Difference between revisions of "Talk:Freeganism"

Revision as of 16:45, 18 July 2017

How it relates to veganism, how pragmatic it can be when done right, how the end goal should be bringing awareness to end food waste, but also how it can be a vital toolkit in cheaply running new projects, supporting the homeless and domestic animals which are obligate carnivores. --NonZeroSum (talk) 06:29, 15 July 2017 (CEST)

Wiki quoting

Hard to do much better than the wiki definition, history and policy impact. And if we could wouldn't we want to change the Wikipedia definition also? In such a circumstance is it ok to copy verbatim or should we keep in quote and reference form?

Introduction - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism History - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism#History Impacts - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism#Impacts

Not sure if this is how other small mediawiki operations do it, but seems we can copy verbatim without quote-marking:[1]

As of July 15, 2009 Wikipedia has moved to a dual-licensing system that supersedes the previous GFDL only licensing. In short, this means that text licensed under the GFDL only can no longer be imported to Wikipedia, retroactive to 1 November 2008. Additionally, Wikipedia text might or might not now be exportable under the GFDL depending on whether or not any content was added and not removed since July 15 2009. See Wikipedia:Licensing update for further information.

Verbatim copying under the GFDL is one of the ways to reuse Wikipedia articles and other material. You may only use this approach for pages that do not incorporate text that is exclusively available under CC-BY-SA or a CC-BY-SA-compatible license. See Re-use of text under the GNU Free Documentation License.

For the purposes of this discussion, Wikipedia is considered to be a Collection of Documents. (An alternative interpretation could be that Wikipedia is a single Document, which invalidates the discussion on this page.)

--NonZeroSum (talk) 18:42, 18 July 2017 (CEST)

Page Layout Ideas?

Keep going with facts & information, activism and alternative perspectives? --NonZeroSum (talk) 06:29, 15 July 2017 (CEST),

Sounds like a good general guideline.--BrimstoneSaladWiki (talk) 02:01, 16 July 2017 (CEST)

To Draw from

Forum Threads

Hyperlinks [2]

• How Much Food Can You Find In A Dumpster? (Vegan Gains)
• Vegan makes profit from roadkill
• Is it okay to eat meat that you did not buy?
• Part Vegan Part Freegan? The concept of use?
• Eggs and Veganism
• Backyard rescue hens
• Veganism and Dumpster Diving
• FREEGAN VEGAN BEEGAN’S!?

--NonZeroSum (talk) 18:42, 18 July 2017 (CEST)

External links

Wikipedia [3]

Very thorough, we can probably reference to their history overview. --NonZeroSum (talk) 06:29, 15 July 2017 (CEST)

Trashwiki [4]

This site is the go to that every freegan uses for maps and information on big cities when they don't know their way around or have someone to show them. Helplful 'last checked' dates also. Interesting recorded Freegan News and Events also.[5] --NonZeroSum (talk) 06:29, 15 July 2017 (CEST)

The Ultimate Guide To Dumpster Diving

1st Edit:

How to

Disclaimer

Getting food from dumpsters isn’t the most sanitary thing you can do, so don’t do it if you are immunocompromised through youth, illness or age, if you don’t want to risk infections, and are germ or pest phobic and/or nutritionally deficient.

Health & Safety

Be careful when climbing in and out of dumpsters. You’ll need a bright head-torch to see what you’re doing, even better is to have a friend holding another torch to advise you where you’re not looking. Hard toed rubber boots, hard gloves to protect your hands and long protective trouser legs and sleeves to protect against sharp objects and residue on your skin, also make sure the jacket zips off in the middle so you’re not taking it off over your head.

Remove all exterior clothing before travelling home and shower straight away, alternatively removable car seat covers, trash sacks, or sheets of newspaper will protect your car seat. Clean plastic trash sacks are a good way to protect your finds while wading in the dumpster, transporting your haul home, and when containing messy boots or clothes. When biking, line your panniers or backpack with plastic bags.

