Recycling is one of the solutions to the garbage problem. Before trash gets to landfills, discards can be salvaged, though not all of them. Other than scavengers, there are the dumpster divers who do the dirty job of picking usable items out of waste bins. 

Best friends Carina and Jessica, both residents of North Carolina, USA, are full-time dumpster divers. They rarely shop as they get almost everyhing they need from dumpsters. 

The two occupational therapists only scoop up premium trash instead of randomly diving in dumpsters anywhere. Carina and Jessica target only campus dumpsters and time their dives during college move-out schedules of local universities such as Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the New York Post (NYP) reported. 

Goodies ditched by students that the duo has taken home over the years included $1,000 Balenciaga sneakers, a MacBook, flat screen TVs, lamps, rugs, deli meat cutters, mirrors, headboards, dining and living room sets, antique tables, couches, designer jeans, a genuine Coach leather jacket and accessories from a luxury French jewelry house.

“We literally haven’t bought cleaning supplies in four years,” Carina told NYP. “We don’t really have to buy any of that stuff because the kids throw it away at the end of the year.”

Some of the items that they don’t need are sold online, with the proceeds going for vacations and shared with charity groups. Carina and Jessica also monetize their hobby through their social media page, which has 24,000 followers. 

Meanwhile, viral videos of an empty plastic bottle collector in China draw as many as 10 million viewers who love to see his cute sidekick. 

Xiaobai the dog’s popularity has helped his collector-master earn thousands of yuan over the years through recycling and social media content, SCMP reports. 

Local shops set aside discarded bottles for Xiaobai to pick up, as they find it amusing that a dog is doing his thing to help planet Earth. 

Once, the French bulldog became unhappy when his owner did not let him out of the house for his own safety. 

But Xiaobai was back to his old energetic self when he was allowed to go outside and resume his daily bottle-collecting routine, according to SCMP.