Someone's long fall is broken by an open dumpster full of garbage bags or an open heaping trash pile. The trash will usually be softer than anything else in the immediate vicinity — you'd think there's a high chance of broken glass or sharp metal objects in there, but this is hardly ever a problem... maybe fictional people are better at wrapping it in cardboard.

Sometimes the trash just happens to be there, which is a lucky break if the person falling wanted to live. People Driven to Suicide who land in one of these will likely be unhappy about the Unwanted Rescue.

Sometimes, the person doing the falling aimed for the trash.

When the character picks themselves up, there is a good chance they will stop to remove debris or food from their clothing. More often than not includes a banana peel. For large trash piles, they might not need to stop — trash will fall off their clothes as they move. Bonus points if someone tries eating items from the trash.

Another common variation, limited solely to comic uses, generally to kids' shows and mostly to people who really deserve it, is the big-ol' pile of horsesh... er, manure.

May serve as a way for our heroes to end up Down in the Dumps.

Compare Dumpster Dive, where the character deliberately enters a garbage pile to retrieve something and Slipping into Stink, for a short fall (as in falling over, not falling from the sky) into something gross. Also see Living Crashpad and Car Cushion.

Note: This is a very risky stunt, and unless the only alternative is certain death, it would be best to think twice about doing this in real life. At the very least, you'll almost certainly break bones and, given what people throw away, are likely to get multiply stabbed and injected with garbage and garbage juice. (The manure pile, while disgusting, is also less likely to kill you, assuming you don't land wrong — but still, don't try it unless there's no alternative.)

Examples: