Tag Archives: dumpster diving

Fine dive

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Ashley Chaifetz, a PhD student studying public policy at UNC-Chapel Hill writes:

As a food policy doctoral student, I pay special attention to articles on food waste and its prevention—which includes dumpster diving. This activity is at the intersection of policies on food insecurity, waste, safety, and liability—and comes with a lot of uncertainties.   This week, Tove Danovich wrote about dumpster diving for Civil Eats:

Dumpster divers of the world, unite. Last week, food waste activist Rob Greenfield offered to pay the fines and bring some media attention to anyone who gets arrested or ticketed for taking and eating tossed food.Image 2

Greenfield has been drawing attention to food waste by traveling the country, engaging local communities, and photographing the enormous quantities of wasted food he finds. Now he hopes more Americans will begin looking at the problem directly by trying it themselves by taking people’s fear of arrest and fines out of the equation.

“From what I can tell the main reason that people don’t dumpster dive is the fear of getting arrested or ticketed,” wrote Greenfield recently on his website.

Rob Greenfield makes an effort to remind people about the problem of food waste. At a loss rate of approximately 40%, Americans are tossing almost as much food as they consume. But, Greenfield’s suggestion that people do not dumpster dive due to fines seems ludicrous; it is probably due to the products.

The issue with dumpster diving that is often forgotten is food safety. Neither Greenfield nor any other dumpster diver can tell via taste or smell if the food was tossed due to pathogen contamination. Even when if food is thrown away due to cosmetic reasons, the dumpsters themselves are not clean and sanitized like a food contact surface. If a product contaminated with a pathogen was discarded into the dumpster, the products pulled by the dumpster divers may be contaminated as well.

Individuals concerned with food safety can take other actions to lessen food waste: consuming all of the food purchased, choosing the “reduced for quick sale” items, shopping in salvage grocery stores, or even encouraging large grocery chains to donate those items to food pantries and food banks (many which already do).

Klosterman discusses the ethics of preventing dumpster diving

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Dumpster diving, or freganism, has been around for a while but the current movement gained momentum through restauranteur (and Against Me! drummer) Warren Oakes’ magazine, Why Freegan?

Chuck Klosterman, author of one of the best music books, Fargo Rock City, answers a question in his other job as The Ethicist in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.Unknown

DIGGING IN

I consider Dumpster-diving to be moral. I understand that supermarkets don’t like it because the divers are their potential clients. But is it ethically wrong to Dumpster-dive in a private Dumpster? TOMO JACOBSON, NEW YORK

You suspect the supermarkets are against this because the divers — if not allowed to take the rubbish — would be forced to pay for nonexpired food through conventional means. That would indeed be unethical; if food is deliberately being discarded, there’s no reason a person should be stopped from consuming what someone else views as waste. In actuality, however, supermarkets are primarily against Dumpster-diving because it happens on private property, and “diving” constitutes trespassing. Furthermore, having people rummaging around in garbage reflects badly on the perception of the business, not to mention the liability risks involved with allowing strangers to jump inside a massive metal box filled with refuse and then consume the contents. This is ultimately an issue over trespassing and how a private business wants to represent itself in the public sphere. The supermarkets absolutely have the right to stop people from rifling though their privately owned receptacles, in the same way that a homeowner does.

Trespassing may be a factor but grocery store food safety folks also worry that someone might pick out some food that makes them, or others, ill.

Skipchen – translated as garbage bin kitchen – takes dumpster diving sorta commercial

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Dumpster diving, or freganism, has been around for a while but the current movement gained momentum through restauranteur (and Against Me! drummer) Warren Oakes’ magazine, Why Freegan?

Although we’ve detailed the movement a few times, a twist on things UK Chef Dylan Rakhra has a different take on things – a dumpster-diving driven restaurant, Skipchen, where the menu changes every day based on ingredients that are available. According to the Guardian Skipchen’s suppliers are of the public kind, “Some of the food is donated but most is found: on farmland, outside mainstream restaurants and, most commonly, in supermarket skips.” Skips are garbage bins. Skipchen chef Dylan Rakhra with the crab and prawn salad

After Skipchen closes, its teams of volunteers go on the prowl to “intercept” foodstuffs that have passed their sell-by dates and, though they are perfectly safe and edible, are discarded by the major stores. “We get the food from anywhere and everywhere that has food going to waste,” said Sam Joseph, co-director of the Real Junk Food Project, which has launched Skipchen in the Stokes Croft area of Bristol.

