People hanging over the side of recycling bins with their legs in the air is often the view I get from my window if I look out in the evenings. I live near a Waitrose supermarket and have noticed a number of different people over the past few weeks (some regulars) scavenging through the recycling bins to retrieve food. Some are groups of teenagers – I presume students – looking to save some money but I have also seen adult men go head first into the bin, a mother with her young child having a quick look, I often see an old lady rummage round and a young guy with tattoos. Some people might call them trespassers, thieves or (and I guess some may class themselves as this) freegans.
My freegan flapjack
The word freegan is a combination of the words free and vegan, although not all freegans are necessarily vegetarians or vegans. The ‘egan’ comes from vegans who cite ethical rather than health reasons for not eating or using animal products. Freeganism started in the mid 1990s, out of the anti-globalisation and environmentalist movements. Devotees take responsibility for the impact of their consumer choices and find alternative ways of meeting their everyday needs.
Well tonight I met my first freegan. Spotting him out of my window I quickly ran over to the car park and got there just in time to see him loading his car with armfuls of perfectly edible food, including a Waitrose chocolate cake that looked delicious!
I must admit I was a little apprehensive to approach someone searching through bins but my preconceptions were totally unjustified. He was very friendly and happy to chat. He said he was an ex-student and thought it was criminal that so much edible food was thrown away because of best before dates and policies. He said consumers needed to understand the labels on food more. “Food is perfectly fine after the best before date, it’s just a guide. It’s just about being sensible.”
He added: “I haven’t spent any money on food in ages, except the odd bit on meat and dairy. I stay away from fish and milk but will eat meat on its use by date, I just make sure it’s cooked properly.”
He said he always takes food that is fully packaged and wrapped so it hasn’t actually touched the bin and that in the couple of years he had been ‘bin diving’, as it’s called, the food had never made him ill. Supermarkets do warn against searching through their bins for food not only due to legal reasons but also due to health and safety.
I was curious if he had ever run into any trouble while bin raiding. He said only once had a store manager come out to say what he was doing was illegal, so he apologised and moved on. He said: “We’re not doing any harm, surely this has got to be better than all that food going to landfill. I don’t think supermarkets really mind to be honest as long as we don’t cause any trouble, it’s no skin off their nose.”
He mentioned the website This is Rubbish, a campaign set up by some of his friends to prevent the scale of food wasted in the UK, through policy, community and arts led public events.
The BBC also recently published an article asking what’s the point of ‘best before’ dates?
As I was saying goodbye he gave me one of the flapjacks he had rescued from the recycling bin. Its best before date was today and I’ve been eating it and drinking a cup of tea while writing this entry. It tasted lovely and the best bit is (apart from being free food) no calories – surely the same rule for food you take from someone else’s plate must apply to someone else’s bin.
The truth behind recycling 