Dumpster diving can sometimes net useful household goods or edible food — but some hauls are almost like digging up money instead. One store's trash was a dumpster diver's treasure when a business threw out its stock of sunscreen in the fall.

What's happening?

The business-savvy dumpster diver posted photos of their haul in the r/DumpsterDiving subreddit. "Sunscreen season is over in Florida, I guess," they quipped.

"I actually went looking for Halloween clearance, oh, well!" the original poster explained. "Most of this within reach via stepladder, left a bunch behind on the bottom."

The photos show multiple boxes of unopened sunscreen — some Coppertone, but mostly from the Sun Bum brand.

Why is this dumpster-diving haul important?

It's quite common for businesses to throw away unsold merchandise like this, and it's a surprisingly large problem for consumers. Businesses don't just eat the cost of these wasted products; they factor them into the prices of the products they sell, charging more for each item.

Meanwhile, the wasted items represent lost resources, energy, labor, and time, putting a strain on our manufacturing system and our planet that is totally unnecessary. Without this waste, there would be less pollution and less need to harvest resources by means such as mining and clearing forests.

What can companies do about this?

The options to prevent waste depend on the type of product. For example, food can be composted, turned into biofuel, or sold at a discount as it approaches its expiration date.

For a nonfood item that is still perishable and difficult to recycle, such as sunscreen, donating is the best course of action.

"They could donate it to a shelter or whatever," suggested the original poster in a comment. Indeed, that would be a compassionate choice, as many people without homes spend time exposed to the elements and are most in need of products like sunscreen.

What's the original poster doing with their haul?

In this case, the sunscreen isn't being donated, but the original poster still found a way to make use of it.

What single change would make the biggest dent in your personal food waste? Not buying food I don't need 🧐 Freezing my food before it goes bad 🧊 Using my leftovers more effectively 🍲 Composting my food scraps 🌱 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"Ok, ya'all got my curiosity up, never heard of this brand, didn't realize it was expensive," they said in a comment. "A lot of them are vegan and hypoallergenic. Total retail per Amazon prices: $2206."

Based on that fact, they decided to sell the unexpired sunscreen for half its retail value and use the proceeds to help with a tax bill they had coming up. The sunscreen would still be used and would benefit the finder — that's a win all around!

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