Joseph accepts that it is not legal to scavenge from supermarket skips but he argues that it is the right thing to do. “If edible food is going in the bin that’s wrong. “We really need to get it to people. We have cases of malnutrition rising in the UK. This isn’t something happening over in Africa. People here are struggling to feed themselves nutritiously. The real crime is the supermarkets throwing that edible food in the bin. That’s what we need to change.”

Joseph said the teams of “skippers” watch as supermarket workers bin food and pluck it as soon as they can. “I am really conscious of food safety and food hygiene,” said Joseph. We get the food out and into a refrigerator straight away. They don’t use food that has gone beyond its best-before date whereas we will.”

Customers are invited to pay what they want and can eat for free if they are struggling financially. “I think it’s a brilliant idea,” said Sullivan. “It’s a scandal that so much food goes to waste.”

Where the movement falls apart is giving the dumpster-salvaged food away to needy folks who may not be provided with enough information to make risk/benefit decisions: this food is free, but because we don’t know how it was handled, and can’t cook many toxins out of it, it might make you barf.

Dumped

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Ashley Chaifetz, a PhD student studying public policy at UNC-Chapel Hill writes,

Food safety and food quality are not the same, especially when you are in a dumpster searching for food to eat.Unknown-10

NPR’s The Salt covered Maximus Thaler, a “semi-professional dumpster diver with a moral purpose” and his organization, The Gleaners’ Kitchen.

“You look at the food and you smell the food … using your senses is really important,” Thaler says.

While vegetables may get mushy and cheeses might mold, it’s nothing that Thaler can’t cut off or cook up. He says the only thing that’s really risky is meat.

“I would never eat a rare steak out of the dumpster,” he says. “Don’t take the meat that’s obvious discolored,” he advises. Eggs, on the other hand, are fine, he says, as long as they don’t smell absurdly strong of sulfur.

“There are complex systemic reasons why there is so much food waste in this country, but at their core is the fact that most Americans have forgotten what good food is.” He argues that humans have evolved to know what good food is, and we don’t need the Food and Drug Administration or sell-by dates to tell us that.

The dates on food packages are certainly flawed but it isn’t because of the FDA. No federal agency regulates the dates on packaging, except for baby formula. Manufacturers and retailers add various kinds of dates to their foods—and use sell-by, best-by, or use-by to help consumers make choices about the quality, not safety, of the items.

Humans have no special ability to smell Salmonella, or E.coli, or any other pathogen that might be reason a grocery has tossed the food into the dumpster (and neither do dogs). Every item Thaler mentioned (vegetables, cheese, meat, and eggs) has been recalled due to pathogen contamination or foodborne illness risk within the last 5 years. Just because he hasn’t gotten sick does not mean the food is zero risk.

I agree with Thaler’s suggestion that more food is wasted than it should be—and certain grocery stores are better than others at donating their barely-damaged fruits and vegetables to food pantries and food banks.

It’s not that I think dumpster diving is intrinsically bad. It’s that the advocates often fail to adequately address certain issues, like food safety.

Dumpster-diving Frenchman bikes for world hunger

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Chapman’s been chronicling dumpster-diving for a few years, but now Frenchman Baptiste Dubanchet is on a quest to bike across Europe, surviving entirely on discarded food. The three-month, 1,900-mile journey from Paris to Warsaw is Dubanchet’s way of raising awareness of food waste in Europe and throughout the world.

baptiste-dubanchet.siWhile the world’s restaurants and supermarkets combine to throw away an average of 1.3 billion tons of food each year, according to the UN, much of it remains inaccessible thanks to locked dumpsters, health regulations, or business policies.

 For legal reasons, most establishments have a policy against giving away food waste.

Dumpster diving in New Zealand nets gourmet meal; not without risks

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Dumpster diving, or freganism, has been around for a while but the current movement gained momentum through restauranteur (and Against Me! drummer) Warren Oakes’ magazine, Why Freegan? Folks who participate may being doing it for lots of reasons; it could be as a stand against food waste or as a hunger coping strategy. Or somewhere in-between. Some retailers worry about liability issues and others come close to facilitating it by sharing when certain items will be disposed to a network of known users. Reducing food waste through freganism is noble, but not without risk. And the divers and users are comfortable with the risks, go for it.dumpster-dive-flickr-diegofuego

The New Zealand Herald reports that kiwi chef Ben Barton jumped into the word of food waste and cooked a meal for 32 with ingredients largely recovered from retail store garbage.

