Dumpster Diving Tips: The Freegan Way (PHOTOS/VIDEOS)

Dumpster diving is a practice becoming more common among financially stable people, intertwined with the growing freegan movement. Their name derived from a combination of "free" and "vegan", freegans embrace practices like dumpster diving as a way of protesting an increasingly wasteful consumerist society and unethical corporations. According to Freegan.info, "Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources."

Learn more about dumpster diving and the values that fuel it with 8 videos we've gathered from around the web, as well as 6 tips to help you in your own treasure hunting quest. Let us know which you like best!

1 of 14

Planet Green

1 of 15

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Planet Green meets up with UCSD biology professor, Dr. Milton Saier, self-proclaimed freegan of 30 years. Watch as he shares his insights on freeganism, and takes some of his students on a dumpster diving lesson.

Shell Drill Ship

Moore Oklahoma Tornado Victims

Turtles!

Top U.S. Renewable Energy Sources - 2011 (MOST RECENT DATA)

gadgets/slideshows/298353/slide_298353_2481215_small.jpg

May Tornadoes 2013

10 Worst States For Animal Abuse Laws

Planet Green meets up with UCSD biology professor, Dr. Milton Saier, self-proclaimed freegan of 30 years. Watch as he shares his insights on freeganism, and takes some of his students on a dumpster diving lesson.

comments(52)

Total comments: 52 | Post a Comment

1 of 15

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Trash Treasure

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Top 5 Dumpster Diving Tips

loading...

Top 5 Dumpster Diving Tips

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[OhgReaTone]

11:40 AM on 04/04/2010

The cult of dumpster divers has followed Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Modern salvage from dumpsters has less to do with basic needs than social integration. ..........

http://thefiresidepost.com/2007/11/24/maslow-and-dumpster-diving/

[sayrock]

12:56 PM on 03/26/2010

I saw some pretty interesting things created out of stuff found in dumpsters here:

www.goddessofgarbage.com

[Tomoe Yoshihara]

08:54 PM on 03/22/2010

You can watch Surfing the Waste: A Musical Documentary About Dumpster Diving here: http://citizenshift.org/surfing-waste-musical-documentary-about-dumpster-diving

The film was directed by Tomoe Yoshihara (me), produced by Paul Aflalo, and shot by Sandra Lombardi with music by Alden Penner (of Unicorns fame) and Nick Boshart.

I've never been ill from dumpstered food. And dumpster diving food is not gross after you've done it. What is far more disgusting how wasteful our modern society can be. Think back to this era in 30 years and you might be shocked by how we squandered our precious resources.

[coveark]

12:17 PM on 03/18/2010

This is neat.

I must point outhowever that in many areas stores no longer put outdated things in a dumpster where people could just take it and use it up. The 'garbage' is all locked up.

The Walmart in my area threw out hundreds of pounds of food after a tornado had taken out the electricity. There was much devastation and I am sure that it would have been far better to share.

Over the years many people that I knew have scavenged food from dumpsters. These were people that were not dirty or homeless also..................it is fun to find good stuff and waste is not a good thing. We waste too much here .

Also, If things got too bad it is a survival tool.

[DrJohnnySkeptic]

06:31 AM on 03/18/2010

I saw the freegan cooking show coming when I read the headline. LOL

[rogernyc]

10:54 PM on 03/17/2010

While it's good to expose waste and rescue food etc, dumpster tourism and activism is playing with, and sometimes interfering with, what is a very serious resource for many people. A lot of this is invasive, self glorifying and quite offensive.

[garystartswithg]

01:24 AM on 03/18/2010

i somewhat agree. there are people less fortunate that live off of rescued food. do freegans do anything to help people without resources or is this just dumpster gentrification?

[yemaya]

03:10 PM on 03/18/2010

OR it's pointing out the waste in this country.

[rikster]

06:12 PM on 03/17/2010

best stuff is in the bottom...

[RatzoRizuto]

03:24 PM on 03/17/2010

Being a "freegan" is just being an upscale bum.

[GermanGoodness]

02:18 PM on 03/17/2010

Did anyone happen to notice the sign in the store window behind the dumpster divers in Tip # 6?

"Fresh Tossed Salad Bar!"

[ontariogirl]

06:17 PM on 03/19/2010

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[G Frangor]

01:37 PM on 03/17/2010

To think that we will now be paying for him to get his stomach pumped.

[sabelmouse]

04:08 PM on 03/17/2010

why? obviously you don't eat anything that is off. wether you buy it or get it free. those things are not thrown away because they are bad.

[DawnLA]

01:24 AM on 03/18/2010

Apparently you didn't watch the video. More than one person said they have never become ill. So who's stomach will need to be pumped?

[bobbiisadukefan]

01:26 PM on 03/17/2010

I have never retrieved food from a dumpster, but I have gotten great pieces of furniture from a few. I do not go seeking, if I go to throw away my trash and happen to see something I deem fabulous that someone threw away, I'll grab it. But you will be amazed at what people throw away.

But to be honest....people in my neighborhood know all about this......you have to fight to get a dumpster.
I even thought about having a dumpster action, but the city told me that I had to own them in order to profit off them. Bummer!

[WYHKTai-Tai]

02:43 AM on 03/18/2010

Furniture...YES! One of the great things I remember about living in NYC. My friends and I have retrieved amazing beautiful chairs and things sitting on the curb with the trash. Once an old old bar was being renovated. As I was walking down the sidewalk, the workmen were carrying out and tipping into a dumpster piece after piece of that old Victorian embossed/ hammered tin ceiling tiles. At least 4 passers-by, including me JUMPED in as fast as we could to get them! They were gone in about 2 minutes. I only got 1!

Food, I'm not as convinced about; there should be some better, (cleaner?) transfer of unwanted food from restaurants or wherever to hungry people.

[onenewmexican]

12:42 PM on 03/17/2010

Why is it more gross to get perfectly good food from a dumpster than it is to throw away perfectly good food? I don't "freegan" because I believe in supporting local food growers. If you don't want to eat the stuff, or you don't like the idea of people going through the trash, then why not push for a composting program?

[eddiefi]

12:38 PM on 03/17/2010

We should be throwing practically nothing away. When we have food that is getting close to best by date we cook it and take it to the homeless. We do live downtown which makes it easier to do but believe me it is worth doing it. I felt a little funny the 1st time we did it but to see the look of gratitude on their face is worth it. When you talk to them you find out that they are not that different from most people. A lot of them are laborers in construction or worked in factories and lost their jobs and after finding no work they were out of the streets. Recycle your paper, plastic and glass but please do not let your food go to waste that you are not going to eat. It may not seem like much to you but to people who are hungry it is a 5 star meal.

[fiestyslug]

09:44 PM on 03/25/2010

Wow you are a hero

[fiestyslug]

12:20 PM on 03/17/2010

To each his own, this guy is obviously comfortable with this. I wouldnt be, but am wondering why that produce is not being composted???? There is certainly a green solution that everyone can get behind.

[jeffp26]

12:11 PM on 03/17/2010

This happens in all third world countries, and the US is well on its way to joining that category.

[rikster]

06:21 PM on 03/17/2010

we are there already..