Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can? Don't laugh. Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America. In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name. They call themselves "freegans", and as the economy crumbles their numbers are multiplying. Many freegans consider dumpster diving to be a great way to save money on groceries. Others do it because they want to live more simply. Freegans that are concerned about the environment view dumpster diving as a great way to "recycle" and other politically-minded freegans consider dumpster diving to be a form of political protest. But whatever you want to call it, the reality is that thousands upon thousands of Americans will break out their boots, rubber gloves and flashlights and will be jumping into dumpsters looking for food once again tonight.
So is this actually legal?
In some areas, dumpster diving is considered to be legal. In other areas, dumpster divers are technically breaking trespassing laws. Although in most areas the police have so many other problems that they aren't really concerned about cracking down on dumpster divers.
One of the biggest issues facing dumpster divers is safety. Crawling around in back alleys and side streets in the middle of the night is not exactly the safest thing to do. But the lure of large amounts of free food is enough to keep some people coming back over and over again.
During the recent economic downturn, the popularity of dumpster diving has exploded. Today, there are dumpster diving meetup groups, dumpster diving Facebook groups, and even entire organizations such as Food Not Bombs that openly encourage their members to go dumpster diving.
If your family was going hungry, would you go dumpster diving?
You might be surprised at who is doing it. Dumpster diving is not just for the homeless and the unemployed anymore. A lot of people that have decent jobs have picked up on the trend.
Just check out the following example from a recent MSNBC article....
A programmer by day, Todd takes to the streets of North Carolina by night, digging through Dumpsters at drug stores and grocery stores all around his rural neighborhood.
"You would be simply amazed at what businesses throw out," he said. "I've only had to buy two loaves of bread all year. ... Last week I had a trunk full of cereal, cookies, chips and ramen noodles."
Todd slinks in and out of smelly places with low-light flashlights to evade rent-a-cops who will shoo him away. Most nights, his 14-year-old son comes along.
Dumpster diving has become such a prominent trend that even big television news networks are doing stories about it....
The truth is that dumpster diving is just another sign of the times.
Food prices continue to rise and this is putting incredible stress on the budgets of average American families. We just saw another huge rise in food prices during the month of August. Just check out the following data from a recent article posted on The Economic Policy Journal....
The index for finished consumer foods jumped 1.1 percent (13.2 percent annualized) in August, the third straight rise. Over thirty percent of the August advance can be traced to meat prices, which climbed 2.4 percent (28.8 percent annualized). Higher prices for processed poultry and eggs for fresh use also were major factors in the increase in the finished foods index.
If you are married and have a couple of children it can cost a lot of money to feed them every single month. It is not hard to understand the allure of dumpster diving for people that are having a hard time making ends meet.
Other Americans are choosing to dumpster dive because they believe that it helps them live a simpler lifestyle. There is a growing movement of people in America that are rejecting all of the "consumerism" that we see all around us.
Today, the average U.S. household has 13 different credit cards. We are constantly being bombarded with ads that tell us that we need more stuff in order to be happy.
Well, a lot of people have decided that is a lot of bunk and they are doing whatever they can to simplify.
Other dumpster divers are absolutely horrified by how much food is wasted in America.
It has been estimated that 263,013,699 pounds of food is thrown out in the United States every single day.
Can you imagine?
We are probably the most wasteful nation on the planet. With the number of hungry people in the world, it is absolutely criminal how much food that we waste.
So in that sense, it is probably a good thing that dumpster divers are saving some of that food from the landfills and are finding positive uses for it.
But what is going to happen when the economy gets even worse and we start seeing fights over the food that has been left in dumpsters?
In my recent special report about poverty in America, I noted that 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. For now, the U.S. government is helping feed over 45 million Americans through the food stamp program, but what is going to happen once the social safety net starts to break?
The number of good jobs in America continues to decline, and thousands more Americans fall into poverty every single day. Things have gotten so bad that other countries are actually making videos that make fun of our poverty.
This country is rapidly losing confidence in our leaders and hopelessness is spreading like wildfire. Today it was revealed that Barack Obama's disapproval rating has now set a new high of 55%. Not only that, 62% of the American people disapprove of the way that he is handling the economy. It turns out that they don't really think much of the Obama jobs plan after all.
Unfortunately, even though our economy is rapidly falling apart and most of our leaders are either deeply corrupt or completely incompetent, most Americans are still way too apathetic. If you can believe it, the American people spend a whopping 53 million minutes a month on Facebook.
