Freegan Freshers: the Students Making Savings by Living Off Waste [UK Guardian Photo]

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/23/freegan-freshers-the-students-making-savings-by-living-off-waste ^

[nickcarraway]

Some students say they are swapping supermarket shelves for backstreet bins, so that they can save money

It’s midnight, I have a torch and I’m sifting through the bins behind my local Tesco in search of food. The idea of picking through discarded packets of cakes and cheese in a pair of marigolds may seem pretty disgusting. But for a small section of society, standing in bins at night – or freeganism, as it is more widely known – has become a way of life.

Freegans avoid buying anything as much as possible in order to boycott the economic system and be eco-friendly. For many young freegans, this can mean asking supermarkets for their discarded food, which is often left in bins.

“It’s not unusual to find around £100 worth of food on any given night,” says Finn Weddle, who was a freegan while at university in Edinburgh. “But the lifestyle doesn’t suit everyone – you have to be happy to eat food from bins and ask strangers in cafes for their leftovers.”

But it’s not just about going through bins. Freegans reclaim anything that has been discarded, from food to furniture, in an attempt to limit their consumption. “People are always leaving their unwanted stuff out on the street,” says Katendi Heald, a student living in London. “I’ve been able to furnish my student house with beautiful tables, plates, a toaster and movie posters that I’ve found.”

SNIP

Freeganism isn’t just for student activists, though. It’s also for those looking to save money. As students, we tend to be perpetually broke – I have occasionally skipped meals because tickets to an amazing DJ set tend to prove more seductive than my staple mushroom pasta. Adopting a freegan lifestyle can go a long way towards stretching out your student loan.

SNIP

[Lizavetta]

This picture was staged. Dumpster trash doesn't look nearly that neat and fastidious.

That said, yes, stores are legally required to throw away edible food because of fear of lawsuits. But let's not pretend the "freegans" are doing this to "boycott the economic system and be eco-friendly."

It's to get free food ... because they're FREEGANS.

[sagar]

It is their parasitic mentality more so than their act of consuming from the trash. Today, they are young, able to work and feed properly, but are reliant on others. Tomorrow, when they are no longer young and not able to work as needed, they will expect others to take care of them. Who will forage filth for them when they are old?

They are parasites in training.

[familyop]

From bugs to lab-grown meat to this: the latest in the multi-partisan establishment’s Malthusian putsch to desensitize western nations to the mass starvation of their citizens.

[Rodamala]

Please remember, Ruth was a gleaner... not a parasite. Blessed are the gleaners and those that provide for them.

Leviticus 19:9
When you reachp the harvest
of your land, do not reap to
the very edges of your field
or gather the gleanings of
your harvest.

Leviticus 19:10
Do not go over your vineyard
a second time or pick up the
grapes that have fallen. Leave
them for the poor and the
foreigner. I am the LORD your
God.

Leviticus 23:22
When you reap the harvest of
your land, moreover, you shall
not reap to the very corners of
your field nor gather the gleaning
of your harvest; you are to leave
them for the needy and the alin.
I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 24:19
When you are harvesting in your
field and you overlook a sheaf, do
not go back to get it. Leave it for
the foreigner, the fatherless and
the widow, so that the LORD your
God may bless you in all the work
of your hands.

Ruth 2:2
And Ruth the Moabite said to
Naomi, "Let me go to the fields
and pick up the leftover grain
behind anyone in whose eyes I
find favor." Naomi said to her,
"Go ahead, my daughter."

Ruth 2:15
As she got up to glean, Boaz gave
orders to his men, "Let her gather
among the sheaves and don't
reprimand her.

[VanShuyten]

“The problem was, as I found out as a volunteer at the Salvation Army, they had to trash past-date foods, or risk being sued by people who had time on their hands and smelled a buck.”

I remember reading here on FR that some California grocery chain had to lock up their trash because they were afraid some scavenger was going to sue them after eating bad food from the bins.

[Organic Panic]

I have no problem with picking through trash. I myself never bought a washer and dryer after finding perfectly fine units on the side of the road for free. If someone wants to go through trash to find food by all means carry on. The only question I have for these people is where does the return on the time investment break even? Can one really eat 100 gbp worth of food per night? Not likely. Can you sell your trash booty? No. I just don’t find digging through trash for useful items objectionable. Food I would not take from a trashcan. Not because it is disgusting (who am I to judge) but because the time sorting through trash for something safe and edible is not worth the time to put toward working and purchasing fresh food.

[ltc8k6]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marigold-Extra-Kitchen-Glove-Medium/dp/B00D36WODY/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1429768012&sr=1-1&keywords=Marigold

[Winniesboy]

Marigolds are a well-known brand of rubber kitchen glove.

[tbw2]

If there is this much food waste, setting up pig clubs or goat farms fed by this food waste is better than throwing it away (and less problematic than giving it to the homeless who might get ill from it.)

[Hot Tabasco]

It is their parasitic mentality more so than their act of consuming from the trash.

Do you have the same hate for those who collect bottles and cans for the return redemption fees?

[Bigg Red]

Thanks for the info.

[Bigg Red]

Thanks for the info.