Writing

Your trash could be another’s treasure (reported for MSN Money)

When Simon Smith first started digging through rubbish bins five years ago, he never imagined he would find whole cases of beer.

In his time as a freegan, he’s also pulled large boxes of chocolate bars and a full English breakfast from rubbish skips.

Smith, a freegan, is on a mission to build self-sustaining communities, promote resource-sharing and eliminate waste from the planet.

“The idea of freeganism is to promote community, which is achieved best in my opinion by sharing what we have with each other, and not having private ownership, which has been the source of so much of the world’s problems,” Smith said.

One man’s trash, another man’s treasure
Appalled by overflowing rubbish bins and landfill sites, freegans dig through dumpsters outside supermarkets and petrol stations for food, clothing, furniture and toiletries.

For freegans, bin-raiding, also known as dumpster diving, is not only a way to eliminate waste, but it also serves as a communal event.

“It’s almost like having a party when we go out,” said Susan Ellis, who has been a freegan for 23 years and lives in London. “It’s really nice to meet other bin raiders and then somebody said, “I just found this. Would you like some?” Everyone’s passing the food around. It’s quite fun.”

Instead of grocery shopping, Ellis goes bin-raiding three to four times each week. Before she goes, she makes a shopping list of all the things she wants to find that day. She recounts that she has never had any problem finding what she needs.

“We could feed 5,000 people full time,” Ellis said. “There’s just too much for us.”

According to the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP), the average UK household wastes £250 to £400 of food each year. This roughly equates to an astounding 6.7 million tonnes of food waste each year.

Bin-raiding: the risks
But bin-raiding has its fair share of risks.

Grace Money, a spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency, says food poisoning is the single largest risk facing freegans.

“If you ignore the use-by date, you could be playing a rather nasty form of food poisoning russian roulette,” Money said. “Manufacturers set the use-by dates using scientific tests that look at how food poisoning bacteria grow in food. If eaten beyond the use-by date, the levels of bacteria may be high enough to make you very ill indeed.”

Food poisoning is not the only risk associated with bin-raiding. It’s illegal. Trespassing and stealing food from rubbish bins is a punishable offense under the Theft Act of 1968.

Many large supermarkets chains lock their rubbish bins and surround them with high fences, CCTV and even night-time security guards.

Other supermarket chains pour blue dye over their food waste to make the food less visually appealing.

While sickness, serious injury and trespassing are all inherent risks associated with bin-raiding, neither Smith nor Ellis has ever encountered major problems.

“I have never been seriously ill from eating out of bins in 22 years, neither have I had any problems with the police or suffered any serious injury,” Ellis said.

Different levels of freeganism
Freeganism is not just about the much-hyped bin-raiding, squatting and foraging. It’s also about promoting simple things such as recycling, buying less and using eco-friendly transportation.

So if dumpster diving isn’t your style, there are some other practical measures you can take to reduce waste and save money.

With the global economic crisis, programs, such as WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste Campaign are encouraging people to spend less, recycle and eliminate food waste.

One third of all the food bought in the UK will end up being thrown away, the organisation says.

This food waste is not just egg shells and banana peels. The most wasted items include potatoes, pasta, lettuce, and bread. In fact every day, UK residents waste 7 million slices of bread and 5.1 million potatoes.

In a lifetime, UK residents throw away approximately £15,000 to £24,000 of food, according to WRAP.

Simple things, such as making a grocery list, using your leftovers, planning your meals ahead of time and freezing food to use for later can not only reduce food waste but can also save you a lot of money.

Eco-friendly ways to save money
In the hard economic times, Wrap’s Love Food Hate Waste Campaign and Freegan.Info have some simple eco-friendly money saving tips, which don’t involve rifling through others’ trash.

1. Go to repair workshops
2. Visit free-sharing websites, such as FreeCycle.org
3. Use eco-friendly public transportation
4. Buy less
5. Recycle
6. Plan your meals ahead of time
7. Use your freezer
8. Try home composting