Until it hits the curb, they aint supposed to be going through with it regardless of ethnicity. The police cant even go through your trash until it hits the street withouth a search warrant. Most every city has a city ordinanace for anti-scaveging. At work I see em all the time. The tweekers are looking for crap that they somehow believe they can turn into something useful, including old food. The others generally look for recycleables. The older people are mostly very careful not to trash the area while the young ones dont respect anything and will trash the place for some cans.