4 Easy Ways to Be a Freegan

Conventional wisdom states that dumpster-diving is for the homeless. Freegans, however, are a small anticonsumerist group who won't allow anything useful to go to waste--to the point where middle-class environmentalists can be found scavenging the trash bins of grocery stores for the still-good food thrown out every day. Some of them even chronicle their finds on the Web, boasting of spending only a few dollars on food each month and furnishing their homes for free, often to the dismay of store owners who see them as scavengers.

Thankfully, you don't have to dumpster-dive to subscribe to the freegan philosophy and reap the cost-saving benefits. Here are a few tips for accessible--and considerably less smelly--freeganism:

• Need a couch, or tennis racket or tea kettle? Rather than buying a new one, check the free listings on Craigslist or Freecycle. Often, people who are moving or spring cleaning put gently used belongings on the site, free to anyone willing to trek to their place and pick it up. It's far better than the environmental effects of the manufacturing, packaging, and transport that go into a new tea kettle, and if it breaks after two months, you never paid a dime for it, so who cares? Just search the site for another one. Be wary of searching Google for offers of free stuff, though--they might come with strings attached, like making you sign up for a credit card or other promotion. It's best to stick to local sites.

• Remind yourself that one man's trash is another's treasure, and check with your friends and family while doing any massive closet or garage cleanouts. If you and your friends are similar in size (or your kids are), host a party where you swap all the clothes you were going to pitch. Anything unclaimed by the end of the night goes to charity, and you'll end up with a few new outfits if you're lucky. Some of my favorite skirts once surrounded the waists of stylish friends, and my sister's favorite place to shop is my closet. The same theory goes for neighborhood-wide yard sales, where you might be able to swap a mismatched lamp for some new picture frames. You could also join a swap group, like these listed on meetup.com or on flickr. Before you go, check out these tips for effective bartering.

• This tip comes courtesy of a clever coworker, who always keeps an assortment of Tupperware at her desk. Whenever there's a work happy hour or party where there will inevitably be more food than people, she makes a beeline for the Tupperware and packages up all the leftovers before they get to the garbage. This way, a veggie platter and shrimp tray become the makings of tomorrow's stir-fry dinner. I employed a similar method in college at huge university-wide picnics, where I'd stash leftover soda cans in a backpack. Intercept food before it makes its way to the trash, and you're a far cleverer freegan.

• Look on the Web for free events in your city or town--a newspaper's listings or city guide will tell you where they are. If you take advantage of free concerts, street festivals, outdoor film showings, and other events, you'll pick up new interests and also have more money for paying the bills--or to put toward eco-friendly purchases, like organic products. Search a local listing, or a site like eventful.com, for the keyword free.

More from Fresh Greens:
Blow Up Your SUV for the Environment? Yeah, Right
Global Warming Begets Adorable Kittens
Google Maps Adds Walking Directions

More from U.S. News & World Report:
Can Wal-Mart Do Local Produce?
Chain Grocers Put a Face on Food
The Outlook for Investing in Green Energy

Follow Maura Judkis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/freshgreens

Comments

[TheBlackCat]

Here's my fregan tip:

I worked at Barnes & Noble in High School and another location in college. Every year we would get massive amounts of cheap paperback editions of classics for summer reading lists. Once school started, it cost more for us to ship back the unsold copies of books that we would get from the publisher for their return, so they were just thrown away (they did at least let the employees look through them first and take whatever they wanted). We had to tear the covers off so they wouldn't be taken and resold, but aside from a missing cover the books were completely in tact. We would throw away hundreds of really great books. I'm guessing other big book stores like Borders do the same thing. Most big book stores will have a small, separate dumpster for cardboard and paper, so you don't need to go diving into a dumpster filled with garbage; you can just reach into a perfectly sanitary paper/cardboard bin and retrieve the books! Some stores have gotten wise to this practice and have started putting locks on the bins, but most have not.

[WorkingNHMomof3]

I wouldn't go as far as diving for food in a dumpster, but I compost all my leftovers (sans meat), coffee grounds, eggshells, etc. It makes great fertilizer to grow my own vegetables and I save on having to buy fertilizer. The best way on the road to freeganism is reduce first...just get by by finding multiple uses for things.

[DavidMG]

I was once at an environmental conference in the U.K. The dinner I was served one night was entirely from dumpsters. No problem. There are lots of other good ideas in "Choose to Reuse"

[DavidMG]

Lots more ideas in "Choose to Reuse"

[dumpster-diver]

your tips are not over the top at all. but unfortunately they're also nothing to do with freeganism. saying they are easy ways to be freegan is like saying drinking semi-skimmed milk is an easy way to be vegan. or only eating steak once a week is an easy way to be vegetarian. it doesn't make sense..

sorry for the negativity, you're tips -are- good advice and a good place to start, but they're more about saving money than being freegan.

how about suggesting people start their own allotment? or take part in groups like 'food not bombs'? swap their services for food from a local farmer? ..without boycotting supermarkets and corporations we're never going to get anywhere

[janeinmia]

I do some freeganing -- I forage coconuts from palms in my neighborhood (park, empty lots, etc). I drink the coconut water, which is super healthy, and it saves me the cost of buying the green coconuts that cost $3 each in the stores.

And I'm known to zoom far and wide to forage mangoes when they are in season -- but we didn't have any this year!

As for dumpsters, however, NO THANKS.

[brooklyncitizen]

Ok- even when i see people doing it I am grossed out....jus t living modestly and not over consuming seems to be about right for me.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Unless it's a neccessity, eating food from the garbage is nasty. Nobody needs to be that tight.

[ChescoMom]

I used to work for a gourmet food chain that would just as soon chuck old groceries than let their employees take some home for free--leaving us with just our 20% discount cards that still left us with overpriced food. Dumpster diving may not be as bad an idea as you think. (I am grossed out by it personally, though.)

[thisisbatcountry]

wrong! there are grocery stores that leave food out for people to eat that never even touched a garbage can. i have picked up cases, literally cases of vegetables that never even made it onto a shelf for whatever reason. of course, you have to do something with the produce in a timely manner because it goes bad quicker, but who cares? free food is good food. i furnished my entire place with stuff from the craigslist freelist, consumerism is a f-ing joke, there are so many ways around it. what the usda lets the meat-packing industry do is way more scary to me than eating something that can from a box inside a garbage can. plus, if the grocery store is hip to freegans, than they usually throw away the edible stuff in a different bin than, say, the trash from the bathroom.

[princessk]

I appreciate your sentiments about consumerism.

One concern I have: If grocery stores are leaving their expired food out in a bin, shouldn't the truly needy have first crack at it over freegans, who are out foraging not necessarily because they lack funds, but because of a political and/or moral choice? Or does that open up a big can of (presumably expired) worms?