Ever Thought Of Going Freegan?
Posted on: June 8, 2009 by Matt
Last night my girlfriend and I were watching a show called Taboo that featured a segment on the Freegan lifestyle. Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle choice that focuses on living as inexpensively as possible. From what I could gather – they lifestyle consists largely of not buying anything and gathering your belongings and food from other people’s trash. The segment included clips of people foraging through dumpsters digging up all sorts of food including:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Meat
- Breads
- Soda
Basically – you name it and they were dumpster diving for it. It was like frugal living taken to the extreme.
Now – to be totally honest: I have on occasion picked a couple of items in the past out of the trash. Mostly a piece of furniture here or there that was left next to the dumpster. My first entertainment center came from a neighbor that was throwing one away. I figure if something is in good condition and I have a use for it then why not? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure right?
However – the thought of digging through dumpsters looking for food never really crossed my mind. The folks on the show seemed to pull quite a bit of decent looking produce out of dumpsters and they claimed that they have not ever gotten sick from the food. They also noted that they do wash all food that they gather through a bleach mixture prior to cooking and eating just to make sure any nasty bacteria are killed off. I found the idea rather intriguing but also a bit dangerous with some possible serious health risks (hazardous or medical waste in the dumpster with your food? Not for me).
On the other hand – I did start to think more about how wasteful we are as a culture. We throw away a lot of food on a daily basis that is perfectly good for consumption and I would like to see that diminish a bit. The concept is great for those that do not mind gathering their meals from the trash and I think the concept is somewhat admirable – just not for me and my family.
I totally agree with what you said at the end. We are totally wasteful and because we are such an overly litigous country, so much perfectly good food has to be thrown out so they don’t risk getting sued. That is tons and tons of food that could go to feed the hungry at homeless shelters.
And going dumpster diving is definitely not for my family either. I also wouldn’t want to be seen as a dumpster diver either.
Saph @ Walk With Me’s last blog post..Tomato Hornworms Are Attacking
Freegan living is not for my family either (although we do occasionally go curb snatching for furniture and the like). I was reading an article (and I wish I could remember the URL) about a woman who does it and donates a ton of food to the local shelters who would accept it.
Frugal Urbanite’s last blog post..Are You Using Too Much Laudry Detergent?
Thanks for the feedback!
@ Frugal Urbanite: Giving the free food back to shelters seems like a pretty good idea. However I do wonder: If the food is not good enough for you then why is it good enough to give to someone else?
@ Saph – True: while I would like to say I could set my pride aside and be seen digging through dumpsters, I live in a small town and would feel really odd doing so!
The lady I was referring to fed it to her family as well and would only donate it to shelters who could come get it immediately (as in within 2 hours) so it could be refridgerated/stored properly.
Me, I’m super-anal about food safety so I wouldn’t touch anything that hadn’t a) been pre-packaged in plastic or other pest proof material and b) or been binned less than 1 hour ago and was sitting on top of the bin. Veggies and fruits with hard rinds (acorn squash, melons, citrus…) might be okay too, but anything sitting there in the heat and sun just seems like a recipe for disaster. (I have issues with picnics and buffets too for the same reason)
My other concern is that dumpster diving is actually illegal. Dumpsters are private property and store owners, who don’t want to get sued should you cut yourself open on a piece of rusty junk, have every right to drive you off or have you arrested for trespassing.
Frugal Urbanite’s last blog post..Are You Using Too Much Laudry Detergent?
Frugal Urbanite: Good points. I am also pretty anal about food saftey and the thought of pulling something like sour cream out of a hot dumpster makes me ill…