This sounds like an episode of “Portlandia”, but it’s real. There’s a store in Portland, Oregon called Scrap that sells actual trash.
For example, you can get a handful of random bottlecaps for a quarter. It’s a non-profit, so they mostly operate on donations.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DClKcRhKcSN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link