Dumpster Diving: It’s Not as Gross as You Think
When I tell people about freeganism it evokes a few reactions. There is some level of astonishment; a combination of disbelief and intrigue about something they’ve probably never seen before. There is a sense of novelty. Many people see it is an ethical way to live. While eating vegan can bring its critics, eating freegan typically garners a level of admiration from all types of eaters. However, some people are grossed out by it. They have either told me directly that it’s disgusting, which always makes me laugh, or they know me well and have never brought it up, possibly because they think it’s disgusting. In reality, eating freegan and dumpster diving are not as gross as you think. Let me explain.
It’s not just dumpster diving
Freeganism doesn’t necessarily mean dumpster diving only. It’s food going to waste. Although I know that many people could get by on dumpster diving alone, my food supply comes from a variety of sources. Leftovers from events, parties, potlucks, work fridge cleanouts, food left out in public somewhere, and even food off the plate of somebody who left a restaurant are examples of ways to eat freegan without dumpster diving. In some of these situations, a lot of people are comfortable eating food. Most people (sadly not all) are good about taking home leftovers.
In many cases, you can get to the food before it’s even in a dumpster (or at least before it’s been in there for long). There are grocery stores, restaurants, warehouses, and other places that regularly throw out food. If you pay attention to their hours and operation schedule, you may know when food is being thrown out. If you can make connections with the workers, they may even give you food they are throwing out.
Plastic…
Of course this isn’t always possible, so you will find a lot of food in dumpsters and in garbage cans at random. I know what you’re picturing: an open dumpster, filled to the brim, plastic bags overflowing with mushy old food, banana peels poking out and flies swirling around. No doubt, I’ve seen plenty of those in my day; however, garbage cans and dumpsters are usually much cleaner than you’d expect. You will often find food that is not even opened. In our plastic-crazed society, just about everything in the grocery store is packaged. A lot of people even put their produce in flimsy, low quality, non-recyclable plastic. (I dream of a world without plastic, but that is a topic for later). Though it is tragic that most tossed food is in a bag or container, it comes with its advantages:
- It’s more difficult for bugs or rats to get into.
- It prevents oxidation (decomposition from exposure to oxygen).
- It provides a slight degree of protection from the sun’s heat, rain, or snow.
In the case where you do have opened food in the trash, it can sometimes be in a large garbage bag or pile with other food. Maybe a grocery store or a house is clearing out a lot of their food for whatever reason. They might be going through a lot of their food at once. This means that this food in the trash is only touching other food and not gross yucky stuff. (A good idea to wash your food!)
It’s cold in the winter
I have the advantage of living where it feels like winter half the year: a refrigerator or freezer outside for six months. In the winter, it takes a longer time for food to go bad. In the summer, dumpster diving and garbage picking are much harder. Most of the food that has been out for a few hours will go bad quickly. When the weather is warm, I only look at the food or garbage bags that are on the top, meaning the garbage that was thrown out most recently. The food at the bottom has been baking in the sun too long. In the winter, I can dig all the way through to the bottom of a garbage can with a chance that the food I find will be in good shape.
The garbage isn’t as gross as you think
Another thing I’ve noticed is how people try to keep things tidy, even garbage. Food gets thrown out neatly or in its original container. People will seal their food in containers or cover it with a napkin before placing it upright in the garbage can so as not to make a mess. I always find this funny. I think it’s a way to hide the shame of wasting food. People cover up food to hide their waste from others and, especially, from themselves. Everyone knows wasting is wrong. Closing it up or covering it up with a napkin is also, I think, a way to make their messy waste appear neater. I find this ironic, as it’s all ending up in a heaping, steaming pile in a landfill anyways. It’s a behavior I find fascinating and don’t understand.
Though I would prefer there not to be waste, this habit of neatly disposing food has its freegan advantages. Instead of a garbage can or dumpster with food sprawled all over the place, there are boxes and bags to sort through.
Restaurants work too
Another option – If you are in a restaurant and you see somebody neatly place food in the garbage can, you can quickly grab that out of the trash before anything else touches it. You can also grab their food if they leave it on the table and walk out of the restaurant. This is one of my favorite ways to salvage food. It’s a true adrenaline rush. (Shockingly, nobody ever notices. This always baffles Uncle Tommy and I. We’ll be like ostriches in a garbage can in a restaurant and nobody seems to ever notice! I truly love my life sometimes.)
Strangers are future friends
Here’s some food (waste) for thought – When one of our friends is going to throw out food or can’t finish their meal and offers it to us, we don’t think it’s weird to help them out. In fact, both people get joy out of the exchange. The receiver gets to eat more and the giver is happy the food didn’t get wasted. We don’t think it’s weird to share things with friends. Is it so weird to share with strangers? All of our friends were strangers at one point. Your neighbors and community members are just friends waiting to be. So, eating the food they can’t finish is very much like eating your friend’s food. Perhaps in the future, you will be at the same party and they will formally ask if you want to finish the food on their plate. Until then, the food in their garbage will do!
I’ve never gotten sick
One question I always get asked is if I have ever gotten sick from dumpster diving. The answer is no, I’m pretty sure. I have never had food poisoning from dumpster diving. The only time would be a bit after eating some Buffalo Wild Wings I found. I came down with a virus, however Uncle Tommy didn’t get sick and he ate it too. I’m fairly sure I caught it from a coworker who had been sick a day or two before me, though I’m not fully convinced it came from the wings. Of course, Buffalo Wild Wings is horrible for you and eating that processed meat provided me with no antioxidants and increased my risk of exposure to foodborne diseases rampant in factory farms. Since eating only vegan freegan food, I definitely have not gotten sick from dumpster diving.
Use discretion
The most important thing I tell people is to use discretion. I use a healthy amount of it. If something looks nasty, I don’t eat it. If dumpster food was always nasty and I was always getting sick, I wouldn’t dumpster dive. The smell test is tried and true. If you can’t tell whether or not the food is good, give it the smell test. Food that smells bad or gross probably is. If it smells fine to eat, then it probably is. For Uncle T and me, smelling helps us decipher if food is okay to eat 95% of the time. We have a rule for when we are eating together: if just one of us thinks the food smells bad, we throw it (back) out. As a last resort, if we have a bite and it tastes funky, we spit it out and throw out the rest.
The level of discretion will vary by person. My Uncle and I aren’t afraid to rip open a plastic garbage bag and dig around. We might take a risk on food that looks highly questionable to someone else. We’ve been eating this way for a while. Our tolerance to questionable food is pretty high. Not everyone will have the same tolerance.
Cut off the bad parts
You can salvage a lot of food by cutting off the bad parts and saving the good parts. For example, if you get an apple and part of it is brown, chop off that part and eat the rest. Now, if the whole thing smells terrible, it’s probably best to throw the whole thing away. Again, use discretion!
Wash your hands
This point is a no-brainer but worth mentioning: after you dumpster dive, it’s a good idea to wash your hands. If your clothes got dirty, I’d recommend throwing them in the wash. Speaking of washing, if you do find fruit or vegetables, it’s a good idea to give them a little wash.
Be proud!
Lastly, don’t feel ashamed about dumpster diving or taking food that’s going to waste. Be proud of it! You are doing a social good. Making new food requires energy and water, and usually creates waste, effluent, greenhouse gases, and more packaging. Our oceans are full of plastic. I don’t need to belabor the environmental damage associated with food production. If you do eat animal foods, eating freegan prevents killing animals. The benefits compound.
Some people may consider dumpster diving to be gross, but I would consider throwing out perfectly good food to be much more disgusting.
-Freddy