Carter Stevens turned dumpster diving into a lucrative venture, bringing in roughly $140,000 in total sales between September 2025 and September 2026. US Top News and Analysis (cnbc.com) reported that the 31-year-old salvages discarded items from trash bins near office parks and luxury condominiums in Nashville, Tennessee, cleaning them up and selling them on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
From Trash to Treasure
Stevens finds a wide variety of items, ranging from hand-crafted Persian rugs and high-end office chairs to samurai swords. He also sources about 90% of his shipping supplies, such as cardboard boxes and packing tape, directly from the trash, which helps keep his business costs low. The sheer volume of waste in the country remains astonishing, he notes, as people constantly throw away valuable items.
While he sometimes secures permission from building management by marketing himself as a junk removal service, he often navigates corporate rubbish bins while dodging security guards and rotting food. He respects property boundaries, stating he leaves items behind whenever security or property owners ask him to vacate. His work mirrors the broader junk removal sector in the U.S., where thousands of businesses operate from independent side hustles to large franchises.
Overcoming Personal Hardships
Stevens grew up in Nashville as the son of a five-time Grammy Award-winning music producer. During his college years, an addiction to prescription Adderall led him to drop out in 2018. Lacking a degree made finding full-time work difficult, though his parents occasionally provided emergency financial support while expecting him to learn self-reliance. Inspired by YouTube influencers, he initially tried reselling vintage clothing from thrift shops, but inconsistent returns and spending habits fueled by his addiction derailed his progress.
After his parents funded a rehabilitation program in 2021, Stevens continued struggling with reckless spending, purchasing luxury items like expensive sandals and a down payment on a Mercedes-AMG sedan that he eventually lost. By June 2023, he could no longer afford rent, leading him to live in a storage unit and briefly in his car. This period of homelessness forced him to change his financial habits, and with a small loan from a cousin in October 2023, he rented an apartment and stuck to a strict budget.
His dumpster diving journey began five months later when he found a discarded pair of Nike Air Force Ones near a gas station, cleaned them up, and sold them for $35. Realizing the potential of salvaging trash, he quickly expanded his efforts.
Scaling the Salvage Business
Office environments prove especially profitable during corporate downsizing events. In one of his biggest scores, Stevens hauled away 190 high-end Steelcase office chairs from an overflowing office park dumpster, selling the majority in bulk on Facebook Marketplace for $17,000 and the rest individually for an additional $10,600, according to documents. Near luxury apartment complexes, he has uncovered working electronics, power tools, and furniture from brands like West Elm.
Operating alone and keeping travel distances short to save on gas, Stevens acknowledges that his income fluctuates heavily depending on a few large hauls. Because he does not view this career as permanently sustainable, he saves as much money as possible and studies real estate wholesaling as a potential future path. Even so, he continues to check trash bins for hidden valuables, admitting that his curiosity keeps him coming back.
