I don't think so but Glen probably could! LOL

Could you believe Oprah thought that bread brought out in a restaurant would be re-served if people didn't eat it???

Don't get me wrong, I've been known to take things from the dumpster but not food...I really think food that has to be thrown out should be given away.

I know...I was shocked that she thought they served the bread again! Sometimes I wonder if they do anyway....try to not think about it though! I was told once by a friend of mine that was a waitress in a mexican restaruant that they put the salsa back in the huge pot in the kitchen and reserved it! I can't eat salsa out anymore.

I couldn't do it. Did you see the coffee beans that woman had. She said there was 100 bags of them in the garbage because they expired. Those people made a lot of money too. They could afford to go shopping. I know their reasoning wasn't that they couldn't afford it. I've never heard of this before. I think it's pretty odd.

The food --- I am not so sure on that. But as far as some of the other stuff - furniture, etc., I say go for it!

I am amazed at how some people can just yank out all their appliances and buy new because something isn't "in style" anymore. Now if something was 30 years old and hideous - go for it, LOL.

Maybe I am a hypocrite for saything that, now that I think about it.

I see them putting stainless steel appliances and granite in EVERYTHING on these decorating shows. I wonder how long it will be before Stainless is "avocado" -

I am sticking with white appliances and sinks. They seem to always be ok.

I would really have to be down and out and living on the
streets. That was a bit much.

I recorded the show and watched it late last night. I couldn't get through the first five minutes after meeting the first gal, it made me feel ill.

No, I definitely could not be a freegan ... at least where food or dumpsters were involved.

Jodi-

thank goodness to hear you all say this. i was disgusted to see this show and the people going after not the "stuff", but the food. fish, meat, veggies. no thanks. i'll wait for things to be on sale at the supermarket and then i'll buy it. don't want my potatoes or salad makings or fruit from the dumpster, wrapped or not. now, if there were dented boxes of diapers, i'd grab them in a heartbeat. have i ever trashpicked? you bet ya, but i would have to draw the line on food items.

who coined the term freegan anyway, do you know?

maryanne

Missed it which is good since I have a real weak stomach! I sure hope the day never comes we end up having to do that. I hate to think how much food is thrown out. It's such a waste.

We knew a couple that owned a Mexican restaurant and I saw her dump salsa back in a big jar. How much double-dipping had gone on. She recycled the chips, too. Never ate there again.

If I saw something in a dumpster I needed or knew someone else did, I'd have no qualms--as long as it wasn't food.

I agree that the food should be offered to a charity rather than throw it away.

I eat all my left overs until it is gone or to old to eat, I hate to toss food. I even saved a table spoon of my Chicken Pot Pie. I had it as a healthy snack yesterday.

I would never dumpster dive for anything. I've accidentally put something in the my own trash can before, but refused to dive into the my own trash can to get it. Sa La Ve!

If I knew someone was a Freegan, I certainly wouldn't eat a meal at their house. What about recalled items? Mad Cow's disease? You don't know why something was tossed. It could be an insecticide poisen. We had "bad" onions from Mexico that were making people sick. They were all tossed. Remember the Spinach Scare?

Gayle

No Freeganin' here. I've heard from quite a few folks that there's alot of "salsa recycling" that goes on in Mexican restaurants. I'm glad that Mexican is just not our thing or I think I would have gagged when I heard that. I think we've eaten Mexican out 2 times in 20 years and that's because someone else chose the place.
Anyhoo, I digress. I would never recycle food of any kind from a dumpster. Diapers, yes (if I had infants), paper products, yes (if still in wrappings), maybe coffee that had expired, but then I'd bring that to a local food pantry. I would be so worried about spoilage, parasites, and disease. But then again, gheesh! There is so much waste of food in this country it's shameful. We don't waste food ever, and folks that do should be embarrassed.

To start with I thought dumpster diving was illegal. Not that that would stop anybody. People do illegal things all the time.

So far as the food being okay to use, I daresay it is. I don't think any of the people who were taking the fresh items would actually take something that was beyond the expiration date. Why should they when there was so much other stuff to choose from? I learned from a friend who was a butcher that meat that is marked down, still in the store, is perfectly good. I have bought it many times; I jokingly call it "used meat."

Last Tuesday at Krogers I was buying bread. Most were in the $1.99-$2.19 range. Then I saw 3 loaves on the top rack clearly marked with a big sticker that said "managers Special 50 cents." The twist tie was for Wednesday. One of the clerks was putting up other bread and I asked him why that was out there because I had never seen that before. He said they only had a few and didn't want to throw them out. So I bought two of them. I guess they would have gone out to the dumpster later that evening.

As for Oprah not knowing about the bread in a restaurant . . .we have to remember that she doesn't live in the same world we do. Today's show: I don't have two flunkys to hold me up while I put on my very expensive shoes! Oh, wait, I don't have any very expensive shoes.

