The Freegan Consumer Behaviour

Would you consider yourself a freegan? If you pick up items that are being thrown out with the trash, then you are a freegan. If you eat the free samples at Costco and consider that a meal, then you are a freegan.

The urban dictionary defines a freegan as: Somebody who abstains from contributing to the economy and salvages society's wasted food and resources rather than purchase more themselves.

I had a bad opinion of freegans when I first heard about them, I saw them as being thiscloseto homeless and living a life that my brother used to live. Living in abandoned homes, stairwells and crashing at friend's places. Eating gross looking food that was left-over in the fridge or garbage and spending as little money as possible - which came across to me as being a leech or at the very least, cheap.

Over time that idea has changed and I realize that I do some things that are freegan-like. Like when I pulled the dresser from the dumpster so I wouldn't have to buy a new one. But it doesn't stop at just products, freegans also pick up good looking food that they view as good food that shouldn't go to waste.

@freegan, who posts their finds on twitter, and gives what they do find to the local shelter, laments that "Only 10% or so of stores have outside bins to glean fresh fruits and vegetables from--the rest destroy w/inside compactor."

Other freegans who glean from the discards of grocery stores and restaurants do make some delicious looking food -Avocado Mango Mint Salad with Plum Chutney is one meal that Waste Not, Want Green has pulled together from the dumpster.

I also found that freegan.info takes the definition a step further to include not just people searching for food but also “People who are concerned so deeply with the social and ecological impact of economic over-consumption that they choose to buy and work as little as possible and, instead, to live directly off the massive waste created by our modern society.”

These people have jobs, homes and families. They are the scavengers of the American culture, taking the discarded and forgotten and making it their own, getting that last bit of nourishment or life from it when we have decided none could be found.

I am in total support of this and I think it is great that people are able to “live” off of our throwaways with their creativity.

Have I ever dived for food? No. Have I ever eaten food that was dived? Yes. My grandfather was a diver after he retired and one of his stops was a bakery near his home, since he had a sweet tooth. He even grabbed some extras for us grand-kids. Mom was hesitant at first and always checked the expiration dates, but we determined if we would eat it, based on whether is was stale or not. I have to say that my aversion to coconut covered marshmallows are due to this history, they never looked good to me.