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On Freeganism and Dumpster diving
11 years ago
General
For the last 4 months, I haven't went grocery shopping once! I've gotten all my food out of the dumpster of a local grocery store and I've also started worshiping raccons. It probably sounds disgusting, (And it can be) but the fact is grocery stores throw away perfectly good food and I've been liberating it into my mouth. Also raccoons are super cute. Not only have I saved a ton of money, I've also been eating probably better than I ever have because my diet has become primarily fruit and vegetable based. I've been going through salads and kale and fresh juices like they are going out of style (and they are). Just like raccoons!
how did I get into this? Basically, the idea has been in my head for awhile. I knew a few people in who did it in both Philadelphia and NYC. I had a friend in Philly that even ate rotting food, never used a fridge, and on top of that she had a boyfriend that would eat roadkill. (Kind of extreme! ) The final straw that got me motivated to do this was when I attended a dinner party at my high school friend's house in Philadelphia with my other high school friend Dariusz (not a furry). We found out after the party was over that all the food had been liberated from dumpsters! That was it, me and Dariusz were going to try it for ourselves and see how it went.
(Hail Raccoon, Full of grace, the food is with thee)
We went to a local grocery store that we knew didn't have a butcher shop (So no blood in the dumpster) and drove up there all sheisty heisty, like raccoons in the moonlit mist. I've never felt so raccoony in my life. We weren't expecting much that first day, but the amount of food we pulled out of that dumpster was MIND NUMBING. We were both completely overwhelmed. The first thing we saw was an entire 12 pack of really expensive pure cranberry juice with one broken one. I guess store policy is that if one breaks, they all get thrown out because of glass contamination. We left with hundreds of dollars worth of produce that was barely ripe yet, peanut butter with broken lids but still sealed otherwise, entire boxes of drinks with only one bottle broken, Eggs with one egg out of a dozen broken, cans with no labels, boxes of cookies with one eaten, strawberries with flour spilled on them. (Blessed art thou among weird animals, and blessed is the fruit of our womb dumpster) That first night we were still a little paranoid, with questions like "Why was this thrown out? Is there something we should know about?" and "Oh this is opened, let's not take this". As time went on we got braver and braver and stopped giving a shit why stuff was thrown out, or that it was opened at all. I can't believe all the food our country throws out! There has been a few times where the dumpster was completely overflowing to the point of bags on the ground all around it, and we left it with plenty of room to close the lids.
On top of that, I really fucking HATE food shopping to begin with. I basically just stare at all the labels and it takes me forever to choose things, and then I get paranoid I've spent too much time in the grocery store and someone is going to call the police or something. This is a lot more fun. I just eat what the raccoon gods give me.
It completely makes sense that I would be doing this, because I basically never buy ANYTHING as it is. I haven't paid for any of my furniture in my room or apartment, most of my clothes are good will or free, stuff like that. I don't like to buy new things when I know there are perfectly good old things being thrown out.
(Our Raccoon, who art in dumpsters, holy be thy name)
This isn't supposed to be an advertisement for dumpster diving or anything, I just wanted to share and get opinions either way. It's certainly not for everyone! There's definitely some negative things, like stuff covered with egg or milk, garbage juice, rotting mush food, meat water! The Faint of heart, the squeamish, the germ-a-phobe, probably wouldn't want to get mixed into this matrix! It's not all glamorous free food of course. I usually wash everything with vinegar when i get home. Weirdly enough, the dumpster is usually filled with flowers which we step on. So far, neither of us have gotten sick from any of the food we've eaten, even the most questionable stuff (Thanks be to Raccoon, Lord Raccoon Christ). Anyway, I just felt like writing about it since it's something I've gotten into. It's been going good so far, hopefully I haven't jinxed it by writing this. Raccoon willing, i can continue doing this for a while. (in the name of the Raccoon, The other raccoon, the holy raccoon, Amen)
And Ironically enough, I just got a second hand raccoon fursuit!
E. Raccoonipus Unum
In raccoon we trust.
how did I get into this? Basically, the idea has been in my head for awhile. I knew a few people in who did it in both Philadelphia and NYC. I had a friend in Philly that even ate rotting food, never used a fridge, and on top of that she had a boyfriend that would eat roadkill. (Kind of extreme! ) The final straw that got me motivated to do this was when I attended a dinner party at my high school friend's house in Philadelphia with my other high school friend Dariusz (not a furry). We found out after the party was over that all the food had been liberated from dumpsters! That was it, me and Dariusz were going to try it for ourselves and see how it went.
(Hail Raccoon, Full of grace, the food is with thee)
We went to a local grocery store that we knew didn't have a butcher shop (So no blood in the dumpster) and drove up there all sheisty heisty, like raccoons in the moonlit mist. I've never felt so raccoony in my life. We weren't expecting much that first day, but the amount of food we pulled out of that dumpster was MIND NUMBING. We were both completely overwhelmed. The first thing we saw was an entire 12 pack of really expensive pure cranberry juice with one broken one. I guess store policy is that if one breaks, they all get thrown out because of glass contamination. We left with hundreds of dollars worth of produce that was barely ripe yet, peanut butter with broken lids but still sealed otherwise, entire boxes of drinks with only one bottle broken, Eggs with one egg out of a dozen broken, cans with no labels, boxes of cookies with one eaten, strawberries with flour spilled on them. (Blessed art thou among weird animals, and blessed is the fruit of our womb dumpster) That first night we were still a little paranoid, with questions like "Why was this thrown out? Is there something we should know about?" and "Oh this is opened, let's not take this". As time went on we got braver and braver and stopped giving a shit why stuff was thrown out, or that it was opened at all. I can't believe all the food our country throws out! There has been a few times where the dumpster was completely overflowing to the point of bags on the ground all around it, and we left it with plenty of room to close the lids.
