A 31-Year-Old Made $140,000 Diving Into Dumpsters, Turning Other People’s Trash Into a Business

A Nashville man who was living out of his car just three years ago has built a six-figure business by digging through dumpsters, recovering discarded items and selling them online.

Carter Stevens, 31, brought in approximately $140,000 in sales between September 2025 and September 2026, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. His finds have included Persian rugs, expensive office furniture, electronics and even samurai swords, many of which he discovered near office parks and luxury apartment buildings.

The $140,000 represents total sales rather than take-home profit. Stevens works alone, keeps expenses low and sells most of his finds through eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

His biggest payday came from an overflowing dumpster outside an office park, where he discovered 190 discarded Steelcase office chairs. The chairs can cost more than $1,000 each when purchased new, but Stevens collected them using his pickup truck and homemade trailer.

He sold most of the chairs in bulk transactions for $17,000 and made another $10,600 selling the remainder individually, bringing total sales from that haul to $27,600, according to documents reviewed by CNBC.

Stevens has also recovered 120 standing desks outside an office building, along with West Elm furniture, iPads and power tools near upscale residential complexes.

He generally targets what he calls "dry dumpsters," particularly those outside businesses, where discarded furniture and equipment are less likely to be mixed with food waste.

Sometimes he approaches property managers for permission to collect unwanted items, presenting his work as a form of junk removal. He said he avoids posted no-trespassing areas and leaves when asked by security guards or property owners.

Even his shipping supplies often come from discarded materials. Stevens estimates that he finds enough usable cardboard boxes and packing tape to avoid purchasing them about 90% of the time.

Stevens did not start out looking for a career in dumpster diving. After dropping out of college in 2018, he began buying vintage clothing from thrift stores and reselling it online, but struggled with debt, addiction and uncontrolled spending.

His parents helped pay for rehabilitation in 2021, but his financial problems continued. By June 2023, he could no longer afford rent. He spent time sleeping in a rented storage unit before living in his Nissan Sentra for three weeks.

A cousin eventually lent him money to rent an apartment in October 2023, allowing him to restart his resale business.

His first profitable dumpster find came in March 2024, when he discovered a pair of black Nike Air Force Ones beside a gas station. He cleaned and sanitized the sneakers before selling them online for $35.

That small sale led him to search office buildings and residential dumpsters for other items that could be resold. He later bought a used pickup truck and built a trailer to transport larger finds.

The business now involves searching for discarded goods, cleaning them, photographing them and arranging sales. Stevens rents a storage unit for approximately $400 a month and generally stays close to home to reduce fuel expenses.

His earnings, however, have been uneven. Most of the $140,000 in sales came from large finds during his five most profitable months, and Stevens does not expect to repeat those results every year.

He has since become more careful with money, building savings and avoiding the expensive purchases that previously contributed to his financial problems.

Stevens is also studying real estate wholesaling, a business in which investors secure contracts to purchase properties and then assign those contracts to other buyers for a fee. He sees it as a possible source of steadier income.

For now, he has no plans to stop searching dumpsters, even if he eventually moves into another line of work.