Hopefully we can get more Americans to wake up. Hopefully we can get them to understand that they need to get active, that they need to prepare and that they need to get their priorities in order.
Right now, dumpster diving is cute and fun and an interesting way to save money, but in the future there will be millions of Americans digging around in trash cans if we don't get this economy turned around.
This country is rapidly changing, and not for the better.
r.bitting,
Amen. You are I Am if you believe.
r.bitting,
You within him, and him within you.
r. bitting,
While all the time, believing in I Am.
It’s amazing what Americans throw out. Operators in a trash to steam to electric plant I knew would get new clothes from stores wrapped in plastic and once found a mason jar filled with silver dollars. Functioning firearms we’re found too. They were turned over to police.
Someone once said that the degree of civilization a society has achieved could be measured by the conditions within it’s prisons. A society’s decay can probably also be measured by the number of it’s citizens picking through it’s trash. Any third world picture of a dump around a US Military Base always showed a significant number of locals scrounging.
I work mornings in a grocery store, in the evening I close a restaurant. Yes, you should be absolutely horrified by how much food is wasted in America. The grocery store donates some items to local food kitchens, but there are strict rules and limits. The restaurant will donate nothing; employees are forbidden to eat wasted food. Too much liability. ************* lawyers.
I’m soprry, but I can’t IMAGINE “Dumpster Diving!” I would think that you could get sick from the food that you would pick from these dumpsters. I guess if my family were starving, that would be one thing, but for those that don’t have to, I just don’t get it.
Yes, Nancy, you don’t get it. It’s perfectly good food, worth a lot of money, being discarded. At 8:59, had you walked into the store, you would have bought the loaf of bread. But at 9:00, they close the doors and then go up and down the aisles with garbage bags and toss any dented boxes of cereal, hundreds of bags of baked goods, every single bag of apples that has a single bruised fruit, and on and on. I find easily over $1000 worth of food on any given night whether I go to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. It takes less time than actually going shopping during the day. And if you find two whole, unopened cases of perfectly good organic broccoli, you get to play Iron Chef for the next few days. I spend about $200/month on groceries and put the savings toward retirement and education funds for my kids. Am I a bad father for providing my kid perfectly good bread (that, incidentally, was packaged in not one but three layers of impermeable plastic)? You don’t get sick from dumpster diving, you get sick from pathogens. Tell me, if they have an employee go through the egg case at the end of the day and throw out all of the dozens that have a single cracked egg, and I find ten dozen perfectly good eggs, is there some kind of super (supernatural?) pathogenic bacteria that can spontaneously appear inside of a sealed egg shell, inside of an egg carton, inside of a plastic bag? You really don’t get it. You should try to understand. Think.
I don’t know about other cities but here in New Orleans in a poor side of the city we had a Suda Salvage Store that had very low food prices on salvage food. The store closed a year ago. I guess they could not get supplies any more so they closed. But it helped a lotta people get food on the table. I always thought that food is more important than tv and movies. The food comes as a blessing from God but it has to be natural and non GM. When the GM companies will own the rights and patents to seeds and crops we are gonna starve.
I wonder if the Bank of Canada is similar to the Federal Reserve as in the article ? It charts the economy for Canada > but how much control does it has ?
Oops wrong section ! This should be in Unaccounted and unelected > Federal Reserve article .
Some of you may be inclined to try some of the great recipes by my favorite Depression-era chef, Ms. Clara Cannucciari:
http://www.greatdepressioncooking.com
A caveat: You will find no recipes for filet mignon, Peking duck, lobster, or caviar. It was the Depression, after all.
Personally, I never knew there were so many ways to prepare a potato. I just always baked them or squished them to make mashed potatoes.
Great website! The US Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has a booklet of recipes called “Recipes and Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals” that you can print out. It’s geared toward Food Stamp recipients to help stretch the entitlement. Simple, inexpensive meals for a family of 4. Our home uses it frequently since the Recession/Depression started and our household income went from $100k down to $35,000. On the bright side, I have lots more time for gardening and home cooking now!
Just wondering why my comment on this article was not approved. Are you practicing Censorship?
“Are you practicing Censorship?”
That depends… Were you practicing stupidity (I kid)? Perhaps you mistakenly posted under another topic
Lol! No… I commented right here about all of the dumpster divers I’ve witnessed lately… Something to the tune of how much they find. Then something about the vast amounts of storage units out there loaded with stuff. China could cut off importing stuff to the U.S. and we’ve got so much stuff already… I really don’t think it would matter too much.
