The Art of Dumpster Diving

[zengrifter]

There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch
Freegans dig up an eco-conscious, anti-consumerist existence

—By Kristen Mueller, Utne.com
May 18, 2006 Issue

Adam Weissman crouches on a city street, his hands buried in a large plastic garbage bag while eyeing a neighboring black container bulging with food. This isn't another image of urban homelessness. This is freeganism, a lifestyle founded on recovering perfectly good "trash" via "Dumpster diving" or "urban foraging," instead of spending hard-earned paychecks on the same products in stores.

"Simply put," Weissman says in an interview with Satya, "freegans seek to prevent waste by reclaiming, recovering, and repairing available resources rather than generate new profit."

For those too squeamish to dig through bags of waste for free loot, Weissman recommends shopping in the aptly-named "Free Stores" and "Really Really Free Markets," or logging onto websites like Freecycle and craigslist, where users alert one another to items they're willing to give away, and post notices asking for things they want.

But freeganism -- the moniker combines "free" with "veganism" -- isn't just a strategy to acquire goods without cracking open your wallet. According to the Freegan.info website, freeganism developed as a backlash against "egregious corporations" that violate human rights, devastate the environment, and abuse animals. When environmentalists realized they couldn't escape supporting these harmful actions every time they made a purchase, they decided to boycott the entire economic system.

In doing so, "Freegans are building a culture where people voluntarily help and share with one another rather than competing for resources," Weissman says. These socially-minded initiatives include "finding abandoned, decrepit buildings and restoring them into homes and community centers for low-income families," converting "garbage-strewn abandoned lots into beautiful garden plots amidst the asphalt and concrete of urban neighborhoods," or simply riding bikes and utilizing restaurant grease as an alternative fuel source in converted diesel engines.

As for finding food, Weissman recognizes that not everyone is willing to alter their lifestyles to the point where they eagerly wade through chest-high heaps of garbage. And that's OK. "Our focus is far more on building a new and more sustainable culture from the ground up than it is on micromanaging the lifestyle choices of individuals. ... It's much easier to get people to want to make positive changes if we make them feel welcome as they are, rather than having to constantly worry if they will be judged for not being 'freegan enough.'"

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The Freegans website - http://www.freegan.info/

[zengrifter]

Dumpster diving:
'Freegans' and others survive on society's refuse
Maisie Ramsay 7/23/2007 8:37 am

They steal quietly through the night, approaching the dumpster on foot.

The lid is lifted, the contents quickly surveyed. Bags of bread and produce are nabbed. Nearby, a pair of curious raccoons watch the spectacle, intrigued by their uninvited nocturnal dining companions. The recovered items are sorted through swiftly, the spoiled things returned to the dumpster and the site cleaned of all traces of intrusion. The dumpster divers disappear back into the night, seeking the next wellspring of discarded foodstuffs.



"The first time I saw it I was amazed and taken aback. There was more food than you've ever seen, just there. ... Sometimes it still hits you -- all this food is still good," says Spike Appel, frequent dumpster diver and chief organizer of the local chapter of Food Not Bombs, an "anarchist community project" that provides free vegetarian meals to the public.

To most Madison residents, rummaging through piles of trash is something done twice a year during "hippie Christmas" when students move out during May and August. For some, dumpster diving provides a year-round source of food. For others, it's an anti-consumerist political statement.

University of Arizona archaeologist Timothy Jones conducted a recent study that estimated 40 percent of food ready for harvest is wasted -- left to rot in fields or thrown into the trash.

So much is discarded, in fact, that it is possible to live almost entirely off of trash, or as New York dumpstering organizer and founding member of the Web site freegan.info Adam Weissman puts it, the excesses of capitalism.

...more - http://www.madison.com/tct/entertainment/202420

[glovesetc]

is almost non - existent cause everyone uses shredders for bills , phone bills, utility bills , credit card mailings , etc and we also have shredders for plastics and larger items . Not much to find out here . By the way staples has great shredders and so does wal-mart starting at $29.95 all the way to $300.00 to make mince meat of anything you feel could compromise your credit , house , or other financial accounts !