Ekdog

I've just watched this video and thought it might stimulate some conversation here.

Dahon.Steve

I worked four years at a small A&P supermarket and the food we tossed in the garbage was simply amazing. I remember one time the manager ordered too much store brand bread and once it expired, I tossed about 7 shopping carts full right into the dumpster! People in cars were just looking at me in amazement. We were a small supermarket and not some 24 hour superstore but let me tell you, we would discard an entire shopping cart of produce, meat and dairy each and every day!

Probably one of the biggest crimes out there is the back of each supermarket. Today, food is tossed into a strong locked steel container that cannot be broken into. Otherwise, half the people going into the store would be in the back pulling out free food. I think hundreds of people could be fed each day from what is discarded in one single container.

The reason all this food is dumped is due to state and local laws that require food to be fresh at all times. We were fined for selling deep discounted produce that was just begining to age! It just isn't produce and meat but dented cans and even expired water must be trashed! Often times vendors would do the dumping for us by removing their expired products off the shelf.

I can just imagine how much food was discarded after hurricane Sandy.

10 Wheels

Diving for food

Ekdog

Is that you in the photo, 10 Wheels?

gerv 

Dumpsters are also a source for used bicycles.

Another point is that even more food gets tossed out of the refrigerator. This is probably a bigger crime than tossing expired produce because people buy the food and just leave it there to expire.

I have observed however that I throw away a lot less produce now that I have to lug it all home from the grocery store w/o a car.

10 Wheels

Just a friend....She has a blog on diving. but i can't find it.

Ekdog

Cool! Be sure to post it if you do come across it.

10 Wheels

https://www.allisonburtch.net/trash/

Ekdog

Wow! Great blog! Incredible!

I'm afraid pickings must be much slimmer here in Iberia. The terrible economic depression and government cost-cutting measures that have been imposed have forced thousands of people to dumpster dive just to survive.





Get caught committing the "crime" of dumpster diving in Madrid and it will cost you €750!

https://www.lavanguardia.mobi/slowdev...ar-basura.html

eofelis 

I live in a neighborhood of several small apartment and condo complexes. I can see 2 or 3 dumpsters from my windows. People often put decent furniture out by the dumpster when they move. About half our furniture comes from next to the dumpster (I don't like to spend money on furniture, I'd rather save it as bike-dollars). When we are done with it we will put it back out next to the dumpster for the next person. We have found 2 good carpeted cat trees in the dumpster, these sell for $100+ dollars in the stores. Our cats love them!

Roody

I was once a guest at a commune in Eugene, Ore. They threw a big dinner feast with delicious food for almost 30 people. I asked how they could afford it. They said the food all came from their garden and a supermarket dumpster, and the total cost was two or three dollars.

10 Wheels

Check This Out:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/allison...7623201255835/

fietsbob

Aka "freeganisim".. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism

Dahon.Steve

Wow JUST Wow!

Dahon.Steve

LOL! I recently purchased a used 10 speed bike from a guy who dumpster dives in back of bike shops! He gets hundreds of old bikes from bike shops, restores with parts from the dumpster and puts them up for sale on Ebay! The Schwinn I purchased was almost mint.

I remember back in school how dozens of "free lunches" were tossed in the garbage each day. I asked a worker at KFC last month if they ever tossed out the chicken, he looked at me and said about 10 buckets full each night!

amdoo

Absolutely amazing. I can't believe the quality of the food she's found.

Mobile 155

I almost don't know what to say. Dumpster diving for a used bike is one thing but for food? Isn't there a reason for an experation date. Is not many dumpsters a breeding ground for germs and disease?

I am trying to envision a committee meeting on cutting back on prison expenses and someone suggesting, of just feed prisoners spoiled or expired food from dumpsters, its free. I doubt if I would go to a restaurant that served steaks stored in a dumpster, but that might just be me. But what surprises me is the acceptance by some that tout the benefits of organic food over corporate produced food and yet see no contradiction to getting their food from a germ filled dumpster. If I went to a restaurant and order spare ribs for me, and a lobster tail for my child, somehow I can't see telling them to just retrieve the lobster that fell in trash but was retrieved by the chef even with the 5 second rule.

Every so often this sub forum does remind me of Portlandia. They had a segment on this very subject.

10 Wheels

Expiration Date is the date to remove the item from the shelf, No longer to be Sold.

