Working at a bank in New York City in the mid-2010s, Anna Sacks was not living the life she wanted. Sure, she was happy. But she wanted to do something that felt important.

Some people seeking meaning might read a self-help book or perhaps volunteer a few hours a week. Sacks packed up her life and moved to Connecticut to participate in Adamah, a farming program that focuses on sustainable living and growing sustainable food. When she return ed to New York, her life was with a new purpose and many new skills to make her dreams a reality.

"One of the things that really stuck with me from Adamah was how little waste they produced and how they handled the waste they did have, primarily through composting（堆肥）," she says. The Adamah program opened Sacks' eyes to the damage consumer culture is doing on a local, national, and global level, and the need to find solutions. So in 2017, she began what she calls "trash walking".

During. tours around her community, Sacks picks through garbage to look for reusable items. Soon, her "trash walking" expanded to include corporate trash along with residential trash. Surprisingly, she discovered a wide range of really great stuff—like clothing, decorations, and food —all of which she documents on TikTok.

Under the name The Trash Walker, Sacks quickly gained popularity for her videos that highlight the problems with consumerism. "The root issue is overproduction, which leads to overconsumption, which leads to a large amount of waste," she says.

The fact is, companies often choose to trash items rather than give them away to people who might need them. A big reason for this waste is the way our current tax laws are structured, Sacks says. Sellers who destroy goods can claim the cost as a loss on their taxes and be refunded. If they give away goods, they can claim only a small amount as a charitable reduction on their taxes.

Sacks' main focus is simply getting people to pay attention to how many unnecessary things they buy and then throw away. "Once you become aware of the way you consume, you can see ways you improve," she says.