Reread Grapes of Wrath. Food will be adulterated and burnt, before it reaches the masses.
If I owned the dumpster I would have shot the divers for trespassing. I can do with food whatever I feel like; I don’t want anyone else touching my food, it’s MY property.
I always spray a bit of bleach before I throw food away. So no insect, two-legged or six-legged, could eat it.
Mean sonuvabitch, what do you care if someone or some other hungry creature eats something YOU THREW OUT? Two-legged insect–you are an asshole.
Glad you didn’t mention the 4-legged insects.
Well, most of those tend to be carnivores, so…
You’re not going to find a German shepherd eating radishes or lettuce. Not in this universe anyway.
Thanks for the heads up Comnenus I’ll be sure never to support any business you own or work for!!! Any business that doesn’t allow dumpsters diving (done with respect) should be avoided just don’t spend your money there.
I’ve not gone dumpster diving for FOOD, unless I was starving… and then I would only go for non-perishable food. However, there are a lot of other good things you can get and I’ve done that a lot. Furniture, for example… those of you who mentioned it, yes, we are a society at present which unfortunately wastes a lot! I learned how to do this tho from my “dear ol’ Dad” who grew up during the (last?) Great Depression, and always “picked trash” at the dump. It’s really a honorable New England tradition, even by wealthy people.
… the very nicest couch/sofa I ever had I picked out of the dumpster in my old apartment in Orange County, CA. It was white upholstered, there was a small stain on the “skirt” – I made a slip cover for it and had it for years. COMFORTABLE, even tho it was a sleeper sofa.
What I think is most unfortunate though is there are some places that have made it illegal. Where I live we have to haul stuff to the county dump, which technically has signs all over the place about “no scavaging” – but the guys who work there carefully put some of the better stuff off to the side where people can take it.
Gary2 – ya might just want to think about that potty mouth of yours… that MIGHT darn well be the real reason you lost that last job you had (you know, the one that paid you $10/hr more than the job you have now?)
Hello
Dumpster Diving is one of the greatest legal issues around the street side.
Thanks
A more benign version of dumpster diving is pulling coupon inserts out of wastebaskets at the Post Office. Many boxholders discard these as junk mail. Truth be told, in addition to the usual coupons for cents or dollars off food, household cleaners, toothpaste, etc., they often also have coupons for free food items. While a notch below full meals, these coupon inserts often have coupons for such things as free bagels, coffee, sandwiches, cold beverages, etc. So while you may not get as much food as you can get by dumpster diving, every little bit helps.
And while we’re on the subject of coupons, ever notice that more of them require you to purchase more than one item to be redeemed? I’ve complained about this to the manufacturers and they’ve sent me coupons that only require you to purchase one item. Complain and ye shall receive!
Rooftop Gardens,community Gardens,Window Box Gardens For Apartments, They May Not Solve All Problems, But They Can Definately Help Ease The
Hunger Pains.
Dumpster diving has been around for years… when I was 15 (about 17 years ago), I even found a book at the local library exclusively about dumpster diving… I’ve been doing it off and on ever since… books, coffee filters, magazine can be found behind most bookstores, for instance..
I can afford to pay for everything I need, but… why, when people are throwing away perfectly good stuff?
Around here, when college lets out, desks, TVs, 1-yr-old couches/loveseats, COMPUTERS/LAPTOPS, all can be found in the local college dumpsters… (inspect said couches and such.. I’ve never had the need to grab one, but… meh, college kids can be a little nasty…)
You can’t get sick from going to the Frito Lay dumpster, and dumpster diving for food in the winter keeps even frozen foods ready to go.
Maybe some of these commenting have no concept of why people cook food. Or that, just a smell, small taste test, or visual inspection can determine if foods are edible or not.
Meanwhile every couple of seconds someone somewhere on Earth dies from starvation.
EVEN THOUGH THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS ARTICALE I HAVE TO LAUGH. I USED TO GO WITH MY GRANDFATHER WHEN HE WOULD DUMPSTER DIVE. HE WOULD EAT THE FOOD. HE HAD MONEY THAT’S WHY I COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND WHY HE DID IT. HE CALLED HIMSELF A GARBALIGIST. I THINK THIS IS DUE TO THE FACT HE WAS A YOUNG MAN DURING THE DEPRESSION WITH A FAMILY. HE WAS A FARMER. MY MOTHER ALWAYS SAID THEY DIDN’T HAVE MUCH BUT THEY NEVER WENT HUNGRY. I REMEMBERED THAT WHILE I GREW UP. I DON’T DUMPSTER DIVE BUT I DO GROW ALOT OF MY OWN FOOD.
