Could you live a freegan life-style?
Posted by Isabella on Feb 27, 2008 · Member since Jan 2002 · 117 posts
I was just watching Oprah and she did a show on "freegans." It was really interesting how people get food, household and clothing items from dumpsters, although many of these people were professionals and could afford to buy their own food. This is a statement against the consumerism of the North American life-style. So what do you think about this? Could you live like this?
I know I'd starve to death if we tried that where I live but could probably get enough clothing and possibly household items free or second-hand from goodwill centers. I do often use hand-me-down clothing, especially since I'm retired.
I think that freeganism is a cool concept, but I could not dig my food out of garbage bins. I simply prefer food straight from the dirt. Maybe if I really thought hardcore about rebelling against the current system of oppressing others for capital gain long enough, I might experience the right paradigm shift to not think food from the garbage is nasty, I don't know. I could be more open to other items besides food, however.
Trader Joe's is the jackpot when it comes to finding food.. just sayin'.
I used to be an avid dumpster diver. My housemates and I would make nights of it, going from store to store seeing what they got. We filled our cupboards, fridge, & tummies with vegan goods. We usually cooked/baked the produce we found in the dumpsters within a few days of finding it but we always had an endless supply of breads, bagels, cereals, and well... tons of other things. We even used to dumpster the local liquor store, even though none of us drank. We once found cases upon cases of wine. Apparently they got rid of them all to make more shelf room.
Certainly I think living a 100% freegan lifestyle would be hard but I don't doubt that it's possible especially if you live in the right area. I do it when I can. Nothing like having an entire refrigerator full of Odwalla juice!
It's really a hit or miss kinda deal though. Sometimes you hit the mother load and others you leave the dumpster empty handed and soaked in mysterious juices. Haha, so gross.
Trader Joes and Fresh Samantha/ Odwalla were particular 'hot spots' friends and I would frequent.
Mostly contained of date expired and damaged package items. Fresh Samantha/ Odwalla trucks would return with the days 'day of' expired juices. A milk crate full was frequently obtained. Don't recall ever getting ill over dumpstered food, but I was always selectively careful, respectful and cautious.
If I recall correctly the Oprah bit was a little over dramatized.
There is a newly opened Traders Joes on my way to and from work...
What is Fresh Samantha?
When it's possible I go to the Odwalla factory. The most I've gotten there was about six medium-sized boxes full of juices and 10 boxes of Odwalla bars. That night was ridiculous and even after being split three ways, we still had too much!
for those of you who dumpster for food stuffs, what are your tips for doing so? i've dumpstered for household items and at school when the kids move out and find stuff, but i've never done a grocery or food store. i think it would be fun though. i guess, what are the good places? how do you not get caught?
I frequent the local health food stores. Trader Joe's is really popular, same goes for Whole Foods. Some Whole Foods have trash compactors though... most big name stores (Shoprite, Hannaford's etc) around here use them too. Small bagel shops usually have some goodies and if it's not locked/caged in Panera Bread is amazing. Not all their breads are vegan though so I guess you have to work on identifying them? Haha. As far as not getting caught, you can hit them up after hours but certain areas have laws about trespassing. Rules are meant to be broken though! Otherwise, once in the trash, it's public property. Don't make a mess, leave the dumpster in the same condition if not cleaner than when you first arrived. The employees usually don't care though as you don't cause trouble and/or make a mess.
My roommates and I all enjoy free bread from the dumpsters behind Panera Bread in town....they throw all the unsold bread away in the same bag, with no other trash, sealed very well inside their individual bags (typically) and free from other garbage contaminants. It's quite nice--I'm sure they "package" the discarded bread this way for this very reason.
but it's great, we get HUGE bags every/every other month or so, and we typically give away baguettes and loaves to friends before sorting through and wrapping up and freezing our own loaves. What's great is if the loaf goes bad before it's used up, we always have a backup loaf, and I usually find a use for the "bad" bread...
for instance, a super-stale loaf just got made into croutons yesterday (with some extra virgin olive oil and Italian seasonings, baked to perfection...), and a rock-hard dry loaf got processed into crumbs just night, which I used in a bean burger recipe shortly after.
One person's trash is another person's treasure.
