'Freegan' - that's someone who only eats food from dumpsters & rubbish bins as a protest against the world's waste and excess. They don't like consumerism and they don't like capitalism. Spokesperson Adam Weissman explains from his home in New Jersey. (Liam Bartlett. 2004. ABC)
Now I’m not about to write an article on how people should eat just out of bins.. and I am most definitely not anti- consumerism, I’m doing a Marketing and Advertising degree for goodness sake. My purpose today is to just put it out there, the activity of dumpster diving. The way I’m approaching the idea is it’s pretty much just looking for usable objects in the trash, it’s all about reusing and repurposing, extremely environmentally friendly and yeah a little bit odd or just straight up against what a lot of us have been taught.
Plus I should note that Dumpster Diving, skip dipping, skipping, dumpstering, salvaging, gleaning, scavenging, bin raiding, scoring, foraging, whatever you would like to call it, is not a new thing, other countries such as India have been participating in this practice since they could.
And you don’t eat the gross things people. Its all about common sense, if it smells foul, it most probably is. Oh yeah and take a torch to separate the goods from the bad.. did I mention a lot of this was done in the dark? Late night or early morning being the best times to do it to avoid weird looks or awkward confrontations.
Maybe I’m open to this idea because at such a young age I was taught the hard way not to waste.
An incident that stuck with me in particular, when I was probably around 8 or 9 my dad caught me throwing 2 pieces of heavily lathered jam on toast into the scrap bin.. on my way to the freezer to get more bread, my father confronted me on my reason as to why I discarded the toast. I simply replied 'it had burnt bits on the bottom'.
I can tell you now. NEVER AGAIN.
I had to go to the scrap bin, pull out the two pieces of toast that were lying on potato and carrot peals, food wrappers, and discarded half eaten foods (most probably mine). Right there and then, I had to eat that toast, because there are so many less fortunate and I think at the time we may have been on a tight budget. Nevertheless, I always finish everything on my plate now, actually I will finish everything on my plate PLUS what is left in the pan if I can’t pass it off to the dog for his dinner tomorrow night. I finish it to the extent that I am actually having to lie on a bed or floor (the closest flat surface) and lie horizontally until the food digests and I can actually move again. I now TRY to make smaller portions; it is always much harder cooking for one (as the rest of my family are omnivores).
Throughout my life, my unease at food wastage has stayed with me. When I first started working in a shopping centre, at close I would notice bakers throwing bags and bags of perfectly good bread in the dumpster because it was not 'fresh'! At my current place of employment, as soon as we reach the days end any unused muffins are so carelessly thrown out. I have now earned the title of 'the muffin lady' in the household...
'When does the muffin lady finish work, I wonder what flavour muffins she'll bring us tonight?’
Have I done it?
I haven’t participated in such an event yet, but I’ve read some very interesting and unusual articles on the subject, noting that Freeganism is a WHOLE lot more popular in America (especially New York food capital of the USA) than it is in Australia. I wish it was because there is more wastage but that really isn’t the case. In places like Japan and China, food is not prepared in excess, it is prepared for the likely demand, if the shelves don’t need to be full they won’t be full! They keep plastic models of the food in the windows to make their place pretty and appetising; it seems a lot more logical doesn’t it? It won’t go off, always looks good, it’s just a more environmental (minimal wastage) form of advertising.
Maybe I’m open to this idea because at such a young age I was taught the hard way not to waste.
An incident that stuck with me in particular, when I was probably around 8 or 9 my dad caught me throwing 2 pieces of heavily lathered jam on toast into the scrap bin.. on my way to the freezer to get more bread, my father confronted me on my reason as to why I discarded the toast. I simply replied 'it had burnt bits on the bottom'.
I can tell you now. NEVER AGAIN.
I had to go to the scrap bin, pull out the two pieces of toast that were lying on potato and carrot peals, food wrappers, and discarded half eaten foods (most probably mine). Right there and then, I had to eat that toast, because there are so many less fortunate and I think at the time we may have been on a tight budget. Nevertheless, I always finish everything on my plate now, actually I will finish everything on my plate PLUS what is left in the pan if I can’t pass it off to the dog for his dinner tomorrow night. I finish it to the extent that I am actually having to lie on a bed or floor (the closest flat surface) and lie horizontally until the food digests and I can actually move again. I now TRY to make smaller portions; it is always much harder cooking for one (as the rest of my family are omnivores).
Throughout my life, my unease at food wastage has stayed with me. When I first started working in a shopping centre, at close I would notice bakers throwing bags and bags of perfectly good bread in the dumpster because it was not 'fresh'! At my current place of employment, as soon as we reach the days end any unused muffins are so carelessly thrown out. I have now earned the title of 'the muffin lady' in the household...
'When does the muffin lady finish work, I wonder what flavour muffins she'll bring us tonight?’
Have I done it?
I haven’t participated in such an event yet, but I’ve read some very interesting and unusual articles on the subject, noting that Freeganism is a WHOLE lot more popular in America (especially New York food capital of the USA) than it is in Australia. I wish it was because there is more wastage but that really isn’t the case. In places like Japan and China, food is not prepared in excess, it is prepared for the likely demand, if the shelves don’t need to be full they won’t be full! They keep plastic models of the food in the windows to make their place pretty and appetising; it seems a lot more logical doesn’t it? It won’t go off, always looks good, it’s just a more environmental (minimal wastage) form of advertising.
I swear the more I read on it the more open I am to the idea, its starting to seem like common sense.
There is a heap of recipes for day old bread such as French toast, bruschetta, savoury puddings, breadcrumbs for patties and sausage rolls, breadcrumbs to coat your meat or in my case zucchini sticks :).
You can do heaps with the reject vegetables like soups, pasta sauces, casseroles, dips, chutneys, roasting. Not to mention all the cookies and cakes are ready to eat.
What is there to find? Its not just perfectly good food, its almost anything they sell in stores whether it be hardware, household items or most commonly food. Check out page 8 of this link for a pretty large list.
So now that the idea is out there, what do you think? Come on cyber space, help me make a decision whether to further this kind of undercover, secret agent kind of conquest... anyone?
So now that the idea is out there, what do you think? Come on cyber space, help me make a decision whether to further this kind of undercover, secret agent kind of conquest... anyone?