Why are all you people blaming the Government. If the american people wouldn’t have bought the products that were imported from other countries then we wouldn’ be in this mess. It is us, the working man that put us where we are. So be a man and take the blame as I do. But I am tring to fix the job situation now. When I go shopping I look for american made and if I cannot find it in the stores then I come home and look on the net. If every bodoy in the USA would do the same the Manufactorers would have to come back home. I THINK
Yes it might be us that is hurting our self with not buying American made items. But at the same time with little money I want to buy items made in the USA but can’t see myself doing that when I can buy two of the same thing for the same price made over seas. Any ideas how I can get two of the same items made in the USA for the same price I would pay for something made over seas?
Doug, I am sure your on the right track. i do look for American stuff on the shelves. I also buy American owned and made in the USA autos, not Toyota and the like. One friend said, “well Toyota’s are made in the USA,” but I reminded him that the profits of every sale go back to Japan!!
If every business owner did what I suggested, dumpster diving will disappear within 72 hours.
Well! Aren’t we uppity! Might I suppose you have already tried your style of dumpster diving only to find out so many times someone got there before you? So you gave it up and since you don’t or can’t have then you would refuse others. Right? I know your type!
And you need to take control of your finances by getting financial education. The market is rigged against you. Your IRA and 401K are in danger of becoming worthless.
That’s great! Please do recycle..
with its never ending recession problem, still America is not ready for dumpster diving. America do recycle but not as much as china and other asian countries. Who profits and turn this dumps and throw away things into cash.
got me a new mirror yesterday, and my boyfriend says if i paint the edges..it looks more or less by design!
hooray for dumpster diving!
I feel Dumpster diving is very degrading especially when diving for food. I feel no one should eat out of a trash can. I feel it’s what’s wrong with america and really contradicts the word Common Wealth! If your in there to supplement your income it’s kinda different or you see that as the best way for you to bring in income. All about swallowing pride. On the outside looking in, if you decide to reside in a trash can for political purposes then you are making a statement, but i doubt it will be enough to change america unless everybody did it and well families in trash cans doesn’t sit to well with most providers, however if you did decide to reside in a trash can you will not have to pay room and board, and no utilities if your bringing in income, have no responsibilities then you are free to do this and it is possible for you to become above poverty. Should you never change your living situation there will be nothing you wont be able to afford. Then your problem will be solved and I hope you move into at least an efficiency. Royal Thomas
I own a roll off Dumpster company and if it were not for the fact that I mine lots of recyclable material from my cans to either resale or use to barter with I would probably be homeless now.I think the Country is in the process of collapse and all of the sheeple’s need to open there eye’s to the fact what our elected leaders are doing is just not working.There are larger forces in charge than we believe and our system of government is a farce and is being used as the puppet’s in there end game. Who really is pulling the strings? In my opinion it’s the holders of the debt.
Comnenus,
You are an asshole. There is a special place in the afterlife for people like you. Hint: it rhymes with bell. I hope you are humbled soon in life cause you and Hitler think along the same lines.
You have an uncanny ignorance of people in need. If you were starving or short of money to meet your expenses, would you become a dumpster diver or would you simply sit homeless and hungry and die!
You know,years ago b-4 I ever looked I thought all you would find in a dumpster is a half eaten apple.Well last year I made over $9000.00 on stuff I found in dumpsters, not to mention 100′s of brand new bottles of vitamins, deodorant,a 17 jewel pocket watch, a diamond Tiffany ring, $600.00 in new postage stamps, 75 unopened cans of Yuban coffee, a solid oak entertainment center, a state of the art stereo,100 new, unopened Halloween costumes, 10,000 new sheets of sandpaper and much, much more.It’s like treasure hunting without any long drives or specialty equipment!!
You really hit the jackpot! I could ask where you are located!! Of course I am not thinking of robbing your spots, like finding someones favorite fishing spot!
I use to work for an office supply distributor.
It was my job to throw away perfectly good stuff
because the packages were ripped or torn. Thousands upon thousands of pens and pencils, various office supplies papers sticky notes,folders and reams of paper were thrown out instead of donated to schools. We crushed file cabinets, water coolers,tables just tons of stuff so the company could write it off and get tax credits. You couldn’t sell it because it wasn’t completely new,but donate it to schools or groups who could use it ain’t going to happen. When I asked why they told me to do my job or find another job. I found another job, it was disgusting how much stuff they wasted.
