The worsening economic climate is as good an excuse as any for the mainstream media to run another story about freegans. I’m not complaining; as long as they’re not being depicted as total freaks, I think it’s positive that stories like this are being added to the national conscience, instead of the constant hum of spend! spend! spend! Tougher times are starting to force a shift in the messages of TV and news outlets; we’re seeing more acceptance of thrift, and what I see as a more prudent, responsible spending habits.
Of course, this takes it a little far — I think dumpster-diving, especially for food, is where a lot of people draw the line. (Not to mention, if you’re just a middle-class boho artist who likes to rebel, should you take that bag of perfectly good bagels instead of leaving them for someone who really can’t afford to buy their own?) But I have to admit I’m fascinated by these stories, just as I’m fascinated by what people discard. When I walk around my neighborhood on large trash pickup day, it’s hard not to stop and inspect the perfectly nice shelves or weird old dollhouse, and I do often wish I’d brought a van. And I have to say I wouldn’t mind checking the trash for stuff like that, if it weren’t for, well, the trash, and the stigma of going through an actual dumpster. Curbside, I have no problems — in fact, Mr. L. and I rescued some sturdy cardboard boxes from the recycle pile just this morning.
What do you think? Where’s your line?
Helen said,
June 9, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
Randomly, I celebrated New Year’s Eve two years ago by going “dumpster diving” with J and a friend- it was a dumpster behind Collegetown Bagels, and the stuff that we found was in *perfect* condition- salads and sandwiches in plastic clamshells that had “expired” that day. I did also eat a Boston Creme donut that was slightly more suspicious, but I decided the amount of sugar in it would cancel out any germs…
I think a lot of people around here do it- so much food is simply thrown in the trash, which is awful. And when Cornell goes on break, there’s a lot of Cornell-specific dumpster diving- those kids throw out things like computer monitors so they don’t have to ship them home! Last year, Jayme and I found these colossal bags of beer cans behind a frat house, which we took down to Wegmans, redeemed for thirty dollars (yes, that many beer cans….) and got Chinese food with the money. But mostly, I agree with you and don’t generally want to go *into* dumpsters- Ithaca is the land of free boxes and free sales, though, which is all curbside.