From a tent, to a pinto wagon to my home in Virginia today ..
Posted on 09/20/2011 4:53:01 PM PDT by EBH
Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can?
Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America. In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name -- "freegans" -- and as the economy crumbles their numbers are multiplying.
Many freegans consider dumpster diving to be a great way to save money on groceries. Others do it because they want to live more simply. Freegans that are concerned about the environment view dumpster diving as a great way to "recycle" and other politically-minded freegans consider dumpster diving to be a form of political protest.
But whatever you want to call it, the reality is that thousands upon thousands of Americans will break out their boots, rubber gloves and flashlights and will be jumping into dumpsters looking for food once again tonight.
So is this actually legal?
In some areas, dumpster diving is considered to be legal. In other areas, dumpster divers are technically breaking trespassing laws. Although in most areas the police have so many other problems that they aren't really concerned about cracking down on dumpster divers.
One of the biggest issues facing dumpster divers is safety. Crawling around in back alleys and side streets in the middle of the night is not exactly the safest thing to do. But the lure of large amounts of free food is enough to keep some people coming back over and over again.
During the recent economic downturn, the popularity of dumpster diving has exploded. Today, there are dumpster diving meetup groups, dumpster diving Facebook groups, and even entire organizations such as Food Not Bombs that openly encourage their members to go dumpster diving.
If your family was going hungry, would you go dumpster diving?
You might be surprised at who is doing it. Dumpster diving is not just for the homeless and the unemployed anymore. A lot of people that have decent jobs have picked up on the trend.
Just check out the following example from a recent MSNBC article, "When Money Ran Short, This Dad Started Dumpster Diving."
A programmer by day, Todd takes to the streets of North Carolina by night, digging through Dumpsters at drug stores and grocery stores all around his rural neighborhood.
"You would be simply amazed at what businesses throw out," he said. "I've only had to buy two loaves of bread all year. ... Last week I had a trunk full of cereal, cookies, chips and ramen noodles."
Todd slinks in and out of smelly places with low-light flashlights to evade rent-a-cops who will shoo him away. Most nights, his 14-year-old son comes along.
The truth is that dumpster diving is just another sign of the times.
Food prices continue to rise and are putting incredible stress on the budgets of average American families. We just saw another huge rise in food prices during the month of August. Just check out the following data from a recent article posted on The Economic Policy Journal...
The index for finished consumer foods jumped 1.1% (13.2% annualized) in August, the third straight rise. Over 30% of the August advance can be traced to meat prices, which climbed 2.4% (28.8% annualized). Higher prices for processed poultry and eggs for fresh use also were major factors in the increase in the finished foods index.
If you are married and have a couple of children it can cost a lot of money to feed them every single month. It is not hard to understand the allure of dumpster diving for people that are having a hard time making ends meet.
[Dumpster diving isn't the only way to cut down on spending. Check out these 25 Ways to Save Hundreds on Your Monthly Expenses.]
Other Americans are choosing to dumpster dive because they believe that it helps them live a simpler lifestyle. There is a growing movement of people in America that are rejecting all of the "consumerism" that we see all around us.
Today, the average U.S. household has 13 different credit cards. We are constantly being bombarded with ads that tell us that we need more stuff in order to be happy.
Well, a lot of people have decided that is a lot of bunk and they are doing whatever they can to simplify.
Other dumpster divers are absolutely horrified by how much food is wasted in America: It has been estimated that 263,013,699 pounds of food are thrown out in the United States every single day.
Can you imagine?
We are probably the most wasteful nation on the planet. With the number of hungry people in the world, it is absolutely criminal how much food that we waste. In that sense, it is probably a good thing that dumpster divers are saving some of that food from the landfills and are finding positive uses for it.
In my recent special report about poverty in America, I noted that 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. For now, the U.S. government is helping feed over 45 million Americans through the food stamp program, but what is going to happen once the social safety net starts to break?
Right now, dumpster diving is cute and fun and an interesting way to save money, but in the future there may be millions of Americans digging around in trash cans if we don't get this economy turned around.
Note from the Editor: This article was originally posted at The Economic Collapse blog.
God Bless You. You are a SURVIVOR and I admire that in a Freeper. :)
“No conservative, in my opinion, should look upon wastefulness and laziness and make excuses for it.”
BUMP! :)
The only thing I would worry about it how long the meat had been in the dumpster or how long it sat waiting unrefrigerated before being taken out.
But it was a prime rib and fillet Mignon?
As an Army Ranger during the nam conflict .. I Learned how to survive!
Every survival skill that I had learned served me well while I was going through that experience.
I can GUARANTEE you that Without a home or transportation, living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the time that .. You would Not be working a ‘normal’ job or three ‘normal’ jobs at the time!
You would do Anything to get yourself back into the ‘normal’ flow, get transportation first, (which I then slept in) and after that your prospects for Real work would present itself!
Nobody wanted someone who they didn’t think could be relied on to report for work, If they didn’t have reliable transportation.
This is South Florida that I’m talking about and it’s a Rattlesnake for the down and out!
And .. Unless your pride gets in the way .. You Would eat some ‘nicely boxed’ and still warm pizza from a pizza hut dumpster .. when you got hungry enough!
I didn’t say that the pizza were just slices, thrown away on a trash pile.
They were always boxed and warm! 8)
Thank You Diana in Wisconsin
I am a better person for it!
Life can throw even the most prosperous a curve and if you want to survive .. You will do Anything, that isn’t illegal to pull through!
I now know that if I am ever in a similar situation .. It is not the end of the world! 8)
I used to make quite a bit of spending money dumpster diving- I'd find perfectly good items, and take them to one of the local consignment auction houses to sell. Paid cash weekly. Lotsa fun.
I used to make quite a bit of spending money dumpster diving- I'd find perfectly good items, and take them to one of the local consignment auction houses to sell. Paid cash weekly. Lotsa fun.
I was ‘upper’ middle class and I was in a position that I had to do it.
It saved my life!
While out working, I regularly run into a couple who dives for scrap. They tell me that they average around a grand a week doing this- which is really good money around these parts (more than I make!), especially if you aren’t paying taxes on it.
Baraq promised change.
Sadly it wasn’t what most of his voters expected.
“A bend in the road is not the END of the road.” :)
Of course we are. :)
Half my furniture I found out on the curb on garbage day.
The next year he got lawn mowers, most were just out of gas or needed a carburetor cleaning.
AGREED! I guess I was raised better than some because unless I was LITERALLY starving to death I wouldn’t ever touch a piece of food(i.e. GARBAGE) FROM A DUMPSTER!!! I would rather die.
but during those difficult times... did you ever consider yourself middle class?
unlikely.
odds are, you felt yourself sliding and was fighting to rectify as best you could.
which would be my original statement.
truth is now considered ‘snark’? I don’t think so
Good for you. Too many people go into debt to buy furniture when it literally grows on the curb. : )
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