A woman whose dumpster-diving videos have earned her 2.2 million followers on TikTok hit the motherlode behind a T.J. Maxx. Ella, who goes by @glamourddive on TikTok, uploaded her latest designer-studded haul to a whopping 4.1 million viewers.
Her clip begins with her approaching a big, blue dumpster behind T.J. Maxx with a padlock fastened on it.
“I actually have to jump up,” Ella says as she hoists herself over the dumpster, which is still slippery from the rain. The dumpster was filled with merchandise from the off-price department store. Ella picks up a Coach necklace before coming across a Juicy Couture purse. The bag appears to be in mint condition.
“It doesn’t look like they destroyed it,” she says.
Then, Ella finds a mid-size canvas Michael Kors purse listed for $99 and appears excited about the find.
Afterward, she goes through a few more plastic bags before showing her full haul at the end of the video.
Laid out on the sidewalk, Ella points out the makeup, purses, and jewelry she scored.
“The employees came out as I was driving away [skull emoji],” Ella adds in her caption.
Why dumpster diving?
There are many reasons why someone would dumpster dive. For some, it’s to save money or out of necessity due to poverty. However, since the rise of TikTok, dumpster diving is now seen as “trendy.” The hashtag #dumpsterdiving has billions of views on the platform. While dumpster diving was stereotypically associated with a certain type of person, nowadays, the reasons have become more altruistic. For many dumpster divers, the act is to reduce waste or to keep trash from filling up landfills.
With Ella, for example, her website–where she sells the treasures she finds–reveals it’s for this reason.
“There is a huge excess of wasted goods thrown away every day by corporate America,” the site reads. “This only contributes to a buildup of pollution and waste that eventually ends up buried and left to rot in landfills.”
It continues that the items Ella sells “are fully sanitized and refurbished for a safe sale.”
Dumpster diving is no longer taboo
The Guardian penned a piece about the rise of dumpster diving as a way to combat the quickly overflowing landfills on Earth. One prolific dumpster diver told the Guardian, “When you throw something away, what is ‘away’? It’s away from you, but it’s towards someone else.”
Additionally, it’s no surprise that the uptick in dumpster diving videos coincided with the higher cost of living and inflation in the U.S. As folks look to dupes or creative ways to save money, dumpster diving is just another way to find perfectly good food–as one Target dumpster diver did–or one-of-a-kind items.
Viewers are saddened by the reality
Most of Ella’s comment sections are riddled with folks casting shame upon these stores. Several accuse supermarkets and department stores of contributing to the world’s waste (and they’re not wrong: businesses produce about 25% of all the world’s waste annually.)
“Why don’t these companies donate these items?” one user asked. “That’s such a waste, homeless or people in need could easily use all of that.”
Others accused Ella of staging her find. “So my friend works at tj this is fake they donate all,” one wrote.
Another echoed, “I worked at TJ and I don’t recall us ever throwing merchandise away unless it was damaged and not recoverable. Old items just go into clearance.” A third user said that T.J. Maxx “always donates to Goodwill.” The Mary Sue was unable to verify such information.
@glamourddive The employees came out as I was driving away ? #dumpster #dumpsterdiving #tjmaxx #coach #michaelkors #glamourddive ♬ original sound – GlamourDDive
The Mary Sue reached out to Ella and TJX Companies via email.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
