doing it does not make it illegal.
I'm located in East Mesa/Phoenix
Don't take my profile picture personal to this topic. That's not me. I swear lol. For the laughs.
http://cronkitezine....iving/laws.html
OP's post was regarding the legality of garbage picking in his/her area... 'Tis not legal.
OP thats for the City of Phoenix so your all good
and...
http://mesaaz.gov/clerk/CodeBook/CodeinWord/T8/T8Ch3.doc
see "Scavenging"
can't believe I wasted the 2 minutes it took to look that up...