FlickrOne of the weirdest discoveries in this list comes in from a New York man. It isn't overly rare to see dead dogs or cats be thrown away, but when you see a 3x3 bag dripping in blood from a tree, alarm bells start ringing. The bag was found to contain around 75 dead rats, resulting in the police arriving.

3. Several Gallons of Urine

Image source/ WikipediaYou would think by now people would just use the toilet, however one garbage collector discovered several jugs of urine behind one residential building. Not knowing what the liquid was at first, the man soon discovered that was cold urine whilst trying too dispose of it. Apparently, the urine came from an undocumented family that was trying to hide how many people were living in the unit.

4. An entire wireless video surveillance system

Image source/ Safe and Sound SecuritySelf claimed professional dumpster diver, Matt Malone, was lucky to enough to discover a full Uniden Wireless Video Surveillance apparatus. With one of these racking up to more than $400, it is no surprise that Malone claims to make more than $250,000 per year. If you're willing to brave some of the more unpleasant finds, then this job would be a goldmine for you.

5. Fridge full of rotten fish

Image source/MediumThis smell would have been enough to make anybody throw up. Two men were tasked with moving a fridge known to have around 30-40 pounds of chinook and halibut stored inside. However, once it was moved to the new destination, they forgot to plug it in, leaving an unimaginably bad smell for the garbage collector, who as a result tossed his lunch back up.

6. Used toilet paper

Image source/Medical News TodayDo people really not know now to use the toilet? One former garbage man claimed he would regularly have garbage bags break, only to spill out copious amounts of used, dirty toilet paper. As disgusting as this may appear, the thought of using toilet paper and not placing it straight into the toilet seems more concerning to me.

7. Lots and lots of onions

Image source/ The Food InstituteOne garbage collector was shocked to find an entire dumpster packed up to the top in raw onions. It makes you wonder how somebody could attain such a large amount of onions, and what on earth were they planning to do with them? Anyway it seems like an awful waste.

8. Three inches of milk

Image source/ BBC Good FoodFollowing on from the point above, the same garbage collector also was unfortunate enough to discover a three inch pool of rotten milk swimming around the bottom of a dumpster. Despite milk being a part of a healthy diet, there is nothing healthy about the lumpy, rotting, cheesy milk this poor man had to clean out.

9. Bloody heads

Image source/ FlickrOne garbage collector will have had the fright of his life when he accidentally opened a garbage bag, only to find ten bloody heads spill out. Luckily for him, they were just mannequin heads which had been recently used in a local haunted house. I would have hated to have seen his reaction if they had been real heads!

10. Box of live rabbits

Image source/Squeaks and NibblesUnlike many of the items on this list, this box of live rabbits certainly didn't intend to end up on a garbage site. When the owner mistakenly managed to the put the box in the bin, her hysterical reaction upon arriving on the site clearly displayed that she had made mistake. Luckily all the rabbits were in perfect health.

11. Crystal meth

Image source/Thermo Fisher ScientificWhat may appear to be like a scene from Breaking Bad, did actually take place for one garbage collector. The man was working for company operating in garbage disposal, which kept receiving complaints about bin bags burning peoples skin. After further inspection they discovered that the neighbour of the customer they was working for had a meth lad, which disposed its toxic chemical in his bin.

12. Ashes of the deceased

Image source/Funeral CompanionNot everyday at work do you expect to find the ashes of a human body. For one garbage collector, his day became all the more weird when he discovered a person's ashes in one of the standard plastic tubs funeral homes normally give out. Thankfully, the person's information was still on the side of the tub, helping the garbage collector return it to the family.

13. Veteran grave markers

Image source/WikipediaWe will never be able to repay our ancestors for what they went through during the first and second world war, so when one garbage collector discovers a bunch of brass grave medallions in some recycling bins, you're grateful that those veterans who fought can hopefully rest a little easier.

14. Diamond rings

Image source/ Blue NileOne woman from New York City mistakenly threw her diamond ring into the trash. As a result of this, she made the waste companies from Manhattan to Fresh Kills landfill grind to a halt and have the thousands of tons of trash searched through. Luckily she managed to find it, much to the displeasure of many garbage collectors I suppose.

15. Guns and ammunition

Image source/WorthPointA garbage collector from the 90s, who lived in a small town that was mostly Italian, claimed to discover what appeared to be a large wet box which had broken apart to reveal submachine guns and magazines of ammo. Afraid that the weapons could belong to powerful gangsters, he decided to turn a blind eye for his own good.

