Nashville entrepreneur turns discarded goods into six-figure resale business
Carter Stevens, a 31-year-old Nashville entrepreneur, has built a six-figure income by dumpster diving and reselling discarded items online, having risen from homelessness and crippling debt in just two years. His success reflects how Nashville's booming economy, large influencer population and the sheer volume of discarded goods in affluent areas have created lucrative opportunities for salvage entrepreneurs.
Stevens' venture began when he profited around $17,000 from selling 190 discarded Steelcase office chairs within six weeks, and has since discovered designer items including a Gucci bag, Louis Vuitton shirt and 65-inch television. Growing up as the son of a successful music producer gave him expensive tastes; at his worst, he spent $15,000 monthly on designer goods. Dumpster diving now funds his acquisitions whilst generating substantial profits from other people's unwanted items.
- Nashville entrepreneur makes six figures reselling items found in dumpsters
- Transformed from homeless and debt-ridden to financially successful in two years
- Finds valuable designer goods, furniture and electronics in affluent areas
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Carter Stevens is a 31-year-old entrepreneur based in Nashville who sources discarded items and resells them online. His business involves finding unwanted goods—from office equipment to designer items—and selling them through online marketplaces.
Stevens had previously experienced homelessness and accumulated substantial debt, but has rebuilt his financial position through this business over the past two years. His familiarity with consumer goods and luxury brands, stemming from his family background, has helped him identify items with strong resale value.
Nashville's rapidly expanding economy, combined with affluent residential and commercial areas, generates considerable volumes of discarded items. The growth of online sales platforms has made it practical to connect these goods with buyers across wider geographic areas than was previously feasible.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
This is a genuine entrepreneurial success story demonstrating individual resourcefulness, creativity and determination. Stevens identified an opportunity within an existing market for pre-owned goods, executed effectively, and built a legitimate business that extracts value from waste—benefiting the environment by diverting items from landfills whilst generating wealth through his own effort. The story illustrates how markets reward innovation and hard work, proving that someone can overcome homelessness and financial hardship through agency and clever problem-solving rather than waiting for external rescue.
The case against
Celebrating this narrative risks romanticising economic desperation as inspirational when it should trouble us deeply. The fact that affluent areas generate such volumes of resaleable goods reflects consumption excess and inequality—conditions that shouldn't need to exist for resourceful individuals to escape poverty. This story risks obscuring systemic failures by crediting personal hustle for what ought to be an indictment of wealth concentration and waste. It may also mask whether dumpster diving represents sustainable, dignified long-term economic stability or merely survival within precarious circumstances that a fairer society would not require.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “How entrepreneurs in the booming ‘influencer capital of the South’ are making six-figure salaries digging through dumpsters and selling other people’s trash”.