July 18, 2005

Virginia Town Considers Criminalizing Trash Scavenging

The town council of Blacksburg, Va., is considering an ordinance that would make scavenging in trash cans or Dumpsters a class 3 misdemeanor after a locak TV reporter aired two stories in May about banks that threw out customers' financial information without shredding it. The reporter collected trash from the Dumpsters of Blacksburg businesses and interviewed people whose information she found. One woman's bank loan application, including social security and account numbers, turned up in a National Bank of Blacksburg Dumpster, according to the report.

Blacksburg may protect privacy of trash, New River Valley Current, July 16, 2005.