Hope your foot heals quickly!
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.
I live in middle class America and three days ago the largest city around here which is about 50K population- made it illegal to dumpster dive. Methinks you might want to step out of your comfort zone and see what is going on in our country.
Many charitable organizations or food pantries are available for donations of this sort. The Salvation Army receives day old bread from many grocery store chains and has it available to all in need.
Thank you for sharing your story. We often find reserves of inner strength we don’t know we possess when faced with dire circumstances. Good for you.
When my kids were little the produce manager at a local store saved me the good stuff he was throwing away- It was still very good even though it was headed for the dumpster.
BTW the “dead” Concord grape I ordered from Jungs last year that turned out not to be dead, had a respectable first small crop this year. When I thought it was dead, (after nearly three weeks in the ground) I had gotten a credit from the company only to have to cancel that credit three weeks later because all that while the roots had been busy, and it was thriving.
Great! Now I’m going to lose my job because we gave you back your money on a live plant, LOL!
Just kidding! It takes a while for some of that bare root stuff to look like it wants to live. I’ve planted dozens of things in that form and you just learn to be patient while it takes root...
Hey! That applies to all sorts of stuff in Life, doesn’t it? :)
Although my intent was not to be callous or insensitive to the struggle of others, you offer sound advice.
I suggested that to the store manager at the time, he insisted there were too many liability issues. I think he had been told by corporate not to donate it, but at any rate he refused. And any employee caught sneaking stuff out of the “to be tossed” pile got fired.
Nah- you are safe- I canceled the credit. Actually I got an email back thanking me for my honesty.
*Whew* That was close, LOL!
Actually, I broke my foot, so I’ve been off work for 3 weeks now - and going a little stir crazy! (Supposedly, this break needs 6 weeks to heal...we’ll see!)
Just talked to my Boss and I’m going in for a few hours on Friday to work on the spring orders for 2012 which need to be booked now. I’m soooooooo looking forward to getting out of the house for a while! :)
That seems very likely to happen to you if things get rough in America.
I used to ride around early on Monday when everyone in our area had that as the trash day. I’d see old gas grills with the bottles still under the pit area. I have eight bottles now.
I know it is in our town’s building code. My neighbor is a contractor. The reclaimed lumber is supposed to be stronger, since they cut out knots, cut splines into the ends and glue it back together.
I’ve heard the same thing about college dumpsters at commencement time are treasure-troves of good stuff left behind.
‘round here, the pig and chicken farmers take out wagons full of stuff every day; they must have individually arranged agreements with the different grocery stores.
Hope your foot heals quickly!
Thanks! I’m being good and following doctor’s orders. I’m hobbling into work on Friday, but I’ll be seated at my computer wtih my foot up, ordering items (veggies, trees, perennial plants, etc.) for Spring 2013, so it looks like they’re keeping me around. Well, at least until I have that project done and they can find a chimp to replace me, LOL! :)
Is it possible to request something for when you order? Every time I’ve tried to grow a mail-ordered pawpaw tree, they’ve died. I was thinking one from the nursery might do better, but nobody carries them. Same with bamboo. I’m pretty sure they’re in the Jung’s catalog, though.
There’s also a rosemary that’s hardy to zone 5 in the Jung’s catalog, I bet I’m not the only one around here who would like to grow rosemary outside.
No such thing as a Rosemary hardier than Zone 5. You’ll have to move to the Riviera, LOL! I grow mine outside all summer, then inside the rest of the year, under lights. I can usually get 3 years our of a ‘mother’ plant, but I make a ton of cuttings off of it for the next season.
Don’t ever plant bamboo. It’s incredibly invasive. We don’t sell it; it’s evil.
They don’t grow out paw paw in the nursery - not a popular item. If I sell six of them a season in Bare Root, it’s a lot. Those come in small pots, I think? See me in the spring (end of March/early April) and I can order in Bare Root for you, if they haven’t sold out through mail order.
Obviously, this is happening because the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. /s
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