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Dumpster Diving?
Dumpster Diving?
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse
Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can? Don't laugh. Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America. In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name. They call themselves "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....
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.
Dumpster diving has become such a prominent trend that even big television news networks are doing stories about it....
The truth is that dumpster diving is just another sign of the times.
Food prices continue to rise and this is 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 percent (13.2 percent annualized) in August, the third straight rise. Over thirty percent of the August advance can be traced to meat prices, which climbed 2.4 percent (28.8 percent 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.
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 is 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.
So 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.
But what is going to happen when the economy gets even worse and we start seeing fights over the food that has been left in dumpsters?
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?
The number of good jobs in America continues to decline, and thousands more Americans fall into poverty every single day. Things have gotten so bad that other countries are actually making videos that make fun of our poverty.
This country is rapidly losing confidence in our leaders and hopelessness is spreading like wildfire. Today it was revealed that Barack Obama's disapproval rating has now set a new high of 55%. Not only that, 62% of the American people disapprove of the way that he is handling the economy. It turns out that they don't really think much of the Obama jobs plan after all.
Unfortunately, even though our economy is rapidly falling apart and most of our leaders are either deeply corrupt or completely incompetent, most Americans are still way too apathetic. If you can believe it, the American people spend a whopping 53 million minutes a month on Facebook.
Hopefully we can get more Americans to wake up. Hopefully we can get them to understand that they need to get active, that they need to prepare and that they need to get their priorities in order.
Right now, dumpster diving is cute and fun and an interesting way to save money, but in the future there will be millions of Americans digging around in trash cans if we don't get this economy turned around.
This country is rapidly changing, and not for the better.
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We'll go back to the old days of charity and freedom. Kellogg's fed more hungry people than FDR, until FDR taxed the shit out of them for being evil rich corporations.
Watch out, those are the heavy lids- prop them up good, or else they will clobber you when they fall down on your head (that's why I wear protection). The other thing to be careful about is if the lids are up when its been raining- things get very soggy and ripe down here in Florida when the sun comes back out. Rather than food, I look for metal- copper, steel, alum to recycle for cash, hell I even take NO DUMPING signs to sell.
"...hell I even take NO DUMPING signs to sell."
LOL...
Seriously though, that sign is probably put there by dumpster divers to deter competition
When Geithner's ass is seen sticking out of a dumpster, then and only then will we have won. It CAN happen; cf. Ivan Boesky.
Do not feel too sorry for Ivan.
His deal with prosecutors allowed him to re-file his taxes without certain gains and he was able to obtain a very large tax refund. very large.
His wife divorced him and he received a $20 million lump sum payment FROM HER.
Does that not kick ass?
Is that not a soft landing?
But Boesky had actually earned money in his own life and actually had some money sense ....
Freegans? Dumpster diving sounds like a lot of work. Divers are resourceful people who are earning their keep. When the authorities figure out what is really going on, diving will be outlawed and/or taxed.
I used to live on food from the dumpsters at food distribution centers and bakeries. I suggest anyone with financial problems look into it.
As we decline, wastefulness will become less and less. That will leave fewer scraps in the dumpsters and for charitable give-aways.
The end result is bound to be higher crime. Flash mobs hitting grocery stores for food.
Along the way, the name of the game will be cheap food. It will pacify the masses, but the negative health effects will be serious. Of course, this solves part of the problem...
When the dumpsters are already spoken for, that's when you build your shack right at the dump
http://dbooth.org/guat2000/small/day3_1.htm
I picked up this link from comments a month ago. At first I thought it was a joke, but it seems all too real.
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/
The Art & Science of Dumpster Divingthis story is part of a series.
"Last month, as part of our coverage of America’s economic malaise, we chronicled the story of a young father who took a job as a firefighter in Iraq after he couldn’t find work in Miami. Then we asked msnbc.com readers: What crazy things are you doing to make ends meet? This is the second of three reader stories we’ll share. Last week, we wrote about a man who has turned to dumpster diving to keep food on the table for his three children. Now, we tell Carla's story.
Lawyer turns topless dancer to pay the billsProbably a better use of her God-given talents anyway ...
How do you know it's a girl?
I did not realize Carla could also be a dude's name ....
Anybody who sees good food going to waste in their community needs to make it a point to bitch-out the local corporate office for failing to donate to a Second Harvest type organization.
>>>If you can believe it, the American people spend a whopping 53 million minutes a month on Facebook.<<<
Yep, I can believe it. The modern equivalent to writing on the bathroom wall.
When it IPOs that will just about mark the top...like pets.com
The worlds' population spends 97 million minutes a day posting comments at ZH.
Thank the divine that most of the world still doesn't have internet access, and most of the rest use chinese made routers that won't even connect to Zerohedges' DNS servers.
The world population spends 43 quadrillion minutes daily downloading porn.
Q (by New Jersey)- - how many zeros is that anyway?
A. ( by Buckaroo Banzai) - quite a few..
My mother-in-law was fired for taking a box of food home, which was due to be thrown out. The regional manager was walking in just as she was walking out. Terrible luck. That's how we roll in corporate socialist occupied America.
Sign of the times flattrader. A social extreme. And the cost will be very expensive in more ways that one.
I don't know about people of means crawling through garbage, but it is ridiculous that grocery and drug stores throw all that stuff out. Set it aside and have an employee drive it to the local shelter or food bank once or twice a week.
