By Nathan Pipenberg
If you stick your head into a dumpster, the first thing that you notice is the smell -- a delicious mix of rancid cooking oil, rotten fruits and mold.
When you jump all the way into a dumpster, you start thinking about what other people would think if they saw you standing ankle-deep in garbage bags.
But if you really check out a dumpster, there's one discovery that will stick with you after the smell washes away and you accept your questionable habits -- there's a lot of food in those things. Good, clean, healthy food that we can eat. Loads of it. And it ends up in the trash every day.
At least, those were the thoughts going through my head when I went dumpster diving for the first time Sunday night. Along with my friend Weedo, I visited about five dumpsters and tore open countless trash bags. We wore leather gloves and old clothes. We took along headlamps, a stick for poking through the mushier trash heaps and backpacks to carry what we found.
Dumpster diving, also known as urban foraging, is the process of sifting through trash, usually behind restaurants and supermarkets, in search of food. It's gaining traction in the United States as more people realize just how wasteful we can be.
I decided to give it a shot. Although both Weedo and I are diving novices, we were phenomenally successful. And the end of the night, I was the proud possessor of a bag full of smoked cheeses, fresh bread, cookies and pastries.
I didn't take anything that wasn't still in its packaging or double-bagged, separated from the rest of the dumpster's contents. It was inside clean packaging, safe enough that I could even persuade my mom to eat one of the bagels I found.
Looking back on the night, I'm already sure that I'm going to try my hand at dumpster diving again. There are several reasons why.
First of all, it combines several of my favorite activities -- riding my bike all over town, staying up late on school nights and eating food without paying for it.
Secondly, it's addictive. It's challenging. On our first dive, we found plenty of bread and cookies, which is a good start. But I'm not just trying to carbo load. I know there are fruits and veggies out there, but they are more elusive. I have to find the right dumpsters, and I already have a few ideas where to find them.
Thirdly, if my experience on Sunday night is any indication, when you find something, you tend to find a lot of it. With the quantity of food you can harvest while diving, sharing meals and eating together becomes a lot easier. I have so much bread in my freezer right now I will have to find some people to share it with.
Finally, it really is eye-opening to see just how much food is wasted. In one dumpster alone, there were at least five trash bags brimming with baked goods. In another, we found bags stuffed with meatballs, lunch meats and veggies that never made it onto a sub.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away 33 million tons of food each year. To break it down, that averages out to every person in the country taking one pound of food and tossing it in the trash every day.
I think it's something that's easy to ignore when you're just tossing out an uneaten pizza crust, but it really sticks with you when you're pulling apart garbage bags in the middle of the night.
Somehow, seeing all that food at once really had an effect on me. I've ordered too much at restaurants before. I've thrown out moldy bread and bought jars of peanut butter that I lost in the fridge for a year before chucking them, unopened. None of that bothered me as much as unknotting a bag to find about 30 pounds of fresh bread, rolls and bagels inside.
I took as much I thought I could eat and share in a week, eventually stopping because my backpack was full. I felt a strange mixture of elation and despair.
I had as much free food as I could handle, but I still had to throw the bag back in the dumpster. It wasn't that I was wasting the food -- I was actually saving a small portion of it. But even so, it felt like I was throwing something away by not taking it all.
After one dive, I think I'm hooked. It wasn't quite what I expected. Somehow I thought that if I found the right dumpster it would be clean and neat and appealing. Nope. It's still a dumpster, and it's still gross. But my get-up -- the dirty gloves, stained clothes and headlamp -- almost felt like a uniform of protest, akin to the graffiti artist's gas mask and hoodie.
It says: I am a dumpster diver, and I eat trash.
Nathan Pipenberg is a junior majoring in journalism and international politics. He is The Daily Collegian's Wednesday columnist.
This post was originally published in The Daily Collegian.
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One night actually stood and watched persons "dumpster diving" through the bin liners of discarded food in front of local supermarket. Much of what was thrown out (aside from the rotting meats and fresh veggies) was not foul and plenty was still edible.
Baked, dairy and most all other goods come with a sell by date as required by federal, state or local laws. However in many, many cases items are still fresh and safe to consume for a period after that date, providing they are properly stored.
Given the size and range of vermin one sees on NYC streets, you wouldn't catch me going through bin liners or dumpsters for a meal, but then again I like most of the rest here don't have to bother. However if given a choice between starving myself and or my children going hungry I may rethink that position.
If one were a homeless person and or suffering from mental issues and therefore prettty much going to consume whatever one finds from these bags/bins as found, then sooner or later you'd probably become ill. However those who are decently educated and with access to refrigeration and cooking facilites, you'd probably be alright. The trick would be to get to the stuff soon as it is discarded before it sits out too long.
One regular is a couple who drive a rather old Mercedes (1980's?) who load boxes full of whatever they can find from these bags into the boot of their car. Last week was passing this same supermarket when another middle class looking woman did her "shopping" including taking a bag full of breads (bagels, rolls, etc..).
Did inquire once of the supermarket manager why the company/he just doesn't give this discarded food to "City Harvest" ( a local group that collects unwanted food from stores and restaurants for distribution to the homeless/hungry), and he replied corporate policy forbade such things out of liability issues.
Considering the size of NYC rats one has seen on the streets surrounding rubbish, it wouldn't be one's choice to eat anything left on the crub. However one supposes these persons must do what they must do.
i have been to some stores and the "day old" breads a donuts were marked at 1/2 price.
the produce they waste alone could feed a small school on a daily basis.
it is a crime what they throw away.
This writer wasn't the first. This has been a movement for over ten years. I think he might want to look up the links above to help him out!..
P.S. I do not dumpster dive!!.. LOL.. I still skeeve over the rat possibility and bacteria and stuff, but I do find it amazingly interesting that Freegans work and share and want to reduce waste.
Garbage dumpsters are teeming with bacteria and disease. Would you lick the inside of a metal dumpster? If not, then why would you consider eating something that was inside one of them?
Do you know what I throw away? Broken glass, dirty diapers, used cat litter, and clothing stained with vomit. I generally don't put these things in my refrigerator. I like to keep it separate from the things I consume.
Do you know what restautants throw away? Foods that have been contaminated because an employee cut himself and got blood on the packaging. Foods that are past their expiration date and have begun to rot. Foods that were recalled by the manufacturer because the machinery broke and there were tiny chunks of metal mixed into the ingredients. These things may not be readily apparent to the naked eye, but that's why the stuff was thrown away, because it's no longer fit for human consumption.
But, hey, free food, right?
i worked at a dept store and we would throw away perfectly good irons,small appliances etc.all was wrong was they were "last years model".the manufacturers didnt want them back and the stores got 100% credit.
unless you have worked at these places behind the scenes you have no idea and the waste in this country is disgusting.
Of course now at least in the United States everyone is lawyered up and would sue if they got so much as a belly ache from eating anything that wasn't "fresh", even when they knowningly purchased it that way. So shops no longer really bother.