1. An animal or bird that feeds on dead animals (that it has not killed itself), or on dead plant material, or refuse: Vultures are just one example of the kind of scavengers that exist.
2. A person who searches for and collects discarded items of clothes, furniture, etc.: It isn't unusual to see a scavenger, or scavengers, going through dumpsters in cities looking for something that can be used.

There were several terms for scavengers in London during the 1800s including bone-pickers, rag-gatherers, pure-finders, dredger men, mud-larks, sewer-hunters, dustmen, night-soil men, bunters, toshers, and shoremen; all of which were recycling the junk or trash that they collected.