Food from Skips......

3v3

gitw wrote: »

... I'm not going to let my ethics be swayed by the ridiculous threat of prosecution for taking food that no-one else wants and is going to be thrown away.

And if I were to be arrested then that is something I would have to deal with and is a risk I am prepared to take. I would however make sure that it was made as high profile as possible and also look to get my ethical MP to help highlight the stupidity of it all and try for a change in the law! ....

So, why wait to be arrested *before* you look to your ethical MP/make it high profile?

If you truly believe the waste is stupid, you could complain to your MP *without* compromising your integrity.

Or, is that simply a justification for your free-loading/illegal activity?

If you genuinely felt so strongly about the ethical issues involved, you wouldn't wait to be arrested to make your point If you wanted an excuse for law-breaking, you would use ethical "principles" to justify your actions: moral self-righteousness in the guise of ethical principles?

If you really want a change in the law, you don't have to be a hypocrite and break the law to make a change in the law.

CrazyCatLady

I think most anti-capitalists aren't too bothered about "the law", seeing as it's a joke anyway, upheld mostly by bent cops, MPs who fiddle their books and crusty judges with no life experience, favouring the rich and cracking down on the poor. You only have to open the newspaper on any given day to find out how great "the law" really is. So I think, all these judgemental people attacking people like gitw, calling her a thief, hypocrite or whatever, should think before opening their mouths.

lilly81

Have you looked for your local food bank?
These are usually run by the local churches but open to all people in need

StumpyPumpy

gitw wrote: »

... If someone could give me a blooming good reason as to why I shouldnt do it (aside from the ridiculous legal aspect) then I might think twice, but so far the only problem people have is their own disgust, and the shops, well I'm not entirely sure what their problem is - they have already lost the money the moment they chuck it away so I cannot really see what they can object to.

First I'll say that in theory I am in favour of cutting back on waste and the supermarkets do throw away an awful lot of food, but I'm more in favour of the rule of law and up until the point where the law is changed I follow it. There are mechanisms in place to debate changing laws without having to break them. I know this may sound dramatic, but if everyone simply disregarded laws they disagreed with we would be left with anarchy. Your "sensible" law is someone else's anathema.

To answer your question about what the shops' problem is: there are several. While you are right that they have lost their money once they throw it away, they still have financial reasons. If you walk in a shop to buy a product, but see a shop assistant coming down the aisles reducing that product, do you buy it regardless, or do you buy it after she reduces it? The same applies here - why buy when you can skip dive later? So the supermarket letting you take it for free today reinforces behaviour and leads to less profit tomorrow. (And yes, I know the amounts may be small, but "profit is profit" and they are not charities).
There are other reasons as well. A supermarket I know of used to leave short life, expired goods, outside for people to take. It was a deliberate, but unstated policy to help the local homeless. It quickly became known amongst that community who were very appreciative. This went on for quite some time; then the news reached some "entrepreneurs". They started turning up in a van and would swoop on anything left outside, threatening any homeless who turned up. No one I know is sure what they did with it all, but the guess is that they drove to another part of town, sorted it and sold it on, probably to the homeless again. After a couple of weeks the supermarket was advised to stop by the police who had been called out to several disturbances. What started as a nice gesture ended up in a fight and the destruction of property. It wasn't long after that the head office sent out the memo banning this action, though again, I don't know whether it was directly connected to the incidents, but they can't have helped.

SP

adrenalin

by the way co-op is best for this, huge range of good and loads most times, some co-op have no locked areas and bins round back car parks and shared recycle bins etc. some haveno lights on. The waste is appaling but also helps if tight on funds. I surprised they aloud leave loads beer alcohol in them in them most with just one damaged ban or bottle, I seen boxes crisps and chocolate a few times hah shocking vast ranges of items they usully in red dumpster, stuff is clean and bagged up, just a little sort put in own bags and can save a lot and environment. village ones are prob best i think. I found replies interesting of all aspects of it all on here and laws etc. I dont want say to much on a public forum ha

missy-

I used to live in Glastonbury and as you can imagine being a freegan was very popular there.... I know that the supermarkets used to pour bleach over the food in the skips to discourage people taking it!
I once went to a festival with a freegan and we had a whole tent of free food. Boxes of milk tray and tubes of pringles mostly!!!!
Happy days :beer:

optimistic

If anyone is struggling this Christmas, i know that the Salvation Army have been collecting for their toys and tins appeal. Not sure how they decide how to distribute but maybe worth contacting them? Also there's been a lot on news recently about the food banks and how they are helping people too. hth

hollieinbloom

my step dad used to work on picking up skips from supermarkets etc and we had a shed full of stuff him and his work friends had found. They used to throw things because the box was tattered of someone had returned things. We had lots of tool boxes, chocolates, dart boards and beauty sets.
Never had to buy presents for my friends for a long time!. They weren't supposed to take things from the skips, but how can you see a perfectly good Drill or huge case of chocolate boxes be thrown because of some damaged boxes? If you have no food budget, you could start by growing your own veggies or ask around at your local allotments if you can buy veggies of people from there as most people do it for fun or for their own food and will often have lots of overstock. My partners grandad does it and we always get lots of cauliflower! yum! x

Rex_Mundi

If you want to grow your own and don't have anywhere to do it. Why not check out the LANDSHARE SITE? It was started through River Cottage a couple of years ago and now has over 66,000 members (at the time of this reply)

Quoted from the site..........

It’s for people who:

•Want to grow their own fruit and veg but don’t have anywhere to do it
•Have a spare bit of land they’re prepared to share
•Can help in some way – from sharing knowledge and lending tools to helping out on the plot itself
•Support the idea of freeing up more land for growing
•Are already growing and want to join in the community

jigsaw1234

i think its disguting. i work in a shop and you can guarentee every morning before we got a lock on the bin someone had been in there and spread everything over the car park and taken what they want. so now i open every single packet and pour milk or coke over it so no one can take it.