Your handle “bodybagger” reminded me of a one time experience. That was finding a dead body in a dumpster! Turns out it was the body of a local hooker who apparently pulled the “wrong trick” on her john and just outside the local bar she found her grave! I also found the body of a skinned deer, apparently that someone hit on the road and skinned the deer and sold the skin!
I am an AVID diver! YES, I can afford to feed my family, but when I discovered how much GOOD food is thrown away every day, I started making a habit of diving.
I bet I haven’t spent $100.00 for food in over two years0 and I have THREE freezers and THREE fridges full of food- AND I help feed several other families who are grateful for the assistance!
I constantly can food, and I now have a dehydrator as well. When the SHTF I will be well fed as long as there is power, and as I dehydrate and can more, even power will be less important.
People that have never dived need to understand- the produce I get is dropped in in nice clean boxes. The butcher shop “tailings” I cut up for stew beef are from the steaks that got put out TODAY for you to buy! They are in nice clean bags waiting for me to take home!
The “dating system” that the FDA has come up with means a LOT of perfectly good food hets thrown out, along with dented cans, day-old bread, etc…
Here’s an example of a day’s haul- 20-30 pounds of fresh meat, several loaves of bread, several bags of taters apples, carrots, etc. Yesterday I got over a hundred red onion sets for my garden!
I have found brand new bicycles, CASES of cheeses, HUNDREDS of pounds of flour… the list goes on.
YES, I have been “caught”. I tell them I feed hogs, and it cuts my feed bill. They smile and say, “sure, go right ahead”. If my hogs are of the two- legged variety, so what?
When the economy collapses- which we will be soon- I will eat well, and many non-divers will discover it ain’t so bad…
Been diving since I think 1997. Never got sick of any dd food – winter or summer. It simply takes common sense and some experience to tell good from unedible. Economy sure is collapsing before our very eyes- one can tell by how eagerly media trumpet “the end of recession” vs. how many friends and neighbors lose their jobs and/or go insolvent weekly. Another sign is that many stores started fencing or locking their dumpsters. I’m talking about few that do not own “compactors”. In my neighboring city a new law was passed few weeks ago that legally qualifies dd as “trespassing”. Things are getting HOT – such interesting times we happened to live in….
ddmaster- I never have gotten ill, either- and my wife is SURE that some exposure to random bacteria actually makes our immune systems stronger… and she HAS a medical background.
Got a little chuckle from your post- an ancient Chinese curse translates as “may you live in interesting times”.
I had to clear out an extra closet tonight just to stack cases of canned meats, etc, that I’ve canned over the last year. My pantry was FULL!
One of the stores I hit in the past- the closest to me- has now chained their dumpster doors, and I haven’t hit it since. Don’t need to, but if I did, climbing into the top would still be sooooo easy.
My biggest challenge when the SHTF will not be getting food, but keeping what I have.
I have guns and dogs for that…
I love dumpster diving. It started when I was a kid. I would dig around in the trash cans at the DIY car wash down the street. I would always find bizarre items. It truly excited me. Now, at 26, I consider myself a pretty good diver. I love going to the outlet grocery stores around 11pm or so and filling up on dented cans, eggs, some meat products, bread, cereals etc etc. I love doing it and am proud of it! Dive on!
I have one of those car washes and we have divers every day. I also take notice of what people dump in our trash and have found lots of good stuff. Computers that work, TVs that work, food, beer, furniture, tools, electronic items that work, lots of music on CD and yard sale items that just did not sell. I have even found several lottery tickets that people did not look at carefully and won well over a hundred dollars so far.
On another note, the quick stores in our area have those dog and sausage rollers in them. They are required to keep the rack nearly full constantly and must change out the unsold ones for fresh ones every so often. I have seen the people that work there toss out an entire rack of sausages, dogs and other items then rill it back up at 10pm!!!! Use some common sense why don’t you!!
I asked if I could buy them at a reduced price or just take them home but of course they can not let anyone do that!
U guys should stop arguing everyone is entitled to their own opinion! And for those of u who dont lik the idea of looking through trash, think of it lik a free yardsale!
Dumpster Diving–Reno’s Trash Politics, all the dirt on trash that went down in Reno
http://youtu.be/XsD8Sq6cOxc