Dumpster Diving: The "Freeganism" Movement

I first read about dumpster diving in an article in the now defunct Jane magazine. I was both shocked and intrigued that people whom could otherwise afford to buy their own food would chose to sift through dumpsters for it just to prove something. The type of dumpster diving mentioned in the magazine was part of the "freeganism" movement. The movement's goal is to avoid living a materialistic consumer lifestyle and they dumpster dive in order to reuse resources which would other wise be destined for the landfill. You can read more in depth about the freeganism movement at http://freegan.info/ . The origin of the name is a combination of the words vegan (people whom do not consume or use any animal products) and free. However, there are people that dumpster dive in order to make a little extra cash selling things on e-bay and even donate some of the goods that they can not use themselves. Admittedly, some dumpster divers even admit to giving some of their findings as gifts.

Other names for dumpster diving are garbage picking, curbing, or in the UK binning. It is employed in both the United States and in Western Europe. In many parts of the USA it is an illegal act although this is enforced or regulated differently. It seems that the biggest hurdle you face is a store open confronting you. The best places to dumpster dive reportedly are at retail stores, offices and in wealthy residential neighborhoods. In many townships they hold curbside pick up for large items that the regular garbage disposal companies will not take and many items are collected in this fashion. Also, wealthy colleges such as Princeton have large items that are placed outside for free at the end of the school year and the end of fall semester. The most consistent providers and best types of retail stores to collect from tend to be grocery stores, bakeries, and health food stores. Often times these stores throw out completely unopened food items which they can no longer sell that are perfectly okay. Others stores that people tend to favor are craft stores, book stores, house ware, and electronic stores.

The tools that may be helpful on a dumpster dive are leather work gloves, a stepping stool, a flashlight, wet wipes or Purell hand sanitizer gel, and some type of tool to pull items out of the garbage disposal with. The Dumpster Lady recommends purchasing an Unger Nifty Nabber with can be purchased online for as little as $16 at Hardware World or Buy.com. There are dumpster diving forums on the internet where you can network with other divers and find the best places in your area to scour for goods (and places to avoid).