Does not mean that it is spoiled and can not be consumed.

I have a friend that picks up expired items from a large grocery change and takes them to food pantry's.

10 Wheels

Your post is over the line negative to the point of being silly.

Mobile 155

Maybe, but why have an expiration date if there is nothing wrong with the consumption of the food? Is there such a thing as only a little spoiled? Like I said could we feed prisoners with expired food? I will confess I will not eat at a place with lower than a B on the window from the health department. But having worked with food preparation I have been lectured by the health department more that once about storing such things as cooked and uncooked poultry in the same place. There are rules for sanitary considerations because of "something". Like I said dumpsters are filthy, dirty and in many cases have things that can make you sick. Doing it simply to survive is one thing. Doing it in protest is another. If there is nothing wrong with the food and we feel there is too much waste shouldn't we fight to get the restrictions lifted on expatriation dates? You do know people throw dirty diapers in dumpsters from the Store restrooms do you not?

I don't blame the divers I feel sorry for them. I don't support freeganism because besides dumpster diving they are often also squatters and that is bad for any neighborhood. Still I know the economy has forced people into desperate measures, but for me crossing the line has to be getting my food from the trash. I know what I throw in the trash and I would dig through that even in my own trash can.

Mobile 155

As far as my this is like Portlandia comment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfJ2NbPATo

Machka 

In Australia, we have tip shops ... no food, but a whole heap of other stuff.

https://www.resourcetipshop.com/index...urce&Itemid=61

Ekdog

You need get informed about use-by dates. Here's an article to get you started:

(TIME.com) -- Use-by dates are contributing to millions of pounds of wasted food each year.

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic says Americans are prematurely throwing out food, largely because of confusion over what expiration dates actually mean.
Most consumers mistakenly believe that expiration dates on food indicate how safe the food is to consume, when these dates actually aren't related to the risk of food poisoning or foodborne illness.
Food dating emerged in the 1970s, prompted by consumer demand as Americans produced less of their own food but still demanded information about how it was made. The dates solely indicate freshness, and are used by manufacturers to convey when the product is at its peak. That means the food does not expire in the sense of becoming inedible. (...)

https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/19/he...es-waste-food/

Rowan

This is the most critical point of all. It is not the stores' fault necessarily. But the elected representatives have responded to the public's "concerns" about how fresh their food is. This goes hand-in-hand with the ridiculous amount of packaging -- most of it plastic -- that is used these days. The security of food packaging is at the point where undoing it at home has become a major challenge... I sympathise with people who suffer arthritis, for instance.

I have felt for a long time that the dairy industry is among the most wasteful of all in the food sector. Unless the products are long-life treated and packaged, the expiry date before most milk products go off is very short, and it has to be disposed of some way. And there are huge quantities that have to be dumped every single day. All the milk I buy is long-life packaged or powdered.

There was a time when a lot of discarded food was collected by pig farmers. But even that doesn't seem to happen these days.

Mobile 155

Then legislate to change the sell by date. Don't encourage people to dig through the filth to get the food. No matter how fresh it is if it is tossed in the dumpster it is tossed in a metal box that has blood, maybe feces, spoiled food, egg products, maggots, cock roaches, rat droppings and who knows what. I still say Portlandia pointed out some interesting insight to the contradictions voiced in many of these very threads, by local because then you are assured of fresher foods. Read it many times here. By organic it is healthier with less chemicals, once again read it here. If it isn't fit to sell I question how fit it is for human consumption. Once again would you dig food out of the trash and feed your kids? Not for survival but for political reasons? They have health codes for a reason as well. I once worked for a City School food service. We had "laws" on how long we could keep food before we could use it. Once it was discovered that people were, Diving, for our tossed out food we were told by the city attorney that we could be held responsible for someone getting hurt in the dumpster, because we now knew it was happening. What was the solution? Not to change the use by date but to buy a monster compactor and turn a dumpsters worth of trash into a 3x6 foot bale. Remember this is the same government so many tell us has a obligation to make rules for how we all live. As a Libertarian I may not agree but the rules are there not just because of rules but because of the concern for public health. We couldn't donate that food to the homeless because poultry, fish and milk products can spoil very quickly after the use by date. Ever smell a carton of milk 2 day after the use by date? I do not believe that smell comes from good milk, sorry.