Dumpster diving
Prevalent in the 1980s due to lax security was the process of dumpster diving. A curious hacker or malicious cracker would search in the dumpsters of major corporations for thrown-out manuals, passwords, credit card numbers, et cetera.
When corporations became aware of the need for increased security (in the early 1990s), sensitive documents were shredded before being placed in dumpsters.
The term is also used for the retrieving of useful items (not necessarily computer-related) from dumpsters, trash cans, curbsides, or similar places where discarded items can be found. This is usually done in order to acquire the items at no cost. Dumpster diving is be illegal in some parts of the United States, though in many places the relevant laws do not seem to be very vigourously enforced.
Books
Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman; ISBN: 1559500883