They can't. Liability issues. If they put it in the trash/dumpster, they are legally no longer liable. A box with a visible expiration date is a million dollar lawsuit just waiting to happen.
I used to do a bit of dumpster diving when I was a kid. But I wasn't looking for food. I was looking for d0x. Times sure have changed.
Who didn't love having a box of free twinkies to keep the body fueled during the wee hours in the sewers and back alleys, playing with linesman's handsets?
Yea it would have been nice to find some twinkies. People really should have been more considerate about what they left for us. It was hard and dangerous work sometimes, you know.
And there will be more and more pensioners forced to because of lack of money...
UK pensioners winter fuel payment has fallen by 25% since last year yet coal prices have risen 22% from a year ago!
Yeah, I really cry for the UK pensioners who whine that, due to austerity measures, they will not be eligible for their winter fuel subsidies while they are wintering at their second homes in Spain.
It has been estimated that 263,013,699 pounds of food is 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.
I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that a lot of that is the result of government regulation. If your company orders 20 gourmet sandwiches too many for the big lunch meeting, it's probably illegal in your state to give them to homeless people or a shelter or whatever. So...into the dumpster they go. It's for your own good of course...it always is - and I'm sure it prevents the odd food poisoning but it's wasteful nonetheless. In fact I know of a world-famous portfolio manager who, although he is very wealthy now, grew up dirt poor and is known for digging $30 lunches out of the office trash.
I'll bet in some states it's illegal for you to hand someone your extra sandwich but legal for them to dig it out of the garbage.
Many food safety regulators are even cracking down on school bake sales and kids lemondade stands because the food wasn't prepared by a licenced commercial kitchen. This kind of thing is getting worse not better by the way. The government knows best.
Sorry but without a complete overhaul in how we exchange labor for goods and services, there will always be leeches who try to live off the rest of us just as we can see the government and its owners (FED,megacorps,wallstreet,etc) doing. They don't want change. They rather enjoy their lavish lifestyles and will do anything to keep it so.
I hope to God I'm misreading you. Most certainly you aren't calling these people who are salvaging a perfectly good and wasted resource "Leaches..."
It's all well and good to stem the waste, but pretending the you're "living outside capitalism" by doing this within the heart of capitalism isn't exactly as laudable as their warmed cockles would lead one to believe.
I see some of that food making it's way to the less-fortunate, but by and large, they're feeding themselves and people in Africa are still going without.
Do you mean "Leaches" as in Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous or "leeches" as in what they are?
Sorry. I stand corrected.
So it's come to this? Sad, sad, sad. Damn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy6c4uJoKaI
"When the world is runnin' down..."
I'm pretty sure I'll never have to do that. Even in a worst kind of scenario, I've got enough land to flip into farmland.
But it does make you think when you read stuff like that he?
"I've got enough land to flip into farmland."
What are you waiting for? I'm finding that it's not like just turning on a switch: of course, I've got lots of clearing to do, but, one doesn't wait until the last minute (besides, better to adjust early than to suffer later- assumptions might not match reality, in that the tools necessary to do the "flipping" might not be there later).
Ah, you don't want to dive in a dumpster filled with gold and silver coins? Too bad...
http://www.wottreng.ch/bin-dive.jpg
Todd is in need of a high protein diet. All he's getting in the dumpster is carbs and fat. Love to know what he programs.
Safeway now locks all dumpsters for liability reasons, many locks just get cut off. But I can't understand why this piece is set with future tense, almost every dumpster in America now has a "prospector" that claims it as sure as gold in a river is claimed, and claim jumpers meet with collaborative justice in that community just as you would if you tried to jump a gold claim, or if you like the analogy to hookers better each dumpster is like a street corner vigorously defended by it's resident prostitutes. There is even a quasi code of behavior and ethics built up among the divers. For one thing they all know each other and the lay of the land, locations, shortcuts to each, collection days, when the good stuff get tossed by stores. There are the rivalries between common homeless vets and such, and the tweekers that will do anything, break any rule for their meth money.
Welcome to modern American capitalism.
Around here there isn't much of a code. When something 'good' is dropped off it's a free for all. This has been going on all summer while the stock market was rallying hard with it's erection. Maybe I should set up a webcam and provide the link for HAL9000.
camp next to a taco bell and supermarket
stake your place .. get a tarp ..
enjoy
I adopted a kitten that had been living around a Taco Bell dumpster. He would eat anything. He stopped growing at 8 lbs, so Taco Bell food may not have been very nutritious.
8lbs is pan sized. I'd keep that cat away from Taco Bell - they recycle you know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlFP-PMW6E
Why is Ilene using a video that is at least four years old and implying this is a new trend? People have been doing this since dumpsters came into use.
Great link.
Soon dumpster diving will give way to dumpster squating.
This so 2000's
Picked up the wrong pork loins at Costco (they had bacon and spices), wife wanted plain for her recipe..
They were vacuum sealed in heavy plastic.
Wife had me bring them back.. I kept them refrigerated and returned them.
Costco was great.. they took them back, credited me $40, but then immediately tossed them in the trash can.
I wanted to dive after them.
If I had known they were going to go to waste, I would not have returned them.. I would have just gone out for two more plain ones.
The lawyers and government have so screwed this once great country.