Comments on: Dumpster Diving: The Easiest Way To Find Free Food

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:21:05 +0000

In the last month or so i have taken up dumpster diving for my food. Lets just say i haven’t bought any food in a long time. I don’t even have to go out every night, usaully every third or forth night. I get all sorts of good eats, i’ve gotten, ground beef, steaks, pork loin, turkey tenderloins, chips, soda, cookies, beans, rice, sugar, flour, chicken wings, chicken breasts, chicken wings, salmon, tilapia, yogurt, protien shakes, protein bars, basically every kind of bread and pastry you can imagine, i even found a beer once and thats just a partial list. I also recently found a working digital camera in a dumpster. I am able to feed myself, my roommate and still have food to give away to anyone that is willing to eat food from a dumpster. I have actually food i can eat better out of a dumpster than i can afford to buy at a supermarket. But dumpster diving is about more than just free food, it’s about recycling. Why should i go to a store and buy food when i can just go and get the same products from the dumpster after they close. America is one of the most wasteful countries in the world, my advice is take of advantage of the waste of your fellow citizens.

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By: V. T.

V. T. — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:36:04 +0000

You mean “waste perfectly good food… thAn let hipsters…”?
Isn’t it obvious that to me it’s not a question of ideology but of survival?
Yes I stil can think and speak, but what is on stake is our life here.
I was angry (very much) and frightened not without a reason, thinking that there is a world-wide pandemic outbreak (we entered too, as a country, it seems) and I dumpster dive!
I wrote here to express my feelings, not waiting for anything, while local society (friends, relatives) do not want to know anything about it.
I will also never again write here any more. I should have said id before, as I only answer once more because I did not prevent about it.

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By: Jonathan Stamos

Jonathan Stamos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:26:18 +0000

So you rather waste perfectly good food then let hipsters follow their pretentious ideology?

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By: V. T.

V. T. — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:50:43 +0000

P. S.
After I updated my post as above, I went once more for dumpster diving and then, I remembered about swine flu.
I had not thought that this cannot be while I dumpster dive!
I will never again dumpster dive at least for the time being.

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By: V. T.

