Tonight: From Bin To Banquet

csarina

I was horrified recently when the daughter of our next door neighbour cleared the house ready to sell it. I said they could use our bin as we had a very big bin and it was almost empty. OH always washes it out after it has been emptied. Later the same day I went out to the bin and found 2 tesco carrier bags full of in date tins she had thrown away, fruit, tomato's, salmon, corn beef, baked beans pasta, I rescued it into my cupboard after checking all the tins were not dented.

There was also almost £30 of cleaning stuff in another bag including a packet of 10 new dishcloths and a box of wash powder unopened. Well the stuff was in my bin so technically it was mine.........

If she did not want it why on earth did she not give it to the salvation army??????

Penelope_Penguin

zippychick wrote: »

I can't stand Worral Thompson, especially after buying his digital scales which more or less immediately fell apart straight away.

But he keeps middle whites, so he's fine by me

Penny. x

zippychick

csarina wrote: »

I was horrified recently when the daughter of our next door neighbour cleared the house ready to sell it. I said they could use our bin as we had a very big bin and it was almost empty. OH always washes it out after it has been emptied. Later the same day I went out to the bin and found 2 tesco carrier bags full of in date tins she had thrown away, fruit, tomato's, salmon, corn beef, baked beans pasta, I rescued it into my cupboard after checking all the tins were not dented.

There was also almost £30 of cleaning stuff in another bag including a packet of 10 new dishcloths and a box of wash powder unopened. Well the stuff was in my bin so technically it was mine.........

If she did not want it why on earth did she not give it to the salvation army??????

People either can't be bothered, or they don't realise how much that could help someone else I guess?

Scarlett25

Hopefully the daughter might watch the Tonight programme and be horrified by how much food she wasted!

Confuzzled

geordie_joe wrote: »

I think you are wrong. The legal definition of theft is "A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it"

If you throw something in the bin, or a rubbish skip then it is generally accepted that you no longer want that item. You have indicated that you no longer want the item (by throwing it out), and you fully expect someone to take it away and you will never see it again.

If someone else then takes it out of the bin they can't be depriving you of the item, because you have already deprived yourself of the item, and indicated that you want to be deprived of it, by throwing it in the bin or skip.

As for "theft by finding" that can only cover things that are lost and the rightful owner wants them back. You can not be guilty of stealing an item that has been thrown away by the rightful owner. Because they have already deprived them selves of the item, so you are not depriving them of it.

well the police officer that told my friend it was theft by finding must have been wrong too!

it's not just in scotland either, i've heard this happening all over the UK and quite frankly i think it's the law that is wrong. you're right, if someone throws it away they are giving up the rights to it but even on the show kirstys home or whatever it was called they made sure to cover their backsides by saying it's against the law to take things from skips without asking the owner of the skip etc if it's ok first so it does indeed appear to be a law, a ridiculous one but a law nonetheless

ceridwen

Oh well....confuzzled...I guess we have to help keep "jobsworths" in jobs....:rolleyes:

Like you - I apply the "Law of Commonsense". I just cant be doing with the "rules for rules" sake brigade.

geordie_joe

Confuzzled wrote: »

well the police officer that told my friend it was theft by finding must have been wrong too!

1. Policemen can be wrong
2. Policemen can (and do) tell lies.

He may have just been protecting himself. What if he had said it was ok and your friend had hurt himself doing it? What if he took things from a skip that were not being thrown away, a skip full of copper pipe a builder intended to sell perhaps?

Confuzzled wrote: »

it's not just in scotland either, i've heard this happening all over the UK and quite frankly i think it's the law that is wrong. you're right, if someone throws it away they are giving up the rights to

No, it's not the law that is wrong, it is people who don't know what the law is and just say what they think it is that are wrong. The law is VERY clear and the theft act defines theft as

Theft Act 1968
1.— (1) A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

If a person has "permanently deprived" them selves of something, you are not committing an act of theft if you pick it up and take it away.

Confuzzled wrote: »

it but even on the show kirstys home or whatever it was called they made sure to cover their backsides by saying it's against the law to take things from skips without asking the owner of the skip etc if it's ok first

Covering their backside is right, by saying something that is not quite true. It can be theft if you take something from a skip that is not thrown out as rubbish.

Example: If a builder is hired to do up a house and part of the contract states that he can have anything taken out of the house, such as coper pipe, radiators etc. If he then puts the copper pipe/radiators etc. into a skip, intending to sell them at the scrap yard, or use them on another job, then you will be committing an offence if you take them.

But taking something from a skip that has been thrown out as rubbish and the rightful owner does not want it is not theft.

Confuzzled wrote: »

so it does indeed appear to be a law, a ridiculous one but a law nonetheless

It only appears to be a law because you have believed what people say, try reading the law for your self.

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?ActiveTextDocId=1204238

Edit: Sorry to go on, I'm not picking on you, I just get a bit up tight when people believe what they hear and what they have heard is wrong.

sexykellylovespink

csarina wrote: »

I was horrified recently when the daughter of our next door neighbour cleared the house ready to sell it. I said they could use our bin as we had a very big bin and it was almost empty. OH always washes it out after it has been emptied. Later the same day I went out to the bin and found 2 tesco carrier bags full of in date tins she had thrown away, fruit, tomato's, salmon, corn beef, baked beans pasta, I rescued it into my cupboard after checking all the tins were not dented.

There was also almost £30 of cleaning stuff in another bag including a packet of 10 new dishcloths and a box of wash powder unopened. Well the stuff was in my bin so technically it was mine.........

If she did not want it why on earth did she not give it to the salvation
army??????

did you go and check there bin as well :rotfl:i would have lol !!

Triker

I used to go 'skipping' as we used to call it over 20 years ago, it's not a new thing.:rolleyes:

Obviously we used to get the food for eating but realised that all the fruit and veg could be made good use of .......so I had many interesting concoctions of home brew wine on the go too.:D

Nothing got wasted, if there was a bountiful find we'd invite friends and neighbours for a barbeque or party or do home deliveries to redistribute. For me finding a good skip was better than christmas day, the surprises were endless. :j Also many of us were vegetarian so all the meat was given out to our neighbours and more elderly residents, we lived in areas that would be classed as poor social housing.

I did skip runs all over the country as I moved around a lot then. I also worked in a hostel for the homeless and Marks and Sparks gave us all their food for our residents, I had never seen such good quality food in my life and it was a real pleasure to hand out decent, nourishing meals to folks who were sometimes in a real bad way health wise.

I think its beyond disgusting that supermarkets waste and throw away perfectly good food and refuse to either give it away or allow people to use it to give it away.

I know Tesco are guilty of this, I was chatting to the reduction guy a few weeks ago and he told me that his store had binned over £1000 worth of fresh food because someone had made a mistake on the ordering system. Staff or customers were not allowed to take it, it was delivered and then binned so everything looked legit on their system. Absolutely apalling.

fluffybunnies

1) Stuff thrown into supermarket bins is still teh supermarkets property until it is taken away so theft.
2) If you want to take the stance that the supermarket has given up their rights to said property then you must assume they are gifting the property to the company they rent the bins from and pay to dispose of to take away the waste.

The reason that most supermarkets do not give away food that they waste/has gone past it's date is because of the possibility of contamination - anyone who became ill after eating said food can sue the supermarket over it.

Unbelievably this applies even to those who steal the food from their bins, hence the reasons most supermarkets now have locks on them.

I do work in a supermarket and am appalled at the food that is wasted, i don't see why the staff cannot take home any food that would be wasted at the end of the day but rules are rules.