Freegans

[Grumpmeister]

There is a part of me that believes that this is hypocritical. Surely by waiting until the food is thrown out instead of buying it these people are actually contributing to  and then benefitting from the waste problem.

However I do agree that its disgusting that supermarkets throw away tons of food a year that is still edible when it could be distributed to local charities or nursing homes (which could help alleviate the increasing costs to the residents) instead.

They eat food they find in bins and are driven by conscience, not financial need. Meet the freegans.

According to the saying there's no such thing as a free lunch, but freegans beg to differ.

They only eat food they can scavenge for free from supermarket dustbins. Most is only just past its sell-by date, some is still within it but the packaging has been damaged.

The freegan philosophy of "ethical eating" is a reaction against a wasteful society and a way of highlighting how supermarkets dump tonnes of food every year that is still edible.

Boycott

They argue capitalism and mass production exploit workers, animals and the environment. For the most extreme proponents, freeganism - the name combines free and vegan - is a total boycott of the economic system.

The "urban foragers" do not like to reveal the exact location in which they operate so as not to alert store managers to their after-hours work. In America they call it "dumpster diving" and when the shops shut, that's what they do.

Freegans Paul and Bob operate in a suburb of Manchester and have a network of bins that provided rich pickings.

For them it is a lifestyle choice. They have money and could buy food if they wanted, but as a protest against supermarket waste they choose to live a freegan life.

"There's so much waste it's just unbelievable," says Bob. "While that continues I can't see my freegan lifestyle changing."

On a night out with them, the pair delve deep into their first bin of the night to see what they can salvage. It's a good start - yoghurts, a cauliflower, eggs, mushrooms and some ready meals.

Raiding a second bin they discover it's full of bread, loaf after loaf and many of them still in date. But the haul is nothing compared to their best-ever bin raid a few months ago.

Barbed wire

"We got 75 bottles of beer, 100 frozen chickens and all sorts of things like that," says Paul.

"We found so much food we went out and bought ourselves a big deep freeze and filled it with chickens, meat and all that."

To get from bin raid to bin raid they use a converted post office van. It's where they store all their food and also where they now live - a mobile home in the truest sense.

Not every raid delivers. One major supermarket chain has secured its bins behind fencing and barbed wire, an effective way of keeping the freegans out.

Each item raided from a bin is washed and the packing wiped over with disinfectant. Then it's opened up and cooked even if its past its sell by date. Seafood is banned if not in date but they'll give everything else a try and are rarely ill.

Many supermarkets now give their leftover food to charity and while waste has been cut, a lot of food is still thrown out. So what do they think of freegans?

"As a responsible fresh grocery retailer we cannot condone this behaviour," says a spokesman for Somerfield. "We have reduced our wastage levels by improved processes and by giving our stores the opportunity to markdown products earlier to ensure that they are sold within their use by dates."

But it's not just supermarkets who are to blame. Figures from the Waste Resources Action Programme - which works with businesses and consumers to cut waste - claim households in Britain are among the most wasteful in the world.

Each year 6.7 million tonnes of food is thrown out. Half is perfectly edible and in a lifetime its estimated that each of us wastes up to ?24,000 worth of food.

It's figures like these that are the reason Paul and Bob live life the freegan way.

[The Moan Ranger]

I'm confused. The chaps in the report are from Manchester - surely they live on freebies from the Government anyway? What is the difference from nicking from bins as opposed to stealing proper tax-payers hard earned?

[Pastis]

However I do agree that its disgusting that supermarkets throw away tons of food a year that is still edible when it could be distributed to local charities or nursing homes (which could help alleviate the increasing costs to the residents) instead.

Utopia. Or should that be Eutopia these days 

Anyone buying or selling product recognizes industrial tolerances of supply i.e. +/-  a small %age. I've had this out with small time buyers who complain that their order of 20K widgets contained 20,050 widgets...
The problem is nothing more than a micro mentality focusing on a macro issue. They'll never be reconciled 

That said, the Supermarkets will have to assess whether freeganising their waste is cost effective in PR terms. Seeing their embracing the Organic market as they have... they just might...