V. T. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:50:38 +0000

I changed system during the summer and this site was bookmarked in the firefox’s favourites of the old system.
The situation is like this.
I was surfing through dial-up during the last ten years.
My 2 systems bought during this time (with credit card instalments, don’t know if I translate right the term) were full of trojans.
They never let me do what I like, to write, to read, question can’t be made about listening to the radio or seeing videos on-line.
Yet I can update my personal homepage which is the thing it bothers them most, and eventually to post here and there in the net.
This place of yrs I struggled very hard in order to achieve to post in, in the first place.
I was afraid to switch to broadband in case that it would be then completely impossible to surf, since I’m not at all computer informed and I maybe could not manage the broadband settings in order to avoid hackers and trojans.
But I was obliged to jump in the void as the cost difference between dial-up and broadband is hence huge.
I bought a third new clean system (credit card instalments again) and tried VERY HARD. I managed to have internet access after some 3 months, but in the exactly same way as before, that is, I only do what hackers, trojan remote users, they allow me to do.
So I had forgotten about yr site and only dreamt about posting again when I dumpster dive locally.
I kept my previous system and connected it to the new with some two towers, one screen, one mouse, one keyboard switch, in a way that I can anytime see my old data, nevertheless could not start looking in the past firefox’s favourites for to post here again, if it was for some real emergency maybe I could.
But today I noticed in my yahoo mail a notification for new posts here, and that was easy to follow the link and meet you again.
Hello!
During all this time I discovered little things and tips and I’d like to post them but then again, maybe they are useless for others.
Given that I live now with 9 dogs and 4 cats (pet people came in and others left us, I mean I lost them, passed away, any how now the total number is as above) my first preoccupation is for meet, which as I said I ask for free from butchers’leftovers, and also use my restricted money for to buy additionnally pets canned food or dry food.
My permanent repressed desire is for vegetables and dairy products for me.
Given that I’m 50 now, it is said that this kind of food is critical for to keep one’s good health especially a woman’s good bones situation etc.
I can only dream about fresh dairy products and vegetables, fruits salads and so on, but then I found some 2 or 3 tips for the second category.
Each saturday in Greece happen some bazaars in every corner or neighborhood called “?????? ??????”, this translated is something like “public market” where mainly vegetables and fruits are sold, in low prices.
So accidentally I passed by the nearest public market to me, late in the saturday afternoon and found in the garbadge bins lots of good stuff, fruits and vegetables, more than once.
The good thing with the public markets’ garbage bins is that they only contain fruits and vegetables, not anything else, and this kind of food even if it is partially hit or sere, in a way that merchants could not sell it, it’s not rotten or dangerous and one can clean it completely well, when washing it.
As other garbage do not mix with them in those garbage bins it can be relatively safe to dumpster dive there and I was very happy to discover it, cause safety and health have been my main problem that stopped me very often from doing this, even if extremely hungry and my pets starving.
Cannot risk to get them sick cause vets then ask for astronomical amounts and we lost 2 or 3 pets this summer cause vets denied me some credit of a month or two for their services in an emergency.
So get sick is not an option neither for me nor for my pet family and this is my main problem with dumpster diving.
I expanded the fruit and vegetable dumpster diving except for the public markets also to some vegetable shops in the country, I mean outside the Athens center, on the national road’s both sides, at night where I found sometimes, equally good water melons, peaches and other similar paradise goods.
Whenever I dumpster dive there, I return home and make fruit juices in the blender, as the fruits should rather not be preserved whole. And salads. The juices if I cannot consume instantly (although I can consume 2-3 litres at one gulp cause this is my kind of alcohol), but if there’s more I keep it in the fridge for next day and it is heaven.
So that is for the vegetarian dumpster diving, it’s safer than others.
Also there are some big supermarket chains’ subsidiaries in my neighborhood (far outside from Athens center I repeat) where I tried a couple of times at night.
I did not find lots of things, a rotten german bread into its cellophane, a tomato, but then next night they locked the garbadge bins all of them with padlocks, and another supermarket, they built some bars all over their yard to stop cars enter when they are closed.
(I was parking the car late at night near their garbadge bins so that I cannot be seen to dumpster dive from the national road).
I left some time without visiting them and then they had left again the garbadge bins unlocked, they do not have much although inside.
There is this new built supermarket subsidiary although (a third one) where I was astonished once to discover a whole load of fresh fish!
I had not eaten fish during the last 10 years more than once.
And there was lots and lots of them completely fresh and beautiful, I know about fishes as I was taught from my grandpa to fish at our home town in an island, so they were definitely fresh and good and could not guess why they threw them away?
There I found lots of things, a can with cheese almost empty but there was a big piece left inside, ham, lots of it, fruits etc etc.
I believe this is the only supermarket in the region where it’s worthwile to dumpster dive, but it’s all new and luxury and maybe that’s why they get rid of so much good food, or maybe it was my lucky day.
People who were giving me the musty cheese pies are tormeting me each day “come tomorrow in a different time”, “come an hour later” and so on, then they say “I’m sorry, I forgot to keep them”, “nothing had left”, and so on.
At times I think “never I will go there again”, maybe then I’ll change my mind.
Sometimes I do not change it, like at some confectionnery where twice they gave us musty cheese pies and we all got diarrhea, me and the pets, I never touched their doorstep again although they gave a lot.
Some other time I abandonned another cheese pies shop, my main supply source at the time, cause a neighbour of mine, some hostile guy who does anything to ennoy and threaten us, informed me that he knows what I’m doing and maybe the food I get will not be safe enough in the future.
I was afraid maybe he could go first in the garbadge can where I had arranged with the shop’s guy to leave them next to it (not inside), I was afraid the bad neighbour could go there and put anything inside the food in order to harm me or the pets, depends who could eat of them and changed place, I abandonned this one.
The dangers one must face when doing this “dumpster dive” as you say are not a cruise in exotic places and who sees them alike is probably not obliged to exercise this.
As I am concerned I think that dumpster diving is suitable for the rich, who like that, can be assured the poor people can risk their health to full their bellies, instead of uprising and getting them all from those thiefs.
EVERYBODY IS ENTITLED TO CLEAN AND SAFE FOOD WHEN FOOD IS THROWN AWAY BUT NOT TO STEEL IT OR COLLECT IT AMONGST THE DIRT, WE ARE ENTITLED TO SAFE DISTRIBUTION AND REDISTRIBUTION OF FOOD, INSTEAD OF COMPANIES TO BURY OR BURN IT, OR DESTROY IT, THEY MUST BE OBLIGED TO GIVE IT, OFFER IT, FEED FOR FREE POOR PEOPLE.
That’s my opinion.
Either dreaming of being able to purchase safe and clean food for myself and my beloved ones, or then dreaming of being given safe and clean food for same reason that’s the only rational thing I see.
The other thing I’m obliged to do is kind of divination. One must guess where he’ll find food for tonight and then he’ll guess (judging from all he sees and feels) that this time he will not get sick or die from what he collects.
Either he will guess right, or not, in both attempts.
As per how to oblige rich people and companies to redistribute systematically all the food they get rid of, I don’t know how, I believe high economy is interfering to this and I do not know a thing about economics.
I’m sorry for my english, that’s my best performance, I cannot do anything more.

