<< Some cities and counties have "nuisance laws" against dumpster diving specifically because of the inherent value of trash. >>
Well the most probable purpose of that law is to keeps transients from digging through for food on regular basis and making a mess. I dived a dumpster a few times to collect some rare electronics so I can salvage parts from them. The dumpster was behind a family owned electronics repair place. You simply can't buy those parts easily and dumpster can be a great source. They saw me and told me to be careful, that's all. A student or two digging through a dumpster to get material for their project once in a while isn't all that bad and won't bother me,but transients in their dirty stinky clothes, habitually digging through dumpsters all over the place grosses people out.
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People Recyclables are not the only valuables in trash. The old adage, "a man's junk is another man's treasure" held true in your case. But, I still think its yuck... >>
Absolutely. If someone else can put something to use before you toss it out, that person won't have to buy it and reduces overall trash generated and this is especially so for furnitures not worth a crap. People don't want to pay for such crap, but won't mind taking it for free. We usually try to get rid of large stuff by putting it on bulletinboard. If no taker, I'll post it on classified for free. An easy way to get rid of big heavy stuff like fridge.
I'm sure Blockbusters didn't minded selling those VHS in store. They were probably bound by contract by their headquarter, the producers and such to not do so as there's issues over intellectural property.