You still need to check labels and use all 5 senses when deciding what to bring home. The most nutritious food is that picked and eaten or processed to be eaten on the same day it ripens (retting, processing and cooking to make those nutrients more accessible aside), when dumpster diving for food, you should expect most of the products you find to have declined somewhat in quality.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, food poisoning seems to be twice as likely in restaurants than at home. There is some research on higher levels of cases of gastroenteritis among dumpster divers in the US, though it is not obvious how it is comparable to other activities.

Best trick in the book is to leave all your products submerged in a bucket of water with vinegar or diluted bleach overnight to soak which kills most aerobic bacteria. Anything bulging, bloated or smells funny leave behind.

The Dumpster Diving Code

Out of respect to other dumpster divers and the owner of the premises there is few simple rules you can adhere to keep everyone happy. If you fail to adhere to the code, you risk having the owner of the dumpster lock the bin, pour bleach on the food or wait for you to return and shout at you for being a dirty hippie. None of that is fun, so read carefully.

Rule 1: Dumpster discretely

You don’t want to draw attention to yourself while you are dumpstering. People might get spooked and call the cops, or you might get shooed away. Keep noise to an absolute minimum. Speak with an inside voice, don’t throw things around and avoid knocking things over loudly. In a built up area it might be easier to nip in and out during the day with the cover of street sounds, otherwise go during the cover of night if you can and use the red filter on your head torch to prevent your flashlight from being visible at distance.

Rule 2: Leave things better than how you found them

Dumpster diving can be messy, smelly business, but you’ve no right to go mess up someone’s garbage area. Avoid tearing bags open, tossing trash on the floor or leaving bags outside the dumpster. If you do need to tear the bags, make sure you tie them back up.

Not only is it rude to leave an area messy, you might attract raccoons and other pests, creating a problem for the innocent dumpster owner. Breaking this rule is a huge motivation for owners to lock their dumpsters, preventing future generations of divers to benefit from the cornucopia of food.

Rule 3: Check the legal status in your country

Dumpster diving is legal in the United States and Canada except where prohibited by local regulation.

However, if a dumpster is against a building or inside a fenced enclosure marked “No Trespassing,” you could be questioned, ticketed or even arrested by the police. If the officer responding takes a particular dislike to you they may even try to ticket or arrest you for breach of the peace or disorderly conduct, two charges so abstract there is nothing you can really do but keep a calm conduct, just be aware

What can you find while dumpster diving?

The focus of this page is on food as you can find most stuff found in dumpsters cheaply in thrift stores (and the back of!) or online classifieds, but in this age of over-consumption and thoughtless waste, you can find anything and everything in dumpsters, including:

Clothing, furniture, electronics, building materials, books, pet food and supplies, and so much more…

What gear do you need to dumpster dive?

Dumpster diving is a messy business.

You’ll want to ensure that you are well-equipped for the job so that the task is as pleasant as possible.

Long sleeve shirts and pants. I recommend that you equip yourself with a long sleeve shirt and pants. There is a risk that you might splash something nasty on yourself, and it’s better that it should end up on your clothing than your skin. What’s more, long sleeves and pants will protect you from any sharp objects and keep you warm.

A headlamp. If possible, you want to go dumpster diving during the cover of night to avoid detection and drawing attention to yourself. A headlamp is essential for freeing your hands for maximum flexibility and digging. Don’t assume the light of streetlamps will not be sufficient to give you the required visibility for optimum diving.

Thick gloves. You’ll want some gloves for protection and warmth. Getting your hands covered in trash water is unsettling, and also, will get your hands freezing, especially if you are dumpstering at night. Gloves will also protect you from sharp edges, glass and other dumpster hazards.

A face mask. This is optional, but helpful for novices. Even though a large portion of the food retrieved from dumpster is fresh, rot may have settled into a some. If you’ve got a strong sense of smell, a mask can help you stay strong in the light of unpleasant odors.

Close-toe shoes. Leave your dandy sandals at home. Get yourself a sturdy pair of shoes to take with you diving. This will help you jump and walk over the dumpster and its content.

