help with freeganism

[elibrown]

I know there's already a thread about dumpster diving, but that one is mostly centered around people's opinions on it and whether or not they do it so I figured it would be okay to post a different thread.

I need advice on dumpster diving. I would love to meet someone from my city (Dallas) who does it! For a variety of moral and practical reasons, I want to start seriously reducing the amount of waste I put out and minimizing other peoples' waste by using it. But I'm having trouble starting out. I've looked at pretty much every dumpster I go past on my bike, but most places have trash compactors and those who don't, don't have anything in their dumpsters.

Am I just not looking hard enough? I've looked at grocery stores so far because it's really food that I want to find. I have enough furniture and household things already. I even looked at the farmer's market, but their dumpsters were full of boxes. Am I looking at the wrong places, the wrong times? Do I need to get inside the dumpster and actually dig? Does this get easier as you go along?

Thanks

[Misty]

Sorry I can't help, cause I have never really known of anyone dumpster diving for food, except the homeless who maybe take food from the litter bins .. but.. I'm a lil confused about the meaning of freeganism. I read on a different forum in the last few days about someone being vegan, cept for their freeganism. So can one still be vegan if they don't buy meat, but just dumpster dive for it?? I guess it's because they aren't supporting the meat industry? Sounds a lil weird to me..

[madpoet]

A few years back we lived in an apartment beside a large field with cows in it. I went to the local fruit stand and asked for any fruit/veggies they were going to throw away, they not only gave me so much I couldn't fit it all in my car trunk but they also gave me times and days to come back for more on a regular basis. Needless to say, the food was well recieved by the cows and it was lots of fun to feed it to them. We never ate any of it but from what I could tell it was just blemished and tossed into crates headed for the bin. We only lived in the apartment for the Summer but I got tons from just one place, enough to keep 18 cows very happy! So, imagine if I found more places that let me have their food!! p.s. they especially loved the tomatoes and grapes but ate ALL we gave them, about 25 different types of veggies and fruit!

[Sevenseas]

Sorry I can't help, cause I have never really known of anyone dumpster diving for food, except the homeless who maybe take food from the litter bins .. but.. I'm a lil confused about the meaning of freeganism. I read on a different forum in the last few days about someone being vegan, cept for their freeganism. So can one still be vegan if they don't buy meat, but just dumpster dive for it?? I guess it's because they aren't supporting the meat industry? Sounds a lil weird to me..I think dumpster driving animal products is not vegan.

[*AHIMSA*]

I think dumpster driving animal products is not vegan.:tired: Naturally! It is an environmentally-friendly practice though :hungry:

No thanks...I'll stick to veganism and earn my ecological Karma points in another way :p

[Bonoluvr]

eli have you ever checked out freecycle? its a way for people to swap stuff so it doesnt end up in the trash.........one persons trash is another persons treasure kind of thing.
you can post what you need too and if someone has it they respond.
www.freecycle.org
to find your city.

[Tesseract]

Unfortunately, there is not one single freecycle group in all of Texas. :(

Edit: Oh, whoops, scratch that-- I was looking in the wrong region! I never know whether Texas is South or Southwest.

I wish I had known about it before my move. I would have listed so much stuff. As it was, all the books went to Half-Price Books, all the clothing was donated to local charities, and everything else that seemed even remotely too good for the dumpster went to a local school that holds an annual garage sale of donated goods to raise money.

But that's durable goods, not food. Sorry, no advice here. I have a still-sealed can of Orange Crush I found under my doorstep, and I'm just waiting for a freegan to happen along so I can give it to them. :D

[karenM]

I don't know if this helps, but in the many years I've been running foodservices for fundraising events for various schools and other non-profits, I've had very little success finding recipients willing to pick up (or even just accept a delivery of) our leftover food.

We generally had enough leftovers to fill the trunk of an average car, or the back of a small SUV, after each event. One year we dropped everything off at a teen shelter/home. Twice, I was able to get Foodfinders (http://www.foodfinders.org/) (a charitable food distribution organization) to help find takers, but they haven't been able to find anyone available on a Saturday afternoon for several years. Every person I ask has a suggested recipient - their church, this shelter they know, a food pantry they've heard of, etc, etc, etc - but no one is actually able to arrange anything. I tried Food Not Bombs and other groups that feed the hungry, but they couldn't store the perishables until their next meal. I tried Freecycle, and got several DOZEN responses of people who knew a church, firehouse, shelter, food pantry, etc, etc, etc that would surely take the food, but no one was actually able to arrange anything. Families in the organizations won't take the leftover food because I guess they're sure there are needy people who could use it more than they do.

