GENERATOR

FREEGANISM
By Monica Speranza
Some who have heard of freeganism may
picture a bum, dumpster diving for dayold
bagels and discarded bruised produce.
Others may recall the Seinfeld episode in
which Elaine’s homeless boyfriend takes
her to an alley behind a bakery, finds
doughnuts in the trash and tells her “You
know, Elaine, you are the bear claw in the
garbage can of my life.” These images are
not inaccurate.
Freeganism can be defined at its most
basic level as a way to cut down on waste
and save money by taking and using other
people’s cast-offs for free. Though the
concepts of dumpster-diving and digging
through trash for food are large parts of
freeganism, in many cases it is a much
larger picture. Some other items “freegans”
salvage besides food include; furniture,
appliances, technological devices, and
clothes. One freegan blogger from
community.livejournal.com/freegans wrote
that she and two other people had found “a
practically new copy machine (instructions
and everything!), a tiny portable television,
a small TV, a perfectly good white plastic
high chair, a waffle iron, a 5-disc cd player”
and several other items during a dumpster
dive.
“For me, an individual who practices
‘freeganism’ represents one who is
committed to living a lifestyle that
minimally impacts the world around
them,” Steve Sansola, Marist Recycling
Chair, said.
According to the United
States Census Bureau,
as of 2008 39.8 million
people in the United States
lived below the poverty
line. The 2008 municipal
solid waste statistics
according to the EPA
break down as follows:
31% paper, 13.2% yard
trimmings, 12.7% food
scraps, 12% plastics, 8.4%
metals, 7.9% rubbers,
leathers, and textiles, 6.6% wood, 4.9%
glass, and 3.3% other. Considering that
much of an average person’s waste includes
items that are damaged but not completely
useless (e.g. wilted lettuce, a torn jacket, a
chipped coffee mug), it is not implausible
to think that, by practicing freeganism the
number of people living below the poverty
line could decrease.
It is difficult to pinpoint when the
freeganism movement began. Various
websites attest that freeganism emerged
in the 1960s, while Jan Goodwin of Marie
Claire claimed it had been coined in the
’90s when she wrote, “She Lives Off What
We Throw Away.” Jake Halpern of The
New York Times wrote in the article, “The
Freegan Establishment” that the freeganism
concept originated in the seventeenth
century. In any case, it is accepted that the
idea of freeganism began as a vegan/anticapitalist/environmentalist
hybrid. The
idea was to utilize and survive on what
the average person wastes and ultimately,
refuse to contribute to the capitalist system
by not buying food and other necessities.
Nowadays, it is common for people to
choose to participate in partial freeganism
(only taking certain items, like food) or
total freeganism (getting most everything
from others’ cast offs) as an alternative
lifestyle to simply cut cost of living and/or
contribute to saving the planet.
“While I am in favor of any effort to
reduce our need to purchase and consume
unnecessary items,” Sansola said, “I do
not believe this lifestyle is a practical and
realistic way of life. It may be possible
for an individual to live this lifestyle for
a brief time, but as one extends his/her
responsibilities, both in the work place
or with family, this approach becomes
problematic and unrealistic.”
Though practices like dumpster diving
and picking through other people’s trash
is dirty and smelly, freegans make sure
to keep the practice sanitary. Many wear
gloves when they go through trash and they
thoroughly wash and sanitize what they
take. They are usually very considerate
of the place they take from by not leaving
behind a mess, being discreet, and
sometimes even building up a rapport with
the owners of the places they take from. In
the YouTube video “First Time Freegans,”
a young British woman describing her
experience says: “I think the part about,
like, making friends with the security
[guards] or making friends with the shop
people is very important.”
The lesson, so to speak, that freeganism
teaches is to be more conscientious of
what and how much one wastes. What is
ironic, as Halpern points out in his article,
is that living off other people’s waste is
what freeganism is, so if society becomes
increasingly less wasteful, it is possible
that freeganism will become obsolete. Be
that as it may, there are other factors aside
from inherent wastefulness preventing
freeganism from dying out. For example,
there are several items that seem recyclable
- rubber, plastic toys, plastic kiddie pools—
but are not recyclable.
Many freegans are eager to pass on
their knowledge about how to participate
in freeganism. There are several blogs
and YouTube videos with instructions and
advice on how to get going if you have
never done it before. Type in “freegan”
on YouTube or “freegan blog” on a search
engine.
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