One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The things that one person may consider insignificant may be special to another.

In the case of dumpster diving for food, it might not only be a win-win situation for both the person who discarded leftover foods and the person who got it for free; it might also be beneficial to the Earth.

What Is Dumpster Diving?

Dumpster diving is defined as going through garbage dumps that consist of commercial, industrial or residential waste to find functional items which can then be recycled or sold. This activity has many different forms and languages. For instance, scrapping is searching for metals and gleaning is for looking for leftover foods. Trash picking, street scavenging, bin diving, containering, Dmart, dumpstering, totting, skipping, and skip dipping are some of the common alternative names of this one-of-a-kind activity.

Food Waste

A vast amount of fresh vegetables and fruit is thrown out every day. Food waste is a serious problem in the world. A study shows that 1.3 billion tons of foods are wasted every year. What’s worse is that a quarter of this wasted food could feed the 795 million undernourished and starving people around the world. Furthermore, food waste contributes 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide in our ozone layer, which speeds up global warming.

According to studies, a food product is handled an average of 33 times before it is ever consumed by a shopper. Like any other businesses that give importance to appearance and convenience, supermarkets are one of the big perpetrators of food waste in the world. Deformed vegetables are automatically rejected, despite having the same freshness and nutrients as the ones that pass the “beauty test”. Entire fruit packages are thrown out when only one fruit is rotting. As a result, an ocean of fresh veggies and fruits, together with tons of meat and baked goods are wasted every minute.

The food service industry is next to the supermarket in terms of recognizable contribution of food waste. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, on average, diners leave 17 percent of meals uneaten and 55 percent of these potential leftovers are not taken home. A 2005 study at the University of Arizona also adds that an estimated total food loss per day is a total of 22,360,534.41 kg in full-service restaurants and 38,584,104.67 kg in all fast-food restaurants.

In a world of starvation and increasing non-stop inflation, these figures are truly devastating. Indeed, food waste has an unconstructive effect on our economy, food security and environment.

A Controversial Movement

Freeganism is a faction which uses conventional methods to get things for free, especially food. Their main objective is to avoid spending money on anything, as an act of disapproval against the food system. Freegan is a term synonymous to people who dumpster dive for food. They go through the disposed food inventories of supermarkets and restaurants in order to redistribute it by partnering with charities, feed themselves by saving a lot of bucks, and turning the spoiled food into compost for helping farmers and the environment.

This movement is controversial, as some states in the United States, together with some other countries, make this activity illegal, with possible arrest by the police. Therefore, there is a stigma, particularly in the U.S. on freeganism. The main reason why most food establishments refuse to offer their unconsumed products is because of food sanitation protocol. They are all afraid that when people eat their thrown-away food, people who might eventually get sick will sue them. On the contrary, in the United Kingdom, breaking the food waste cycle is now slowly becoming acceptable, with dumpster diving meals attracting interest.

How To Join

Decided to join the movement? First, select a supermarket to dive. Ask fellow freegans around your area about which groceries are good to go. Or, better yet, if you’re daring enough, ask an employee if they allow this activity on their establishments. The most important thing to ask is the pickup schedule of their unwanted food products. As baked goods need to freshly cook all the time, bakeries are one of the best choices to dumpster dive. Second, educate yourselves on food date labels:

1. Use By, Best If Used By, Best By, Best Before – these date labels are mostly seen in canned or bottled products, such as mayonnaise or ketchup. It is safe to consume even after the “use by” and “best by” date, as long as you store the item properly and follow the storage procedure.

2. Sell By – this label is found in meat, seafood, milk and poultry. Anything past the sell-by date is safe to eat and can last up to two to four days providing you store it in your refrigerator.

3. Expires On – infant formulas and some baby foods are the only products that use this label. It is obligatory to consume these products before the expiration date.

Still, the best way to determine the quality of the product is by simply smelling and inspecting it first. Dispose foods that have an inedible stench, taste or appearance. Lastly – wash, store, and eat!

The World Unites

The growing food waste phenomena pulled together countries in the European Union to fight and eventually eradicate this crisis, making 2014 as the year against food waste. In fact, just recently, France made it illegal for supermarkets to throw away edible food. Furthermore, one of the biggest supermarket chains in France, Intermarché, launched a creative campaign selling and promoting ‘ugly’ vegetables. You can watch the video below.