I firmly believe in this.
and I will continue to "rescue" unwanted food whenever and wherever I can! There's always some way to use unspoilt food (like the compost broth recipe here, which salvages what would otherwise become garbage food scraps) as long as it's edible and not contaminated.
basically, you've got to be quick--open up a dumpster, hoist yourself up onto the edge if need be, and look for bags that appear to have whole, not-garbage-form food. It's difficult if the place uses black trash bags, because you'd have to squish and squeeze the bag to feel the contents inside--if it feels like a lot of liquid, obviously, that's not one you'll want to open. ::)
But if you're lucky, like we've been with Panera Bread "leftovers," they'll put the good stuff in white or clearish bags, so you don't have to do as much investigation. If the place is cool (that is, aware and welcoming of freegans being their "backdoor customers") they'll put the edible, least perishable goods on top of the heap, so you won't have to dig or suffer leaky garbage goo.
*shudder*
'tis a fun practice, salvaging food this way, but it comes with the obvious risks....it's just one of those things you'll get better at with practice.
Our Panera bread supposedly donates some of the end-of-the-day unsold bread...but it's only hearsay, and I'd have to ask them to be sure. I've heard that they distribute some around the homeless hangouts (not shelters, just..places where they gather and sleep) in our neighboring city...but again, I'm not sure....
Their dumpster is like a lot of restaurant/food retail dumpsters I've seen lately--they have a little garage of sorts so that the bin itself isn't visible outside..you have to open the door (which is always unlocked, hmmm) and step inside. Some places just have what looks like a tall wooden fence around the dumpsters, with a big gate that has a rudimentary lock to keep it shut (sometimes this can be padlocked)...but in either case, if you can get in after hours, preferably after dark, you'll avoid being seen "in the act" of the dive itself, hehe...So just look for a little garage or tall, fenced-in zone around the back of the establishment.
it's only tricky if you live in a dangerous neighborhood where, I dunno, violent crimes might thrive in such hidden away places..? or if your city's police force are particularly suspicious of anyone "sneaking around" the place after hours. *shrugs* I guess I've only done this in one city-my current residence-and nothing much happens around here to make me worry about what my roommates and I do.
for all I know, this is considered trespassing or something in other areas...but again, it's probably up to your area's PD to decide how much of a crime it really is.
I find that the organizations or churches that pick up Panera bread only do it on specific days of the week. Even then, there's usually SOME bread in the dumpster, just not an obscene amount unlike other days when there is no one to pick it up.
I know I couldn't be a dietary freegan. I'm one of those people who are absolutely anal about expiration dates. I thoroughly respect anyone with the talent to do it, though. In my English class we read an article on dumpster diving. I live in an upper-middle class region, and everyone of course turned up their noses. I think that dumpster diving really is a great way to reduce human impact on the planet, and a big middle finger to consumerism.
Trader Joes and Fresh Samantha/ Odwalla were particular 'hot spots' friends and I would frequent.
Mostly contained of date expired and damaged package items. Fresh Samantha/ Odwalla trucks would return with the days 'day of' expired juices. A milk crate full was frequently obtained. Don't recall ever getting ill over dumpstered food, but I was always selectively careful, respectful and cautious.
If I recall correctly the Oprah bit was a little over dramatized.
There is a newly opened Traders Joes on my way to and from work...
What is Fresh Samantha?
When it's possible I go to the Odwalla factory. The most I've gotten there was about six medium-sized boxes full of juices and 10 boxes of Odwalla bars. That night was ridiculous and even after being split three ways, we still had too much!
"In 2000, Odwalla bought out Fresh Samantha for about $27 million in stock, and by the end of the year, Levin left the company. The acquisition made Odwalla the industry leader in high-end natural juice drinks. Both companies were based on employee- and community-friendly policies, and they seemed like a good fit. However, Odwalla soon moved some of the production facilities from Maine to Florida, starting a change in how the company would be run.
In 2001, Coca Cola bought the combined company for around $181 million, as a part of the scramble by the major beverage companies to acquire alternative beverages. Odwalla was made a part of the Minute Maid division. They expanded the lines nationwide, and (at least in some markets) put in special refrigerator units for both Odwalla nd Fresh Samantha, often side-by-side, especially in organic food markets like Whole Foods and also in some Safeways. It was the old story; the company with real distribution muscle and deep pockets buys out the upstarts with the good ideas."
More to read, http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/08/03.html
It just makes me old...
Gotcha, thanks.
Haven't seen any Fresh Samatha around these parts.. but maybe I'm just not paying attention.
I'm from CT but have lived in NJ for a decade. Where is your Odwalla source? (Tosses up secret freegan gang sign)
There's gotta be a Brooklyn/ Queens one...
Fresh Samantha (East Coast) was nonsensical competition for Odwalla (West Coast) latter to buyout FS and for Coke to buyout the merged pair.
