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The Freegan Ride
Posted By Frugal Living Moderator
Tonight I read a thought provoking article published in Newsweek titled The Freegan Ride. The article is a summary diary of Raina Kelley’s month long experience as a Freegan. A freegan is a person who has made the decision to curtail consumption of resources by reusing, recycling and applying alternative methods to consumerism.
One method applied is Dumpster Diving. This is the practice of going though the dumpsters of business, especially grocery stores, and restaurants to glean one’s food., toiletries, etc. According to the author, one would be very surprised to discover what is thrown away as being unusable. Many of us, she says, would eat what see saw come out of these dumpsters. *I’ve listed a couple of links to Dumpster Diving at the end of this post.
Did you know that the USDA estimates that more than 90 billion pounds of food is wasted in America EACH YEAR? America’s Second Harvest is a nonprofit group takes surplus and distressed food and other groceries and then feeds more than 25 million hungry Americans a year.
25 million fed just from what would have been thrown out.
I won’t give away the end to Raina’s story. But it has had me thinking all night. How much do I waste without even thinking about it? That last bit in the peanut butter jar that I threw out tonight when cleaning out my cabinet? The pair of jeans I was just too lazy to patch up. How much money could I save just by reusing and recycling and making due with what I have?
My creative problem solving ability seems to nose-dived in proportion to the ever decreasing distance to the nearest Wal Mart.
But it isn’t just what goes out of my house that I need to take a closer look at. What about what comes into my house? Did I really need to purchase that brownie mix when I already have all the ingredients to make my own from scratch just sitting on my pantry shelves? How many toys does one child really need? Couldn’t my family get as much satisfaction from just a few gifts……or even just one…….as they could get from several?
Freegans try not to purchase anything. Instead they rely on bartering and scavenging through the wasteful excess of others. How long could I go without purchasing anything? America’s over consumption is legendary. How many of us find ourselves caught up in the over consumption?
This month I am going to think twice about any purchases I may make. I’m going to plug my creativity back in and see how many times I can solve an issue without using money. I’m going to talk to my family about changing our views on what makes a truly joyful holiday season.
Anyone want to join me?
Anyone want to share what YOU do to be more Freegan and less consumer driven American?
Oct 5th, 2007
The restaurants in our area are very willing to donate to food pantries. I think this is awesome.
I read once of a community on the East coast that has a bartering day once a month on a Saturday. On that day you leave out by your curb what you don’t want anymore. One woman mentioned that is how she acquires her families clothing. People leave a box and label it as an example, “boys clothes size 12″. She also said she had gotten all her kids bikes that way. Other people mentioned acquiring furniture, appliances, boxes of food, decorations…. This sounds to me like a much better idea than garage sales.
Thanks for giving us a lot to think about! God Bless!
This is definitely something God has been laying on my heart recently. As my husband and I have desired to increase the amount of food we grow ourselves, I’ve done quite a lot of reading on organic practices and where our food comes from. So the concepts of growing our own and buying locally has been something we continue to work toward. Also, saving food scraps for our compost also shows just how much “food waste” we go through (though, at least in this case, we are reusing this food to grow better, healthier food). Tip: looking into purchasing your meat and produce from local farmers - not only are you getting fresher food, but you are helping reduce gas consumption and excess packaging.
Looking at how things are packaged and the fact that it is usually easier and cheaper to replace broken items has also been something that God is convicting me about. I keep thinking that every plastic item I buy is going to sit around in a landfill forever!
Idea for the holidays - what about giving “gifts of time” - offering to go for a walk/hike, play a board game, give a massage, etc. In a society where we often bemoan the lack of time to do anything, this can be a wonderful, and perhaps rare, gift!
Could you tell mr the Newsweek volume number for the Freegan Ride I knoe it is October 1, 2007 but what id the volume number? I am doiung a research paper and need the volume number Could you plaese advise?
What a wonderful post. Our family is in a position right now where we are forced to drastically cut our spending (food included), and have discovered how little we can live on (and STILL be happy!)
I absolutely appreciate your comment: “Couldn’t my family get as much satisfaction from just a few gifts……or even just one…….as they could get from several?” This hits so true to our family, and during the holidays was a huge amount of stress my husband and I placed upon ourselves–actually competing with ourselves by comparing what we gave our children the previous year to what we could only barely afford give them this past year, in hopes that they won’t be disappointed. Wow–you have taught me a lesson, and shown me that I need to give my children a gift of teaching them the value of appreciation–which is better than any gift I could ever purchase for them. Thank you for your wonderful post, it is greatly appreciated!