Skip to main content
Welcome to the Freegan Economy

Welcome to the Freegan Economy

Freegans are literally creating a new (free) sharing economy, partly out of dumpsters and it's downright impressive.

As the chief news editor here, I stalk lots of chat sites, both eco focused and more mainstream. Possibly the most interesting Facebook Group I belong to is The Melbourne Freegan Co-op.

This group if for Freegans and a lot of amazing stuff gets shared, including household items and things sourced from dumpsters.

It's a particularly interesting group from a voyeur's perspective as the dialogue is intelligent & thoughtful, there is obvious regard for each other's point of view and care for each other's situation. 

I learn something from these guys every day, but things recently stepped up a level when a discussion began about The Inconvenience Store which had just opened in Thornbury. It is run by the same people as Lentil as Anything where you pay what you can for food. 

It was really interesting to hear how people who use these services view them and then the question of whether Dumpster food could be given away came up... and it got really interesting. 

At The Inconvenience Store, the bread is leftover bread from nearby bakeries and produce comes from markets and apparently also places like Aldi. The food would otherwise have been thrown out, for age, appearance, or some other reason, but it is fine to eat. 

Customers simply take the fruit, vegetables and bread they need and leave a donation on the way out. 

Now, if you are a Dumpster Diver Freegan, all this leads logically to the next question. This pic above is of an Aldi dumpster - the same kind of food as is in The Inconvenience Store. You'd probably pass on the leaves, but there is a bunch of food and body care items right there that look perfectly fine to me. 

So, would The Inconvenience Store take in food and products from a dumpster? Legally, they most certainly couldn't under food laws, but given the state of most food collected from Dumpsters (good), how would they even know - if someone turned up and donated a bunch of items like those body products?

If the product is sealed and fresh and has been in a dumpster for an hour or two, what is wrong with it?  If you have recently eaten any kind of imported garlic, you'd have willingly consumed a bunch of toxic chemicals, whether you knew it or not and most of this food would be less toxic. 

And what about cut flowers? Not too many people eating them. Would they be fine?

Is dumpster diving actually illegal?

Dumpster Diving is technically illegal, but in reality it is up there with Footpath Collections or smoking dope. Not legal. Decriminalised.

In 2010, a Prahran man was fined after taking a couple of bikes left out on a nature strip for council collection. (Given the number of trucks driving around my area during council collection, taking items off footpaths, things have clearly relaxed a lot. To the point where I suspect that the council strings out the collection time so as to minimise what they finally have to pick up. That's good.)

Still, notwithstanding that times have moved on, under Australian law the concept of what abandonment is still contentious. Even when it is clear that the original owner has forfeited possession of an item, the individual who recovers it is technically breaking the law because there is no contract between them and the original owner of the item.  

No one seems to care about legals anyway

An article in Perth Now last month followed the lives of a bunch of housemates, publishing pics and following their nocturnal food foraging in dumpsters. (They weren't Freegans particularly, just a bunch of guys who saved a lot of money by getting their food from dumpsters.) It's not the first time media has openly published stories like these.  

In the article, diver Ali Cohen declared: 'It just makes sense to use what is there. You could go every day and get a carload full of food. Last time we got a lot of potatoes, dried figs, yoghurt and eggs.' 

'We don’t get food with a lot of preservatives in it and we don’t get food that has mould on it. There is enough abundance that we can be fussy.' Which means he's probably eating better than many Aussie households. 


Is it time to follow France and outlaw large scale food waste?

Well that's not hard to answer. Yes.

The thing is that we wouldn't even be having this debate if large scale food waste was outlawed. Supermarket chains would be forced to either give food away to places like The Inconvenience Store or re-imagine their processes so food isn't wasted in the first place. 


Alternative Dumpster Store Social Experiment?

All this leads to the idea of a social experiment - what if the dumpster was replaced with a dumpster store. It could be called 'The Dumpster Convenience Store'.

The reasons that food and other items end up in dumpsters is wide ranging, but thousands of pieces of eaten food later seems to have indicated that there is no greater mortality rate amongst people eating from dumpsters than those who don't. 

Unless of course you eat at fat food chains and then you are on your own, sister. 

Would a Dumpster Store be viable? The list of conditions under which supermarket items are disposed of could be published on a wall to deal with the humane or a bio-conservative ethics.

The move would bypass the whole dumpster thing and items could be either picked up from supermarket staff or delivered right to the Dumpster Store door instead of the Dumpster door.

I am not sure why this isn't a thing already, so maybe someone can tell us? 

Right now though, who is in?




Images: Unsplash - Marina Salles | ABC News - James Oaten | Perth Now

Something incorrect here? Suggest an update below: