Habitat for Humanity Restores dumpster diving

We are located in a large Midwestern city, so there are plenty of Habitat for Humanity Restores. <br><br>I did some recon on five of them and learned the following:<br><br>**1) They throw away cabinets and countertops extremely frequently. I saw a lot of solid oak and maple.** I saw an old ash veneer kitchen countertop and it was in decent shape. A lot of the older stuff is solid all the way through, not laminated like a lot of modern composite wood.<br><br>**2) They also dump tons of tools.** This is part of what makes this sub so infuriating for me, because we could be helping so many people with materials and tools. We could donate them or fix them up and sell them at a discount. I have seen tons of gently used power tools in the dumpsters, including stuff like solid woodworking equipment and high end power hand tools from Makita and DeWalt. <br><br>**3) They also dumpster a lot of appliances.** Most of it is junk because it is old. Sometimes you will find something decent. I found an isolated refrigerator door for a kitchen cabinet setup that looked like it may have been in a custom kitchen. <br><br>**4) Tons of tile, hardwood flooring, and the occasional marble slab.**<br><br>**5) Caulk and Silicone.** For some reason contractors donate their caulk and silicone, so there is a lot of it. I have seen caulk with pristine tips and silicone with unbroken seals. I have seen a lot of caulk with dried on tips. <br><br>Overall, Habitat for Humanity Restores collect construction materials, donate some, sell some, and dump the rest. Sometimes the materials they dump are good, sometimes they are junk. <br><br>We have three Restores in our city with dumpsters that can be accessed from the street. This is good because we can drive up to the dumpers without being seen. However, there are cameras at two of the locations. We have only been caught by one camera. We have not been arrested or confronted, only received a nasty gram from management.