The Top 10 Strangest Things Found in Bins

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen in a bin?

We recently took to LinkedIn to ask our network that question and although on the surface it seems like a fairly straightforward question with a limited set of responses, some of the answers were quite surprising, even for us!

Let’s jump straight into the top 10 strangest things found in bins…

1. False teeth

We’re guessing someone was trying to stop someone else from giving away their secrets, because these false teeth were found in a confidential waste bin…

2. Fruit cake

Some may argue that many types of fruit cake belong in the bin, but this particular fruit cake was found in a sharps container – perhaps the disposer was ‘raisin’ awareness of sharps injury risks…

3. Human liver

There was no further explanation and we have no idea what particular bin it was found in, we can only deduce that it wasn’t an anatomical waste bin because one might expect to find the occasional liver in one of those…

4. Placenta

Again, we’re not sure which bin this was found in but we’re impressed that it was correctly identified from an anatomical standpoint, even if that is an afterbir afterthought…

5. Champagne bottle

Have you ever attended a secret after-work party or a happy hour that got a little out of hand? Someone did, and they tried covering up the celebration by disposing of a champagne bottle in the confidential waste bin, it’s clear the bin didn’t keep the secret…

6. Half a pig’s head and a penguin

What do you call a penguin in a desert? Lost.

What do you call a penguin in a bin with half a pig’s head? Just another day at the office apparently…

7. Penguin, deer, and fallen stock

There’s a joke in here somewhere about them walking into a bar together or investing in shares but it’s not quite coming together into a punchline so let’s just take them as strange things found in bins and move on…

8. A lion

And now we reach every zoo’s ‘mane’ attraction with the king of the waste jungle taking no pride in waste management after a game of sleeping lions went wrong…

9. Domino’s pizza

Again with this one, no context about the bin, just the follow-up comment of “What a waste!” – and we agree! Unless it was ham and pineapple of course…

10. A busker in Cambridge

This was by far the strangest, and there was photographic evidence to back it up which can be seen in the original LinkedIn post – a fully grown adult, inside a bin with a guitar, busking. We imagine that either it made for some interesting acoustics or the music was genuinely rubbish…

So what do a busker, a penguin, and a fruit cake all have in common?

They’ve all been found in bins by our LinkedIn network…

A more common example of strange things the Sharpsmart team find in bins is offensive waste items being placed in the infectious, orange bag waste stream.

In fact, it’s the most commonly over-classified waste in the healthcare environment, despite how offensive waste can significantly impact sustainability when correctly segregated.

The Sharpsmart Knowledge Centre is full of resources that can help improve waste segregation within your organisation, one of which is our healthcare waste segregation poster.

Free Healthcare Waste Segregation Poster

Now we don’t have a waste segregation matrix that includes waste materials as weird and wonderful as penguins and buskers, but we do have one that can help clinical staff separate clinical infectious waste from offensive waste – resulting in cost savings and reduced CO2e!

Download Poster

Do You Need Waste Management Support?

Have you been finding strange things in the bins of your healthcare facility?

Our expert waste consultants can help you improve your organisation’s waste segregation and adherence to regulations through the use of waste audits, waste management plan development, staff training, and educational materials.

We’ve always believed that effective waste management begins within the four walls of a facility and we’re always happy to support and provide guidance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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