Perhaps other schools and non-profit groups have the same situation. If I was looking for some free food, I'd try showing up at the end of fund-raising events around town and offering to take the leftovers they would ordinarily throw away. Or contact them in advance if you can.

[elibrown]

Oh wow, I wish I lived near you! So what types of events exactly are you talking about? What should I be looking for?

Seems like being a freegan, from what people have told me, is probably a lot more about making the right connections rather than looking in the right places.

So if I go to the farmer's market and tell them I have goats and they will eat blemished produce, who exactly should I talk to? Most of the people working the booths don't speak English and my Spanish is not that great. There isn't like, a manager or anything...

What about grocery stores? Do you just ask the manager? The produce stocker?

I am a member of Freecycle but it is mostly furniture and appliances and stuff. It's a good organization to be a part of though.

I've seen people on Craig's List occassionally offering a box of food they cleaned out of their kitchen (nonperishables, obviously). I'll just keep checking there.

[karenM]

Oh wow, I wish I lived near you! So what types of events exactly are you talking about? What should I be looking for?
The events I worked at were large swim meets (YMCA swim teams), and marching band / colorguard competitions (high schools). We'd have a ton of baked potatoes, butter pats, bagged salad mix, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, chips, buns, muffins, homemade cookies, beverages, and lots of miscellaneous stuff left at the end of the day.

Even at the little parking lot swap meets our high school holds every month, I end up with leftover doughnuts, muffins, chips, fruit, and condiments. Maybe the local PTAs will put you in touch with the food chairpersons for their fundraising events, if you explained that you would keep the leftovers from going to waste.

For what it's worth, our local bagel shops used to donate big garbage bags FULL of leftover bagels at the end of the business day. They generally tried to give them to charitable organizations though.

[elibrown]

Thank you SO much guys for your help! I went scavenging at the farmer's market today and it was a success! I sucked it up and just asked a vendor if I could have his blemished stuff because my grandparents had goats. Haha. He was happy to give it to me but it had already been thrown away, so he said to come back any day at four thirty and he'd save it for me. How cool is that? I also found a huge trash pile FULL of food. There were perfectly edible papayas, pears, parsley, bunches of celery, cauliflower. I filled up the milk crate attached to my bike and about half of it was free food. It was just like, a vegetable that had a spot on it in most cases. I don't care about a spot!

I also have discovered from VERY persistent biking and driving around at different times of day, a grocery store that leaves several trash bags of food outside beside their trash compactor...maybe they're freegan friendly at that store. I found an entire trash bag of tortillas (about 10 inside were perfect) and two 3 foot long loaves of French bread.

Today at Whole Foods I was feeling brave because of my wildly successful farmer's market adventure, so I asked the cashier at closing time if I could have the opened-but-barely-gone bottles of organic lemonade that were used for samples. He said yes! Yummm.

Misty, to address your concern...in my opinion, someone cannot be a vegan while eating dumpster meat, but they can be an animal rights activist. They aren't putting any money into the meat industry. From what I can tell though I think this is a controversial subject amongst freegans.

I have a pair of leather shoes that I got at a garage sale. I'm not an AR activist at all, but the thought occurred to me when my AR friend sort of attacked me for wearing leather...the leather shoe company never saw a penny of the $2 I gave to the garage sale lady for these shoes, and the lady didn't buy them with the intention of selling them to me, so how could I possible have supported the industry?

[Coney]

Sounds like you found some good places around you to hit up every day! good for you.

Restaurants also throw away tons of stuff every week. You could ask about bread, chips, etc at restaurants.

Do you know about crimethinc.com? Lots of stuff on there about dumpster diving, where to find free stuff in your community, how to get together with others who are Urban Hunters and Gatherers.

I don't dumpster dive, but I think it's all in the timing of when people throw stuff out. I know here in the city, on garbage days, people set out good items on top of the trash for others to find. Tuesday and Friday nights where I am.

