Freganism is by definition parasitic. Without wasteful consumption, freganism wouldn't exist. It would just be stealing, or scrounging, or whatever. But throw in the wasteful consumption spin and suddenly those less glorious monickers fall by the wayside and you are a "fregan".

Mostly I find it very interesting that dumpster diving now has a banner that people can gather under and even - dare I say it - act haughty in the process! A form of Urban Survival at its best.

I was just saying a month ago that I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, there was a TV show on some cable channel about how to make turned food taste ok. Much in the way that people used to use rosemary and other strong spices to make turned meat taste better.

But now I think it could have more of a holistic approach including hunting/trapping food in an urban environment and then preparing it so it would be safe to eat.

(trapping = setting up faux garbage cans that say "food product only" for unsuspecting masses to dump food into!)

I crack myself up. But I think it could be pitched to the networks if the recession lasts much longer. Its just so crazy it might work.

They still do that here, sorta. The city sets aside a day for everyone to put their unwanted junk on the curb and they come pick it up. The night before and early that morning is a beehive of activity. I have ridden shotgun in a truck that was collecting before the city got there. There is also a couple of dumpsters that usually have something salvageable in them. I have also seen people wait at the dumpster for the stuff that a grocery store was throwing away.

Did you all know that Walmart locks up their trash? they have compactors that stay locked per regulations. When my store was remodeled they had a big construction dumpster out back, and would call the police on anyone trying to dumpster dive. Seriously. I was working there at that time, I saw a guy get arrested for it.

When I see the amount of perfectly usable stuff that's sent to the landfill, I shake my head. Sometimes I do more -- I'm not above diverting and reusing good stuff.

I'm cautious, though. A very skeptical eye is necessary. You have to dodge toxic or contaminated stuff, faulty electrical stuff, potentially dangerous stuff.

I would be pretty darn leery of recycled food straight from a dumpster. There are too many things you don't know about it. On the other hand, if you chat up the staff and build a rapport so you know what you're getting, maybe grease the wheels with a nice bottle as a gift or sharpen their knives, I can see it.

On the other hand, there are many farmers who pick up scrap buckets from restaurants and turn it into bacon. This saves the restaurant on disposal fees, so they don't mind accommodating you if you're reliable.

My wife is a grade school teacher. As you might imagine, copious amounts of food refuse is generated daily by the 100's of kids in the school cafeteria. The school now has an agreement with some local farmers who use the fresh leftovers for animal feed. The kids are trained to separate the reusable food from the rest of the stuff on their tray, and it goes into clean collection bins. The farmers come by and pick up daily.

Sorry about so much text.

In the past 30 years trash has gone from being a nuisance to a valuable resource for raw materials.
Almost all of the laws against dumpster diving came in when the cities (and the companies they contracted their waste disposal to) started to understand how much money all the scrap plastic and metal they were trying to bury was worth.
We have cases here where people are charged with theft for picking stuff out of the dump. In some cases it is even just for grabbing a bag of shredded paper to use as bedding for their pets.

Paper is often worth as much as scrap sheet metal and a look through the prices for most of the recycled material can be a real eye opener. A lot of communities even manage to squeeze a profit out of the organics by composting them and selling the compost through garden centers.


Trash has become valuable enough that about 20 years ago some communities reclaimed old dumps by mining them out and processing them through trash separators. Not only did they get to keep using their dump, they got paid for the metals and plastics too.
Usually an old dump has better metal values than most mine ores do and the metals are easier to process. (consider for a moment that an old cathode ray TV screen has at least 5 pounds of lead in the glass)

And then there are the overseas markets for trash...

It is not because of the homeless guy trying to scrounge food that the laws against dumpster diving are in place.
Nobody really cares about waste food at this point, and nobody really cares if a homeless person gets food poisoning and dies.
The welfare cases gathering pop bottles were not the big concern here either
But when they discovered that an army of scrap metal pickers were existing on what they could grab out of dumpsters it became a concern. Stopping them from collecting from the curb recycling boxes was next and now all trash has become private property owned by the recyclers.

It all makes me think about the rag and bone collectors from Dicken's England

There are laws in MA against distributing food that is unfit for consumption (ie-past its due date). I remember one specific incident where a small town was giving their old donuts (those that had been on the shelf since the last delivery) to local food pantries-until the govt put a stop to that. They were told they HAVE to throw it out. Their solution? They put them in bags, then in boxes, call the local food pantry, and then place them on top of the dumpster. The donuts & bagels would then go to the local Veterans Outreach programs-they were fine, just a few hours old. I myself benefitted from their generosity more than a few times.
I would hope that I would never become that desperate-I would be wary of picking out of garbage cans-but, one can never tell these days.

Great thing about living in rural areas is that nothing has to go to waste.

I cleaned out my farm shop 6 months ago.

I just put the stuff on the the side of the road.

Someone stopped and picked up EVERYTHING I put out within an hour.

No dumpster needed.

Funny, its exactly the same thing in my neighborhood. No need to donate at goodwill as everything from old shoes to old furniture is gone in less than a day. Even stained matresses are snatched up.

"Even stained matresses sick are snatched up."

So THAT'S where they're coming from! Someone here in WA is decorating the roadsides along Interstate 5 with old stained mattresses. Sometimes they leave them on the freeway.

Sue