Freegans - advice and information about freeganism

HappySad

Are they any good web sights on this...?

I've heard that they get supermarket food for free!!! How do you do this. Do you just ask & they give it to you at the end of the day??? Don't want to go through their bins for food.

Anyone out there a freegan???

basill

It s mostly rummaging in bins I`m afraid, This site describes it rather sweetly as `urban foraging`

redcherry_girl

Does anyone know whether you can get into trouble for this? I'd like to give it a go but most of the supermarkets shut their bins behind gates at the end of the day. I know some people think it's disgusting, but more than anything I'm curious and would like to see what sort of thing gets thrown away...

HappySad

Thanks for the info. I find it fasinating that thay can virtually or completely free of the need for money & therefore no need to work ... good on them as they are using up all the waste that we produce.. they are truly green. I could not do the bin for food; but have done skips for non food stuff.

ceridwen

1. Theres video clips on freeganism on YouTube - just put in word "freegan" on the website and see what comes up.

2. Freeganism is one of the topics covered on my thread on the Old Style Forum (thread entitled - living on $12,000 a year). Search through that for the references to it.

mashauk

Being a Freegan is a lot more political than just getting your food free from skips (known as skipping). It's about not being involved in consumerism etc. I know people that were vegetarian and now eat meat from skips because they're not contributing to the animal cruelty! You can get really good stuff from supermarket skips, not just food, sometimes wine & beer. Occasionally some of them will tip bleach on it so you can't eat it, and beware, although morally the stuff they've thrown out no longer belongs to them, legally, it does.

It's outrageous the amount of perfectly good fresh food they chuck out, it could be something like one egg in a box is broken and they'll throw the whole box out.

I'm vegetarian but in the past my cat has had salmon steaks and prawns from skips!

HappySad

mashauk wrote: »

Being a Freegan is a lot more political than just getting your food free from skips (known as skipping). It's about not being involved in consumerism etc. I know people that were vegetarian and now eat meat from skips because they're not contributing to the animal cruelty! You can get really good stuff from supermarket skips, not just food, sometimes wine & beer. Occasionally some of them will tip bleach on it so you can't eat it, and beware, although morally the stuff they've thrown out no longer belongs to them, legally, it does.

It's outrageous the amount of perfectly good fresh food they chuck out, it could be something like one egg in a box is broken and they'll throw the whole box out.

I'm vegetarian but in the past my cat has had salmon steaks and prawns from skips!

sounds great that you can get stuff for your cat.

I am very much in my own way into consumerisum. I have been brought up to not waste but now that everyone is goimg green I am learning more ways of applying the 3Rs.

thescouselander

mashauk wrote: »

Being a Freegan is a lot more political than just getting your food free from skips (known as skipping). It's about not being involved in consumerism etc. I know people that were vegetarian and now eat meat from skips because they're not contributing to the animal cruelty! You can get really good stuff from supermarket skips, not just food, sometimes wine & beer. Occasionally some of them will tip bleach on it so you can't eat it, and beware, although morally the stuff they've thrown out no longer belongs to them, legally, it does.

It's outrageous the amount of perfectly good fresh food they chuck out, it could be something like one egg in a box is broken and they'll throw the whole box out.

I'm vegetarian but in the past my cat has had salmon steaks and prawns from skips!

It may be outrageous for supermarkets to thow away food but they are obliged by law to dispose of all food that has passed its sell-by date whether it can be eaten or not - they are't even allowed to give it away. The penalties for breaking this law are quite severe.

Also, taking food out of the bins is classed as theft and is illegal, technically you could be charged if caught.

mashauk

Fair enough, but a lot of it isn't even past the sell or use by date. WIth some of the stuff I've seen I couldn't work out why it was being disposed of, such as fresh veggies, intact bottles and cans of beer and wine! I have never actually been "skipping" but I know loads of people that do do it, one even runs a cafe with a meal for £1 for local people with the produce they get from it, all vegetarian, they don't take chances with the meat, fish and eggs that are discarded to be on the safe side. Whilst it's technically a crime and obviously I wouldn't promote breaking the law, there's rules and there's rules, some shops (Fresh & Wild used to do it, I don't know if they still do) used to leave out 1 day old bread if you asked them, for local people to take.

IamJen

thescouselander wrote: »

It may be outrageous for supermarkets to thow away food but they are obliged by law to dispose of all food that has passed its sell-by date whether it can be eaten or not - they are't even allowed to give it away. The penalties for breaking this law are quite severe.

Also, taking food out of the bins is classed as theft and is illegal, technically you could be charged if caught.

Are you sure about the give-away part of the law? There's a very small shop in our town that often gives away the expired items.

*JayBee*

I have two "dumpster divers" for friends. They have built up a relationship with the warehouse staff of a supermarket and so they are allowed in to "intercept" waste afore it goes in the skips.

Bad food goes to their animals. Edible stuff, just past sell-by, goes in their bellies.