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By: arbitraryaardvark

arbitraryaardvark — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:45:49 +0000

I’ve been freegan since the 70s although I’ve only known the term for a few years.
Today’s haul included 40 cups of yogurt, a squash, cheese, carpet for a small room, carrots, strawberries, a plasma tv that turned out to be broken.
My food, clothes, furniture, many of my books and computers,all dumpster dived.
Other stuff is second hand. I try to live simply, small footprint. I’m not 100% there; I don’t have a windmill and an electric car. I bought this house with money saved dumpster diving, or at least that’s one way to look at it.
re pam, diving in the third world means extra caution, sure, but it’s a good way to escape tourist traps, meet real people, bring back unique souveneirs, dumpster dive with a camera.

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By: Lilah

Lilah — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:26:58 +0000

I went on my first dumpster dive last night. I live in a developed country, and I’m lucky as I don’t think it’s illegal here. Cops even biked past us as we were diving. I have a small roof over my head and (sew my own) clothes, but I don’t have much money and would rather spend it on musical equipment.

Most importantly, I think there’s something very wrong with encouraging overproduction and overconsumption. Even if I was a millionaire, I don’t see I should consume consume consume (which is what religiously buying non-dumpster food is, in a place where there’s an abundance of good food taken to the landfill).

Do you think I’m stealing from homeless people? Think again. There is so much food thrown out that it wouldn’t be possible to eat it all. There is plenty for everyone. Know your city.

In places where people are truly needy for food, there are no dumpsters to dive in the first place (or at least, all the edible food never makes it there).

Call me a hipster if you like but I would rather save my pita bread (exp date 3 days from now) from the landfill than buy that same pita bread in the store.

It’s foolish to insult people who have their hearts in the right place when it comes to the environment simply because you feel defensive about our statement that we should not support over-consumption.

Also making the statement that we’re “not really doing anything” is silly and demoralizing. There is no harm in people choosing to minimize their consumption, whether or not they are “doing something more”. Have you volunteered your time at a homeless shelter lately, or gone on a journey to save the whales? No? Then stop insulting others who seek to minimize their impact on the environment… thanks…

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By: V. ?.

