Freegans, we.

[2pints-mate 0]

BagOfCrisps and 2pints,mate - we've decided that we are going to be Freegans this weekend. What does it involve? Basically going round supermarket bins round the back and claiming back some of the perfectly good food - often packaged properly and totally unopened - that they bin every day. Some guys we know have been doing this and were on the BBC news tonight.

 

We'll report back and let you know how it goes.

 

The report claims that in the UK people in their lifetime are estimated to waste on average about 24000 pounds (money) worth of food each.

[Oyuki kigan 0]

I think i read somewhere once that japan wastes something like 1/3 of all the food it imports/ produces. the infor may be on the Second Harvest website.

 

 

i was thinking about freeganing on my bike trip last year, but after a long day of tricycling, scrounging in dumpsters was the last thing i was interested in (not to mention there were very few where i was).

 

I know a Japanese girl in Tokyo who does it sometimes. I might ask her to take me with her to see what its like.

 

But practically, there are a few things i hear that you have to be careful about. The biggest one is rotting food, especially in this hot climate.

 

freegans tend to steer clear of animal-based foods, cause they spoil more quickly, and are more dangerous when they are bad. Stick to veggies and grain.

 

good luck, and let me know how it goes!

[spook 0]

yep, i'm interested to hear how it goes.

i saw a british doco about it a few years ago. they were eating sushi and sandwiches out of tesco bins, and munching on bruised fruit.

you'd be suprised at how long food can last unrefrigerated. if you think about it, we've only had household fridges for 80 years or so. for the vast majority of human civilisation, we have gotten by without them

[thursday 1]

Good luck peeps. Hope you find some not so past due penicillin as well.

[2pints-mate 0]

They are putting things like leftover whole loaves of unopened bread in bins (clean ones more like storage than bins). Anyway, will report if we remain healthy after the experience.

[thursday 1]

Pints,

 

"In the United Kingdom, while dumpster diving in England and Wales may qualify as theft within the Theft Act 1968 or as common-law theft in Scotland there is very little enforcement in practice."

 

Have a good getaway plan.

[spook 0]

and i you get into a fight with a tramp, we want to see pics

[scouser 4]

I saw that report on the BBC the other night. (You know those guys?)Might stick to the food on sale in the shop myself. Let us know how it goes on though.

[thursday 1]

Oi, you! Get outta my bin.

 

How did it go?

[bushpig 0]

we won't be hearing from them for a while thuusday. They are lying in a hospital bed as we speak...

[thursday 1]

[SirJibAlot 0]

they haven't reported back yet, are they dead?

[2pints-mate 0]

This coming weekend.........

[thursday 1]

last rites here then. Looks like we woon't be hearing from you after today.

[Oyuki kigan 0]

http://www.freegan.info/

 

http://www.freegankitchen.com/

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11154276

 

and the original freegans,

 

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

[thursday 1]

where's the link to the penicillin dumpsters?

[Oyuki kigan 0]

thisone was also pretty good, and answers a lot of questions

 

http://members.aol.com/TheDumpsterLady/thedumpsterlady.htm

 

i am wondering how feasible this is in Japan. A friend and i tried to get into the Mister Donuts bin one night in Tochigi, but that this was encased in a friggin cage.

 

As for re-using trash, it is an unofficial gaikokujin pastime to get furniture and what not from dump sites on 'large trash days'. I scored a prefectly good record player once in Hokkaido

[spook 0]

while i'm interested to see how the UK lads go with the food foraging, i personally can't see it as a viable way of lving . i guess that's just me and my creature comforts. whatever

 

i do have issue with this statement (taken from the freeganinfo site):

Freegans believe that housing is a RIGHT, not a privilege.

 

this just seems ridiculous. squatters and those who live on societies fringes can bag capitalism and it's inequalities all they like, but they are demanding that they can benefit from others hard work while contributing nothing.

it is an untenable argument in my books. how can you contribute nothing yet demand something?

 

foraging for wasted food is one thing, but railing against the producers of this food is another. if they weren't producing (and wasting) this food, then you wouldn't have anything to eat.

[thursday 1]

Come to think of it, after reading some of the stuff on the sites about these Freegans, I feel they are more and more like the bums we all detest. Take for instance the bollocks on transport:

 

“we use other methods of transportation including trainhopping, hitchhiking, walking, skating, and biking. Hitchhiking fills up room in a car that would have been unused otherwise and therefore it does not add to the overall consumption of cars and gasoline”

 

Getting a seat in somebody’s car will add to extra fuel consumption at the cost of that kind person. And these people make it sound like they are using something that would go to waste. I for one would not pick up Freegans, they probably have stayed out of the shower for weeks or even months cos it’s not free.

 

Trainhopping sounds good. I’d like to see a few trainhops on youtube, especially those that go “CRUNCH”

 

And get this:

 

Rent-Free Housing

Freegans believe that housing is a RIGHT, not a privilege. Just as freegans consider it an atrocity for people to starve while food is thrown away, we are also outraged that people literally freeze to death on the streets while landlords and cities keep buildings boarded up and vacant because they can’t turn a profit on making them available as housing.

Squatters are people who occupy and rehabilitate abandoned, decrepit buildings. Squatters believe that real human needs are more important than abstract notions of private property, and that those who hold deed to buildings but won’t allow people to live in them, even in places where housing is vitally needed, don’t deserve to own those buildings. In addition to living areas, squatters often convert abandoned buildings into community centers with programs including art activities for children, environmental education, meetings of community organizations, and more.

What kinda naïve ranting is that? Converting to community centres with progams including art activities for children? More like crack dens for all the bums in the neighbourhood.

 

This freegan shit is sounding more and more like delirious society dropouts who have no spine of their own and the only thing they can do is to freeload off people who have worked for their existence. All this conveniently packaged as an alternative lifestyle for the betterment of society.

 

[spook 0]

you can't bite the hand that feeds you.

or the dumpster for that matter

[SirJibAlot 0]

Get your hepititis and tetanus shots updated before you head out boys. We don't want you pissing blood becuase you had a few half eaten chicken nuggets.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

These Freegans all come from 1st world, western countries right? Where the very system that they despise allows them to choose the life they lead. Very ironic

[muikabochi 208]

Hope you are still alive freegans.

 

Isn't it mostly about protesting about waste?

[thursday 1]

Hey!!!

 

Food tasting notes please.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Report coming in the next few days - feeling a bit under the weather today.......