Dumpster Diving Laws are a Matter of Location

Dumpster diving has been around for years.  From large corporations to Hollywood stars, to private individuals, no one is immune.  These attacks upon our privacy have brought about rapid growth in the sales of office and home paper shredders, as well as a body of case law related to what has become known as dumpster diving.

One of the most noted dumpster diving cases, California v. Greenwood, came before the Supreme Court in 1988.  In this case, police obtained Greenwood's trash from his trash collector and found items indicative of narcotic use and used the evidence to obtain search warrants for the house.  The State Superior Court had dismissed the charges against Greenwood stating that searching the trash was a violation of Fourth Amendment, which does not allow the search and seizure of garbage left outside the home without a warrant.  The Supreme Court of the United States overturned this decision in a 6-2 vote.  The foundation of their argument was that one cannot reasonable expect privacy of garbage that is left out for pickup.  Additionally, they state "What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection"

The implications of this verdict, though do not provide free access to all garbage.  In the case of the United States v. Certain Real Property, the dependents trash was scheduled to be picked up, but the position of the trash was not readily accessible to the public, because it was located on the defendants property.  In this case, it was decided that a warrant was required, since the only way to access the defendants trash was by trespassing on his property.

While both of the cases illustrated above dealt with police officers obtaining trash to prosecute a case, dumpster diving by thieves is a real concern.  With the increase in identity theft and fraud, the need for properly disposing of confidential papers has become of tantamount importance, and unless you have a wood burning fireplace, there is no better way to dispose of private information than by sending it through a paper shredder.