Rich pickings for scavengers when college kids graduate and move on

Valentino sneakers that retail for US$980 (S$1,255). A Tovala toaster oven, originally US$390. A Clear Home Design Lucite table, which would have cost US$899 - except in this case, it was free.

- Alexander Nazaryan

Valentino sneakers that retail for US$980 (S$1,255). A Tovala toaster oven, originally US$390. A Clear Home Design Lucite table, which would have cost US$899 except in this case, it was free.

Ms. Lena Geller found those items, and many others, in the rubbish dump of her apartment building in Durham, North Carolina, after scores of Duke University students moved out at the end of the spring semester.

"It feels wrong for this much stuff to have been thrown out," Ms. Geller wrote in an article for INDY Week, where she's a staff writer. She kept a spreadsheet of the roughly 70 items she found among the rubbish, estimating, after doing some research, that they originally retailed for US$6,600 in total.

"I've had a few friends text me after reading the piece, like, 'We should put together some kind of business plan,'" Ms. Geller, 26, said in an interview. "It does feel like most of the stuff that I got was just sitting there. I do think there's a lot of money to be made."

Every year, as graduation season ends, many departing students throw away or abandon expensive household items and luxury goods instead of donating or taking them back home. Local residents and scavengers are stepping in, rescuing items to reuse or sell, then touting their finds on social media.

FINDS POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA Some scavengers post haul videos of their finds on social media. Late spring sees an explosion of such content because that is when college students move out of their dormitories. "The stuff college kids waste is crazy," a TikTok user with the handle @bethanytaylorr posted in May. Her 27-second video of rummaging through the dumpster at an unidentified college and rescuing household items has been viewed nearly 4 million times.

Such social media posts can serve as both advertisements and how-to guides.