I do think there are better ways for our grocery stores to handle the situation.

Sue

I would NEVER dumpster dive, at least for food. I don't even like eating at buffets very often because of so many people handling the food. As for the salsa, I never thought about that but then again, I've never eaten Mexican food out. I have dove for furniture and appliances as that can be cleaned and I did this when I was college age and just staring out. Personally, I have no desire to live like this. Now I'd rather go without if I can.

I would never eat food out a dumpster - YUCK! But I have rescued plants and things. It is amazing what people throw away. You should read on the Compost Forum about their great dumpster finds. At least it only goes into their compost, not their mouths.
Clare

I could not eat it out of a dumpster either.

When I worked at the shelter. A bakery donated LOTS of bread several times a year. They had it in huge trash bags and sitting on the kitchen floor. We had to toss the bottom layer of break because the bag had a small hole in it (and some of the bread had gotten wet(?)). The other 15 layers were fine and we shared it with several other shelters and the local fire department. We also had a local Pizza Hut donate the pizza off the buffet and occationally pizzas that were ordered but not picked up. EVERY week, we would get 40-50 pounds of pizza!!!! the shelter was only 18-beds and some weeks we didn't have anyone there! The children's shelter loved getting it because they didn't have a cook on the weekends so the pizza was sometimes the only hot meal they had Sat or Sun. We also gave it to the firemen. We were always begging the fire station to help move heavy stuff (they were the only men allowed in the shelter). After a few months of pizza, they offered to help out as long as we didn't offer them any more pizza for a while. LOL

I left the shelter in 1998 and STILL have a hard time eating Pizza Hut pizza. It was a wonderful gesture but there was SOOOOO much!

So much food could be given to the shelters. Thing is.... health codes get in the way.
As for dumpster diving for myself? Only if I were starving....maybe...but even then, I'd hustle a meal in a restaurant.

I dumpster dive the thrift shop dumpster all the time...or used to before my friend, Dumpster Diving Angie died. But, I don't dumpster dive for food. However, one time we were at the Houston Food Bank, picking up a load of pet food that they donated to us. They had huge roll away dumpsters, about 5' tall and 12' long. I climbed up on the side to look in, and it was level full with bags of purple onions. Beautiful big onions. I love purple onions, and I took a bag and shared them with a lot of people. Didn't phase me at all, but I wouldn't eat food from a dumpster otherwise...even if I was starving.

Like Marilyn, I dumpster dive for all kinds of stuff, but not food. One time I got boxes of antacids,tampax, cough syrup and some other stuff because one bottle of cough syrup had broke and was on the outside of the packages and they were still all in plastic wrap.

Now, I've mentioned this before when this topic has come up, I have a brother in Ca who gets food from dumpsters and is proud of it. Believe it or not, he's done this for years and has never gotten sick, must have a cast iron stomach. He would rather spend his money on old motorcycle parts and junk and eat out of dumpsters than spend anything on real food. I have tried for years to get him to stop to no avail. He's 77 years old and I can't even remember him ever even having the flu. Guess the bugs don't like him.

When I worked in receiving at walmart, and then a grocery store, it made me sick to see everything that was thrown out, rather than to give it to churches to pass out. We didnt have a homeless shelter, or anything like that in town. But myself, i could neverrrrrrrrr take food out of a dumpster, and eat it. I guess if I was hungry, and homeless I could.....but other wise, no I couldnt do it.
A person just never knows what kind of chemical has been leaked on the food thats in a dumpster, not counting the bacteria.

I once walked by a garbage can outside a store and saw a whole box of table napkins, only a few had been used. I pulled it out and took it home. They were good quality, not the cheapie ones I would ususlly buy. Looks like some kids on their break had grabbed it to use,then threw out what they didn't need. But I would never dumpster dive food. There's a Joan Crawford movie where she's starving and grabs a piece of lemon meringue pie out of the trash in a restaurant. I would never be that desperate,I hope. .

OMG. I never watch Oprah, but my mother recorded it for me, because I occasionally do "freecycling". (a whole different thing)

Please go to FREEGAN and read the absolute garbage that these people believe in (at least those who run the official website)

they ENCOURAGE shoplifting, employee theft, and (believe it or not) drinking your own urine, so that you don't waste water by flushing it down the toilet (not kidding)

they are a bunch of anarchistic, anti-capitalism, anti-government, anti-authority, anti-establishment, HIPPIES!!

everyone better quite your jobs if you wanna be a freegan, because working for an (evil) corporation only feeds the "monster"

excerpts from the website...

"our jobs will ultimately harm others, the money we spend will be cycled into an economy that harms others. "

so quite your jobs everyone!!!!