Bags. To take home your haul.

Bicycle, car or van. To help carry your enormous, delicious haul.

A small box cutter knife or scissors. Helpful for cutting into bags and boxes to view the insides.

You can purchase a universal skip key for dirt cheap which will open many (if not most) dumpsters. I’ve heard tails of freegans covertly bumping chain locks and replacing the broken link with an identical quick release link or practicing their picking technique on yale locks, as well as not so covertly, highly illegal, going to war with the management escalating to electric saws until they threw in the towel.

The Best Places to Dumpster Dive

Whilst you're still getting the lay of the land a good bike and set of paniers is fastest for nipping in out of lanes to see what grocery stores, restaurants, and food services are nearby and check their dumpsters when no one is outside. It may take a few days to learn when the trash pick-up day is and what time fresh food is dumped, so keep checking.

Corner stores are also excellent – these are smaller places and neither have the time or staff to effectively throw out food. If you live in a city, you’ll find a lot of success by going to downtown and checking behind and on the sides of small, corner grocery stores. Often, you can get a lot of good stuff by just skimming the top.

Remember, dumpster diving is a hunt. Don’t give up if the first few places you visit don’t have what you were looking for. Beside another corner store

For stores closely positioned to a street, you may need to walk down to an alley and turn into it. Many cities will have compost-only bins, typically colored in a shade of green. These are perfect. They separate the food away from the non-food items, making it easy to find the grub you seek.

When Should you go Diving?

When is just as important as where.

Try to time your dumpstering adventure close to garbage day in the area you are targeting. You can easily find this information on a municipality’s website.

You can definitely find good stuff during other times, but if you want the biggest volume of things to choose from, go before or on garbage day (before the garbage is taken away, of course).

How to Pick Good Dumpster Food

In order to conserve energy and effort, follow the steps below:

Feel the outside of the bag to understand the shapes of things inside. Slightly lift the bag to get an idea of the weight. Are you feeling some boxy shapes? Is the bag lightweight? In this case, the bag may be full of empty containers and not worth the effort into opening it, if the bag smells or looks rotten move on.

Labels

A few important points about dates, those dreaded indicators of food lifespan:

Best Before Dates: In North America, these have nothing to do with the safety of the food in question. It is an estimate placed by manufacturers as to how much time a food will remain “fresh” – that is, retain it’s best flavor and texture. Even though many stores and people will dump food that has passed its “best before” date, this date should not dissuade you from recovering food.

Sell Before Dates: These are used by stores to keep track of inventory, and give an indication of when this food should be moved off the shelf, and to the dumpster. Oftentimes, these ‘sell by’ dates may be many days before the ‘best before’ dates.

Use By Dates: These dates indicate a manufacturers estimate as too how many days a product will be safe to eat. These dates are somewhat significant. However, it’s not like a food will suddenly be edible one day before the “use by” date, and then magically become inedible the next. These dates are usually conservative for the sake of safety and as protection from litigation.

Resources

Trashwiki [6] is the go to that every freegan uses for maps and information on big cities when they don't know their way around or have someone to show them. Helplful 'last checked' dates also.

Stigma

Much like pre-owned materials, dumpster food face some illogical prejudices.

Our aversion to food that hasn’t been shrink-wrapped or with any blemishes or oddly shaped, past it’s “best before” date, is often a result of commercial processes tailoring to an unreasonable aesthetic consumer preference. These have little to do with whether food is edible and safe. Nonetheless, food is routinely thrown out due to these reasons. It’s gotten to the point where 40% of all food created is sent to the landfill.

A large portion of the food thrown away is not dangerous or inedible, much of it has no issues at all.

Research on freegans finds that individuals come from middle-class and upper-class backgrounds and have high levels of education (even if their present lifestyles make them low-income).[7][8]

I am extremely embarrassed for people to see me diving, because I can tell that I’m not just me, I’m also a representation of black people in general...I got harassed by security several times while diving on my own campus, until my white friends pop their heads out of the dumpsters.[9]