Taking saving to the extreme - becoming a Freegan!

kickstart_3

Are you a Freegan ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/01/06/insideout_freegans_feature.shtml

JMC39

Ha, is this where Hollyoaks get their storylines from?

sleepymy

lol I don't mind the freegans, it means there's someone out there who society thinks are madder than us vegans

msmiller

Well, I used to work for a (ahem) very well known coffee house and the amount of food we were made to throw out was simply shocking. I found it painful to do! We used to be allowed to take stuff home back in the day but all that changed. I mean bin bags filled with perfectly good food, mostly completely untouched (except for when we used to eat the icing off cakes etc after a bad day lol). Really makes you sick. I hope someone is eating all those cakes and sandwiches!

GreenNinja

I used to work in a small family run bakery. On a saturday afternoon after we shut all bread, cakes and meat pies that hadn't sold had to be chucked. We weren't allowed to have any at discount price or free, they would rather throw it away.
If I was ever locking up on a saturday and was the only one there I would take a few things home and put a couple of quid in the charity box. Bit naughty but I can't stand waste.

Plum_Pie

For a less wholesome view, see 'Bin Banquets' on this month's Vice:

http://www.viceland.com/int/v14n6/htdocs/bin.php?country=uk

Please be aware that this is not a 'politically correct' publication and contains lots of swearing etc etc.

Fishcake_Random

I have been "dumpster-diving" on several occasions and I have never had any problems with it. providing your carefull about what you eat and have some common sense there is nothing wrong with it. I also used to work for a well known supermarket chain and in the evenings i was responsible making sure the bins were locked over night, stupidly they check on camera to see if you take anything from the shop when locking up but there are no cameras on the bin. So we used to make up a bag each of goodies we wanted that were being binned lock up the shop walk round the back to the car park and collect our "shopping". Happy days, though since i left their employment i regually get food parcels from the staff i used to know left out for me. lol

kind regards

fishcake

kickstart_3

There seems to be two extremes to this , from the report that Plum Pie has posted ,to the replies about genuine waste by shops and supermarkets. I can see the point in helping yourself to the shop stuff , but the ones in the other report are more likely to end up in A&E for the sake of saving money!

Plum_Pie

M&S stopped selling their nearly out-of-date for reduced prices about 6 months ago. I don't know if they stopped doing this due to better stock rotation or if they just waste more now. Their food is very well-packaged (overly packaged IMO!), that would probably be OK to eat.

redballoon_2

How do you get into freegan-ing?

ampersand

While doing Mature(Ha!)Degree, I volunteered nights at a Shelter. We'd receive food from local restaurants and supermarkets and be grateful. I am shocked by the obscenity of waste in supermarkets and have asked staff about it. They seem to feel similarly. The further absurdity of seeing toothbrushes and hard or dry goods slung out, along with perfectly good food, as if, Cinderalla-like, on the stroke of midnight they ALL become FOUL and TAINTED and UNFIT FOR CONSUMPTION('human' omitted deliberately)........conspicuous consumption is a Western malaise.