I’ve been kicked out of local junkyards ½ dozen times or so now. It’s a tricky game of trying to reach the waste pile when no one is looking, and also seeing who is on duty in hopes of at least ensuring that the same person doesn’t experience the pattern of kicking you out multiple times. Perhaps they would get aggressive and even block you from dumping stuff if you’re kicked out too much.
Strictly speaking, it’s theft to take stuff from the junkyard. To be clear, the junkyards in my area do not sell parts. They just melt and refine the waste. The melt value is naturally less than the as-is value to someone who would repair or reuse.
IMO, the #rightToRepair movement needs to expand to give the public access to junk before it’s recycled or dumped into landfills.
Relevant:
The Post-Apocalyptic Inventor is a channel on YT that has a long series of repairing objects thrown onto the scrapyard called Repair-A-Thon.
I think those are places that sell scrap metal and other things, though, and not waste management type places. Not really familiar with Germany and what they have there.
I watch his stuff, though. Neat projects and it’s interesting to see what kind of stuff turns up out there. I wouldn’t consider many of them worth doing, myself. But it still kind of warms me to think that some nice old things get rescued and put to use.