For anyone none the wiser, it could have been a feast sourced from a farmers’ market.

Mr Barton used the challenge to highlight the amount of food binned by retailers and restaurants.

Collecting edible food from bins is gathering steam overseas. Thousands of New Yorkers have been rummaging through dumpsters behind food chains as part of the “freegan” movement in which environmentalists live off throwaway food as a political statement against corporate waste and big agri-business.

Mr Barton, who discovered dumpster diving while in Manhattan, finds the waste generated by the modern food system irritating.

“I hoped I wouldn’t encounter the same in my beloved … New Zealand but I have found that Auckland food retailers throw away enough food, of such quality, that I can turn it into an extravagant gourmet meal.”

Menu

Entree
Ajoblanco – a spanish soup with almonds, garlic, olive oil, grapes
Three types of crostini
Romesco – a nut and red pepper-based sauce with crumbed smoked gouda

Main
Panade – a dish made from bread that’s similar to lasagne
Potato cakes with tomato sauce
Potato salad
Salad with greens, croutons, pinenuts, parmesan, sundried tomatoes and radish

Dessert
Bread and banana pudding.

I’d worry about any cut produce (stuff like salad mix or tomatoes) used in the salad, even if packaged, since it’s unclear how long it was in the dumpster and what the cross-contamination and temperature abuse situation was.

Where it falls apart is giving the dumpster-salvaged food away to needy folks who may not be provided with enough information to make risk/benefit decisions:  this food is free, but because we don’t know how it was handled, and can’t cook many toxins out of it, it might make you barf.

Dumpster diving: ‘I’ve found delicious tofu, cheese, eggs — that’s still food!’

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A couple of barfblog readers sent on a link to coverage of Calgary (that’s in Western Canada) dumpster diving club, YYC Dumpstering, who salvage disposed food from businesses – and give it away to the hungry.

Dumpster diving, or freganism, has been around for a while but the current movement gained momentum through restauranteur (and Against Me! drummer) Warren Oakes’ magazine, Why Freegan?

CBC Calgary cites YYC Dumpstering member Ian Wearmouth as saying "We live in a throw out society, 1.3 billion tonnes of food got thrown out last year in the States alone."

Wearmouth is not homeless, but he is so upset that so much food wasted, he formed an online club of activist dumpster divers.

Raz Paulson is one of a dozen members of YYC Dumpstering.

“I’ve found delicious tofu, cheese, eggs — that’s still food!" he said.

Club members avoid trespassing, but target commercial dumpsters where they find just about everything including food that is still sealed and perfectly good to eat.

They get so much food, they’ve started giving it away. They have also started a second charity to cook and re-distribute food to homeless people.

In the accompanying video Wearmouth points to a pan full of bruschetta mix (fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic and oil)  and says "you could put that on a sandwich or something." Diced tomatoes (covered by a flimsy piece of Saranwrap) under a bunch of dripping waste, left outside in the sun for a few hours (even in Calgary) is a recipe for pathogen growth.

But if the divers are comfortable with the risks, go for it.

Where it falls apart is giving the dumpster-salvaged food away to needy folks who may not be provided with enough information to make risk/benefit decisions:  this food is free, but because we don’t know how it was handled, and can’t cook many toxins out of it, it might make you barf.
 

Bad idea: dumpster food to a dinner party

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This is why I avoid potlucks: who knows how the food was prepared or, where the food came from.

Like a dumpster.

Someone wrote a lifestyle type at Toronto’s Globe and Mail to say her “brother-in-law is a dumpster diver, only for the thrill of it and not because he needs to. … Things gave cause for concern when his family’s contribution to Christmas dinner was food from a dumpster. Still sealed, mind you, but publicly announced as a terrific find.”

Part of the response: “While there’s no doubt your brother-in-law put some effort into his contribution (effort which may have included being covered in coffee grounds and banana peels, and throwing stinking, steaming, soiled diapers over his shoulder), it’s the ultimate re-gift.

“I would also question whether he’s exposing anyone to health risks with his tossed-out offering. Maggots squirm and writhe around in our waste containers. Sealed or not, it could be spoiled, contaminated, or otherwise compromised. Some things are tossed out for a reason.

“You’re certainly within your rights to politely refuse when someone passes you the dumpster doughnuts.”