It was dumpstered and stockpiled in my fridge, I'll attest to that ; )... all 7-8 years ago.
OOOO! There was a bread factory on Roebling and 4th/5th? in Williamsburg... I would score leftover delivery bread saturdays around 8am... once again that was years ago. I wonder if its still there. I would fill my messenger bag with loaves to the brim bikeing home smelling like fresh bread... Pardon me as I reminisce. <3
Alot of my friends are self proclaimed freegans. I have done it before, you'd be amazed at what people throw out! I don't do it anymore but are not opposed to it, though I wouldn't eat just anything, it'd have to be not touching garbage, preferably wrapped up and of course, vegan. I'm not really feeling like going dumpster diving... though when I see something in the alley that is not a food item, I tend to go see if it'd be useful to me. Like the other day, someone put a doll stroller in for the garbage guys to take away because there was a tear in the fabric. I grabbed it, cleaned it and mended the rip, now it's as good as new and my daughter loves it! Back to the food aspect, some people put the food that their companies make them throw out right on top, carefully not mingling with the other garbage, for the purpose of someone to find and eat it, (speaking from personal experience, on both ends).
It is amazing how to what a degree of an expendable nature our (US) society has become.
The depression era taught some of our grandparents how to conserve, ration and squeeze by (raise a family of four)
on the bare essentials. Unfortunately today, the era of excess expendability and credit, people get rid of automobiles at sign of first major repair (75k) or even better just prior to warranty ending and any given trash day I see new products with minor flaws being picked up by sanitation.
It is amazing how to what a degree of an expendable nature our (US) society has become.
The depression era taught some of our grandparents how to conserve, ration and squeeze by (raise a family of four)
on the bare essentials. Unfortunately today, the era of excess expendability and credit, people get rid of automobiles at sign of first major repair (75k) or even better just prior to warranty ending and any given trash day I see new products with minor flaws being picked up by sanitation.
argh! seriously!
This is probably my number one complaint these days--just how incredibly wasteful some people are, especially when those same people seem to think they've got it so rough...
oooh, dear, I'm so sorry your $400 jacket has gotten a few loose threads at the cuff, poor thing...don't bother mending it, just get a new one!
oh no! your Apple product is SO two weeks ago! you'd better get that crappy old thing replaced with a slimmer, sleeker, more expensive version ASAP!
okay, okay, it's a bit of an exaggeration, but y'all get my point. I simply cannot imagine what it must be like to be SO privileged/wealthy/spoiled/whatever that I'd expect and demand the newest and best of everything all the time. This kind of attitude, along with our general inclination toward excess, is why we have landfills growing at an exponential rate.
There used to be a sticker in my friends car "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without".
I just scored dumpstered coffee.
Example...loot this weekend. It was a good day
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/6305/img9147zw3.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4994/img9154lb1.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4364/img9155oa5.jpg
I would have never considered being "freegan", or picking food out of a dumpster until I heard something on TV the other day.
Thay talked about taking "waste chocolate" from chocolate companies who just throw this waste chocolate in dumpsters, and making fuel from it.
When I saw that I was like: THEY THROW CHOCOLATE AWAY!!! Where is that company? I think for the first time I may try my hand at picking food from a dumpster!
But really, I just never considered it becuase of germs. Not that I think I am "better" or anything like that, I just am grossed out becuase of germs. Plus I have an intense fear and gross out factor when it comes to cockroaches, and roaches live in dumpsters.
But I have no problems when it comes to free food! If it is given out like day old bread is given to cherity, or something like that, I definately will take it. Free food is free food! Food isn't cheap!
holy crap, kannas! that is awesome!
i'm feeling inspired but clueless as to where i'd begin for foodstuffs in my area. there may be some late night driving on my agenda quite soon...
have always picked up non-food stuffs with no problem. in fact, my ex and i used to wander the neighborhood with that purpose in mind, and we'd score all kinds of nifty stuff from the curb. clothes, furniture, electronics, board games, books, plants, a rabbit hutch once - though we didn't even have any rabbits. he got overzealous, though, and would sometimes spy something fly on a porch and start heading up - i'd be like, "dude! that's not their trash!" kinda funny, if a lot younger, times.
oh, and i used to work in a bagel shop (local, not a chain), and we'd give the "day-old" bagels to our regular homeless guys. they knew and would come in every day for 'em. if not, i'd take them home to my household, as would the other conscious employees. no bagels in the trash!
kannas, I seriously envy that! Odwalla heaven in your refridge!
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