Curb mining is the act of salvaging appliances, electronics, furniture and art discarded on the street ("

curb A curb (North American English), or kerb (Commonwealth English except Canada; see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway. History Although curbs have ...

side"). In cities around the world, people often dispose of furniture and other unwanted items by leaving them on the

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

for others to take.

Description

Curb mining is the act of salvaging appliances, electronics, furniture and art discarded on the street ("

side"). In cities around the world, people often dispose of furniture and other unwanted items by leaving them on the

for others to take.

Terminology

Terms similar to curb mining include "

dumpster diving Dumpster diving (also totting, skipping, skip diving or skip salvage) is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is n ...

" and "

freeganism Freeganism is an ideology of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like food. The word "freegan" is a portmanteau of "free" and "vegan". While vegans ...

". In June 2007, The New York Times wrote:Kurutz, Steven
"Not Buying It"
, ''The New York Times'', New York, June 21, 2007.

Re-use and recycling

In many jurisdictions, ownership of

domestic waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, a ...

changes once it is placed into a container for collection. It is thus illegal (although rarely enforced) to skip dive. Curb mining gets round this because the items offered are not yet placed (in a legal sense) into the "waste" stream, thus their ownership has not yet been transferred. It is often legal to curb mine, but illegal to skip dive. Some countries—notably Germany, Japan, and much of Western mainland Europe—have a long tradition that items placed outside are intended specifically for re-use by others. There may be a designated day of the week or month, distinct from normal refuse collections, to encourage this.

Marketing

The urban phenomenon of curb mining has been used by various companies for experimental

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

. The strategy is to create awareness of a product by handing it out for free. In 2009,

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

Mono and modern furniture designer Blu Dot created an experiment to see what would happen if they left 25 Blu Dot chairs on the street for "curb miners" to find. They attached GPS devices to the chairs, which were activated once the chairs were picked up and taken. The chairs were then tracked back to the new owners' homes where a handful of them were interviewed for a documentary.Jordan, Andy
"Busted! New Yorkers Caught Nabbing Street Chairs"
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', December 14, 2009.

References

{{Recycling Waste collection Informal occupations DIY culture