On top of that, I really fucking HATE food shopping to begin with. I basically just stare at all the labels and it takes me forever to choose things, and then I get paranoid I've spent too much time in the grocery store and someone is going to call the police or something. This is a lot more fun. I just eat what the raccoon gods give me.
It completely makes sense that I would be doing this, because I basically never buy ANYTHING as it is. I haven't paid for any of my furniture in my room or apartment, most of my clothes are good will or free, stuff like that. I don't like to buy new things when I know there are perfectly good old things being thrown out.
(Our Raccoon, who art in dumpsters, holy be thy name)
This isn't supposed to be an advertisement for dumpster diving or anything, I just wanted to share and get opinions either way. It's certainly not for everyone! There's definitely some negative things, like stuff covered with egg or milk, garbage juice, rotting mush food, meat water! The Faint of heart, the squeamish, the germ-a-phobe, probably wouldn't want to get mixed into this matrix! It's not all glamorous free food of course. I usually wash everything with vinegar when i get home. Weirdly enough, the dumpster is usually filled with flowers which we step on. So far, neither of us have gotten sick from any of the food we've eaten, even the most questionable stuff (Thanks be to Raccoon, Lord Raccoon Christ). Anyway, I just felt like writing about it since it's something I've gotten into. It's been going good so far, hopefully I haven't jinxed it by writing this. Raccoon willing, i can continue doing this for a while. (in the name of the Raccoon, The other raccoon, the holy raccoon, Amen)
And Ironically enough, I just got a second hand raccoon fursuit!
E. Raccoonipus Unum
In raccoon we trust.
I mean, if you're not me, then it might be embarrassing. I personally don't get embarrassed very easily.
Also if this story isn't made up then you should really only ever do this for like electronics. Shit's gross, yo.
Also a huge box of chocolate bars. (Like 150 chocolate bars)
bears have ........ nevermind!
any critter would go dumpster diving,once they get a taste of tha guud life!
but seriously,save tha cans for me!
North America collectively throws away somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of all the food it sells or tries to sell (including but not limited to restaurants, grocery stores, and disposal of leftovers or old stuff from the fridge at home). So awful.
It's the whole "When in doubt throw it out" mentality, which is complete hype. I've only thrown out maybe 4% of everything I've found in the dumpster because it gets too shitty.
If you're actually doing this watch out for bleach, sometimes the supermarket will dump it on the food in the dumpster to keep the bums away. I mean... you could probably smell it but yea...
But seriously, I just read a statistic that every year Americans through away 141 TRILLION calories worth of food. That's enough to feed 200 million children 3 meals a day for an entire year. So even though it's not going to children, some of it IS going to a lunatic in a jester hat, which is pretty much the same thing.
And on a non-serious note, this is reminding me of scenes from John Travolta movies for some reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1dwGT4xwgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCB42DDDXPI
Seriously, 141 TRILLION calories. I don't even know how big that is. Like, how many zeros is that? Fuck, I don't even know. I'm just going to make something up. That's like 27 zeros or some shit, which is a lot. Go team Scurrow!
But yeah, it makes sense. I mean food is placed in super markets, sits there for a few weeks, gets thrown out. More food is moved and unrefrigerated, stuff is spilled on it, people buy food and they forget to make it. I believe it. I'm glad i'm helping that statistic.
ANYWAYS, my point is that is really that I'm fucking cheap and I just might try this shit if I am brave and/or stupid and/or drunk enough.
*Note: At work, the most inappropriate time is all the time.
have a nice meal
Seems to be what all the cool kids are doing.
Kudos to you for doing this though, I just can't talk myself into it.
Just gonna buy my food... like a dork.
But it weeds out the competition.
We ate real good. Gratz dude!
LoL I know what I'm drawing tonight.
You should have went for jalapeno biscuits instead.
►►☆☆In the name of our holy raccoon deity, amen☆☆◀◀
*chitter*
As for being a freegan, while it is definitely not for me, I say good for you. Anything that lessens the total amount of waste is a good thing, and you are living proof that most anybody who puts their mind to it can avoid truly going hungry.
Freeganism is good for everyone. Gets rid of the shops' waste and you eat for free. I wish I could do it here, but shops tend to secure their bins here.
I'm trying this shit very soon. Do you dumpster dive at major grocery stores, or the smaller ones? I've never tried, but I hear some of the stores do what they can to keep people out of their dumpsters. I'll sneak in there like a fucking thief in the night and steal all the cabbages.
For science! And curiosity.
That documentary looks really cool, I gotta watch that. Of course they all look like total hipsters, I fit right in. WE haven't had anyone say anything to us yet.. One time there was still an employee there and he came out and walked right by us without noticing us,
You can always just cut the bruise off and eat the rest.
I have more bread than i know what to do with.
bought those posh NYC bagels from a store recently 16p for 5! all because they were out of date THAT day, frozen now, boom!
If you have onions that are going bad you can cut off the bottom part, the little root crown, and plant it. You won't get a new onion from it, but it'll flower! If you tie a paper bag around the flowers once they start to wilt, you can gather the seeds.
Urban farming is my new jam. Small harvests mean you can keep a close eye on your buddies for pests and weeds and you can grow all sorts of cultivars (heirloom tomatoes! rainbow carrots!) and it will be as organic as you want and FREE, so long as you take a few minutes every day to check on your crops.
There's also VERTICAL GARDENING which is a really neat idea if space is at a premium. You can make one out of "http://www.inmagz.com/wallbank/1745-vertical-gardening-ideas-with-hardwood-floors.jpg" (both of which are free if you're a CRAFTY RACCOON).