"Civilization and particularly Capitalism have reduced all things to commodities to be bought and sold. Civilization has reduced people, animals, and the Earth to solely economic terms, assessing their value as they relate to profit margins without appreciating their intrinsic and interdependent value beyond monetary worth."

so these people are against civilization? um......ok

Shoplifting - There is some debate over how freegan this really is because you are still creating an empty shelf that must be restocked, but it is more freegan than forking over big bucks. This is a more direct attack on the store selling the goods, not the producer (unless you hyper-boycott a product: pick something you can't stand and consistently get it off the shelves, steal it, break it, hide it, just eliminate it and the store will eventually stop selling it) so you should consider if you are putting a ma & pa organic veggie stand our of business or just chipping away at a corporate giant.

Employee Theft - Some folks believe this to be more ethical than shoplifting because it is a trade-off: they steal your time and energy and you steal their food. If you work somewhere that sucks, hook yourself up, hook up your friends, hook up strangers, hook up your local FNB! I have heard tales of a kid who feeds a three-person household of his workplace acquisitions from the health food store. They eat damn good, too! You can also get the insider scoop and may be able to intercept food headed for the dumpster.

Water - Don't shower often and when you do, instead of showering, "go swimming" in the shower with a friend - it is fun, explorative, liberating, and consumes less water! Don't flush when you pee! If won't hurt you, pee just sits in the toilet not bothering anyone; it doesn't warrant the 10 gallons per flush just to get rid of it. Wait until you get a good healthy poop in there and then flush it all away. If you don't like the smell of pee stagnating in the toilet, pee outside our dilute your urine (7 water to 1 pee) and fertilize with it or drink it (Gandhi drank a cup of his own pee every day). Also, you can make manure out of your own poop! Or... dumpster dive some adult diapers and have a party where everyone straps one on and fills it up -no water wasted.

Very Interesting how/why Oprah didn't bring these little tidbits of information to the discussion. If you want the whole story of an issue, don't watch Oprah and think you'll get it.

No, I'd never go in a dumpster. No telling what's in there, used needles? Maggots? Who knows.

California is the land of plenty. There is so much stuff wasted here, it's almost unbelievable. Regulations here make it easier to throw food away. Even if you want to give it away, there has to be a willing recipient, which can be hard to find given the large amount. I love dumpster diving and curb shopping and don't do food, but have seen lots of good edible stuff there in my life. I'm sure that if you wanted to do it, you could find a couple of 'good' places to eat prepackaged food from. You could also find store employees or managers willing to put food aside for you before it goes into the trashcan. A lot of us on the Garden Junk and Trash to Treasure Forums love to find free 'trash' and turn it into 'treasure'.

This Freegan thing is just a bunch of nonsense, trying to justify their theft and other bad behavior with their 'religion'. And that's all it takes to get on national television. For this lifestyle to look attractive to someone, they would have to already be at least a little out of whack. Let's see, steal from the people who are willing to employ you in good faith, pee in diapers or drink it, willingly destroy the property of others, make manure from your own poop (that sounds real safe, lol). This stuff makes eating a package of food that was in a dumpster sound mild. If I knew someone in this religion, they wouldn't be allowed at my house. They would surely find a reason to steal from anyone. Linda

I think "Freegan" comes from the term, Vegan, but that's just a wild guess. I could not eat from a dumpster. Period. I too would be scared witless of the many diseases one could contract.

However, a variation of this was called "Dumpster Diving" (scrounging for household goods) and I did my share of that back in the day. We never went looking for food, but rather valuable items that had been tossed. We found all kinds of things and a friend of a friend loved to search the dumpsters at a local college and she found a coin jar with $75 in coin, thrown out by a hasty college student.

We got started in the early 1980s when we bought a nice home in a nice area that backed up to a school property. During the weekends, we'd watch in amazement as people drove up to the dumpsters on the school lot and threw out furniture, appliances, etc. Often, they'd just set the good stuff in front of the dumpsters. We once scored a beautiful wrought iron patio set that we sold for $125 within the week!

I do think it's a "throw-away society" and we should be more careful with our resources, but it's not time to start eating garbage and rotted food.

Rose

If we were starving, yes. How many more chemicals could be in the food than what's already in it? Sad but true...
:-)

Food? No, never, unless we were starving. I'd just feel like it was dirty, etc. unless it was totally still wrapped, etc.

Now other stuff? I'm a curbside shopper and love to pick up old wooden pieces, etc. and change them or redo them.

I am right there with Kathsgrden's post.

Also food may may look alright but may have been tossed for reasons not shared with the public. Molds, pesticides,handled by someone with a highly contagious illness etc.

No way. I don't care if it's brand new and hermetically sealed. Once it hits that dumpster, it's garbage.