[Trueveggie14]

:tired: Naturally! It is an environmentally-friendly practice though :hungry:

No thanks...I'll stick to veganism and earn my ecological Karma points in another way :p

You know AHIMSA, you could be Freegan Vegan Friendly!!!

:lol: I couldn't wait to say that.

Seriously though you could sign up to this freecycle.org site that they are talking about (as I intend to) and be a provider instead of a "seeker". Then for whatever reason, if there is food or items that your family is not going to use or eat you could offer it to whomever might like it.

I bought Soy Delicious vegan ice cream the other day cause everyone was raving about it here. I hate it. (really prefer Tofutti) My germs are not in the container. I used an ice cream scoop. I suppose if they were going to pick food from the dumpster, they wouldn't mind a half finished quart of vegan ice cream. Just as an example.

[elibrown]

I'm a member of Freecycle. I've never seen any food there though. I think maybe people are afraid of giving away food, because maybe no one will want it and think that's gross, or maybe they'd rather save it for a food bank.

[Trueveggie14]

Elibrown: If it was posted (the half full container of soy delicious) and we lived close, would you be interested? We don't (live close) unfortunately. I'm just curious. Something like this, would normally end up in the trash or down the drain for me. My family won't eat it. I haven't even looked at the website yet. My current neighborhood would not understand what it means if I posted a sign "freegan vegan friendly" outfront and I'm not sure I would feel safe having strangers hanging out near my house so much.
So much to consider. I want to help. Maybe I just don't know a good / safe method.

[animallover7249]

I think its a rule on freecycle that any food offered has to be unopened.

[Trueveggie14]

Well, I'm getting by paycheck to paycheck. I am fine with sharing, but I will not Support another person. If they want unopened / brand new stuff, they are going to have to get a job and buy it themselves.

[*AHIMSA*]

Elibrown: If it was posted (the half full container of soy delicious) and we lived close, would you be interested? We don't (live close) unfortunately. I'm just curious. Something like this, would normally end up in the trash or down the drain for me.
Have you tried to make a smoothie or milkshake with it? How about a parfait? Which flavor is it? There *has* to be a way to make it palatable :cool:

[elibrown]

Yes, Trueveggie I would absolutely be interested. I don't think it's any more likely that you would have tampered with it and offered it for free than some factory defect or something could have occurred to make it inedible. If I saw a post (guess it wouldn't be on Freecycle, but maybe on Craigslist) that said, "Look, I bought this ice cream but I hate it and it was $4 so does anyone want it?" I would not see anything dangerous or strange about that. It happens all the time, but most of us are too scared to offer it to a stranger or we don't know how to, so we just throw it away. And that is why people become freegans, to stop the vicious cycle of waste. :)

[Moechalatte]

I know there's already a thread about dumpster diving, but that one is mostly centered around people's opinions on it and whether or not they do it so I figured it would be okay to post a different thread.

I need advice on dumpster diving. I would love to meet someone from my city (Dallas) who does it! For a variety of moral and practical reasons, I want to start seriously reducing the amount of waste I put out and minimizing other peoples' waste by using it. But I'm having trouble starting out. I've looked at pretty much every dumpster I go past on my bike, but most places have trash compactors and those who don't, don't have anything in their dumpsters.

Am I just not looking hard enough? I've looked at grocery stores so far because it's really food that I want to find. I have enough furniture and household things already. I even looked at the farmer's market, but their dumpsters were full of boxes. Am I looking at the wrong places, the wrong times? Do I need to get inside the dumpster and actually dig? Does this get easier as you go along?

Thanks


I don't know much about freeganism except what I read through a post on VB a while back (might have been from you, now that I think about it... :) ). Anyway, I don't know much about it, so I don't know how you'll like this suggestion... but rather than going around to dumpsters looking for things to use, why not start a tiny company that will go around to dumpters and organize out the junk (into food, goodwill items, recycling, etc.) and then send it off to other people who can use them?

When I lived in Ohio, our county sifted through the dumpters and separated the recycling and the trash, but I always wondered why, since they weren't already digging in the trash, did they not take out reuseable items, etc. also? It seems to me like a small company that can dumpster dive on a larger scale than just one person would be a really worthwile project.

I don't know... I know this doesn't answer your question, and maybe it isn't even something freegans believe in, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I've always wanted to start up something like that. I was actually drawing up some plans for it here for a while, but the county just isn't very willing to cooperate :(