V. ?. — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:48:03 +0000

I have not enough time to read through all the comments, though I read the first article and the first comments.
Last year somebody threw in my yard 4 new-born puppies and soon their mother followed them.
I mean she found them and sat outside my door, waiting.
Could not get rid of this family and as I had already my own dogs, it became an Odyssey to manage to feed them all, on the top of it the crisis started in the end of 2008.
It was the first time in my life I had to beg for food and to “dumpster dive” as you say.
At first I wrote to each and every possible dog food company all over the world for free samples, charity, whatever possible help.
The one and only company who helped was Mark and Chappell with 2 tubes of health care products.
Locally, Pedigree offered 4 cans of dog food each one weighing 250 grs, totally 1 kilo of canned dog food, one time.
Friends and relatives answered with a loud “NO”, as talking about dog feeding sounds to them as an unforgivable eccentricity.
Some organization for strays offered to me to send them to Germany for adoption but I’d like to be able to check the circumstances of adoption, that is to see the family they’d take them and so.
Puppies needed to eat though, twice a day and Pedigree puppies’ special food costs 8 euros per 2 kilos, that amount needed approx daily for them.
I’m not rich obviously, I saw that I could not afford it and one day very soon after they came into my life, I cleaned well all my house, put on clean clothes and took my car to go out and see what I could find to feed them.
I initially begged in restaurants for food leftovers. Had to put on surgical gloves and pick over the plastic bags they were giving to me, for something useful but then I was afraid they could get sick.
I started begging the butcher shops for bones they normally get rid of.
Sometimes they give, other times they claim it is forbidden by the law, who knows, maybe they need somebody to be a client for to give him. That is to purchase meat in a regular basis so that to give him some bones too.
Also the bakeries for old bread, some shops that sell cheese pies and similar and they get rid of the products of the day that weren’t sold as they must be fresh.
There are in Greece some shops selling a local specialty “souvlaki” together with other barbecued food, such as chicken, pork, burgers, steaks and so on.
I was endlessly surprised when I discovered that they get rid of, in the end of the day, enormous quantities of this food, if it wasn’t sold during the day, them too must sell it fresh.
Sometimes they gave to me several plastic bags full of it, but other times they simply deny, one cannot imagine, why they give or why they do not.
More than once I had to “dumpster dive” as you say, but I do hate that and try to avoid it as much as I can, cause I’m afraid of illnesses.
The 3 puppies are now 18 months old, all females, we lost one of the 4 sisters immediately after they came in, because of some kind of typhus the vet said, common to not vaccinated puppies, but that was not due to my kind of feeding.
This puppy was sick the very first day I took them inside. Had to feed them a lot and clean a lot and be careful a lot as the other three should not get sick and we should wait 3 weeks until to vaccinate them.
I myself lost 15 kilos during the past year because of the situation but that was a blessing, as I was overweight and could not ever imagine such a method of losing weight.
This is the situation until now, each night I try to invent some way to find out food for the next day, each morning I miraculously manage to provide our family (that is my dogs) the “daily bread”.
In the nights when I try the “souvlaki” shops, I saw last month for the first time other people to “dumpster dive” carrying with them as you say, a grocer’s bag from the market.
When I see them I leave, as I hate already “dumpster diving” all the more to compete with others for doing so.
I dream about winning the lottery and, entering the supermarkets, that I can afford all the food I’d like, don’t know how someone who could get for him and his beloved ones the necessary things could choose to “dumpster dive” instead.
For all my life did not know such thing existed, but I was informed about it in my 50’s because I love animals.
Plse forgive my english as this is not my native language.

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By: dumpster diver

dumpster diver — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:59:16 +0000

I went to the produce counter to ask for veggies to feed this family of deer, with triplets living in my neighborhood. The guy at the counter gave me a box of apples, turnips ets.

I took them home, and the apples were better the ones on the tree in my yard.

Next grocery visit, I told him I ate a couple of the apples, asked him why they did not give them to the homeless.

Was told they had tried, but the homeless, and even the shelter directors would come to the store and
fight over them.

Told me the main reason to rid the store of them was to keep the fruit flies down.
Makes sense. Fruit flies in a produce dept. turns people off.

He also told me when they had tried this unkept people would hang around the store and beg for
food.

I asked the produce mgr. if he ever had taken over ripe produce for his friends and family.

He said his job would be on the line if he did, though he wished he could.

Good grief.

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By: ianmack

ianmack — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:03:24 +0000

Thanks for the story. I'm sure there must be a way to implement a system to share the food – though clearly in this case, even when there's willing workers, it can be a challenge.

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