16. Mountain bikes and Egyptian papyrus paintings

Image source/Resource MagazineDespite the drastic contrast between both these items, one garbage collector back in 2002 was fortunate enough to come across this impressive haul. Not only did he find two framed Egyptian papyrus paintings and three mountain bikes, but he also amassed 12 working VCRs.

17. Record collection

Image source/uShipAlthough records are fairly old school now, they are still a great item to collect and can sell for lots of money. When one lucky garbage collector stumbled across over 1000 records, he must have thought he hit the jackpot. For the younger generation who use Spotify, or any other music platform, you may be shocked to realise that you actually had to buy records to listen to music.

18. Tag Heuer watch

Image source/Tag HeuerTag Heuer are renowned globally for their genius Swiss engineering and superbly high quality of watch. So for one of them to fall in the hands of a Northern Irish garbage collector, his dreams must have come true. I'm sure the many years of sieving through trash was worth him finding this treasure.

19. Second world war cord-breaking machine

Image source/Smithsonian MagazineOne garbage collector, who previously worked in a recycling plant, somehow managed to get his hands on an Enigma Machine. This was what the Nazis would use to communicate with one another during World War II. It's code was believed to be unbreakable, mostly downto the 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 different settings!

20. A dead horse

Image source/CX JourneyOne Garbage collector working back in the early 90s would have a regular stop at a veterinary clinic. An a certain summers day they were completing the routine stop when they found a fully grown dead horse on top of the dumpster. Initially refusing to take the horse, he returned the week after to find the horse inside the dumpster and bloated from rot.

21. A live grenade

Image source/Aero CornerAs unpleasant as half-eaten food or decaying animals may seem, I'm sure all garbage collectors would take that over a live grenade any day. A garbage collector working at a recycling plant discovered an undetonated, but very much live grenade on shift. The discovery resulted in the whole plant being shut down until the bomb squad gave the all clear.

22. Photo album with a knife in the middle

Image source/PixelsIm sure that one garbage collector won't forget his time as a summer student when he one day managed to find a family photo album. The only issue with this photo album was it contained a six inch knife lodged through the middle of it. Despite nobody getting to the bottom of what went on, it definitely radiates major bad vibes.

23. A bag full of arcade tokens

Image source/OMGeekGrowing up in the arcade era, it would have been every kids dream come true to discover what one garbage collector found one day. Whilst working in the 90s, thus garbage collector found a huge sack full of arcade tokens. Whilst their value today would be pretty worthless, back in the day it would have been like winning the jackpot.

24. A whole load of books

Image source/Neil PasrichaAn interesting story comes from Turkish garbage collectors, who would find good use from the books they collected and saved from incineration. Over time, they saved and return over 20,000 books from the incinerator. The books would go on to make it into library's for people to carry on reading.

25. Trading cards

Image source/Den of GeekBack in the early 2000s, hundreds of uncut sheets of holographic dragon ball z trading cards were found in the trash by a garbage collector. The cards are a part of the popular anime show which has been running since 1989 and has over 290 episodes to watch.

26. A human gallbladder

Image source/Men's HealthThere have been some interesting items on this list, but this could be up there with the weirdest. This story comes from a contracted garbage collector who worked in removing hazardous waste from hospitals. A gallbladder was accidentally thrown away, as it was meant to be tested for cancer. The result was a three hour search through the dumpster in order to find this lost organ.

27. Sex Toy

Image source/The GuardianOne mans trash is another mans... let's not go into too much detail on this one. A garbage collector claims to discovered a rather large sex toy whilst on shift. What's even better about this story is he thought rather then disposing of it properly, he would stick it on the front of his truck for everyone to see.

28. Cash

Image source/N26An English garbage collector stumbled upon the equivalent of what would be $4,000 in a cereal box. The man was clearing out a local gypsy sight, where he found the cereal box loaded with cash, which must have been accidentally disposed of when leaving the site. Luckily, the money was successfully tracked down to the rightful owner

29. Famous cartoon drafts

Image source/PinterestAfter hauling garbage from a Hollywood back lot, two garbage collectors found animation cells of Woody Woodpecker and Buzz Buzzard. These are transparent sheets that can be drawn on and used for cartoon production. This would be a pretty cool find, especially if you had grown up watching all the Disney cartoons.

30. Usable building material

Image source/EconomeThis one may not have the wow factor like some of the others on this list, but it's still baffling why so much perfectly useable glass and precept boards would just be tossed. According to garbage collector Matt Malone, who has previously featured on this list, it isn't a rare sight at all to see perfectly usable materials being wasted.