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Freeganism: Dumpster Diving and Reclaiming Waste

Freegans love reclaiming food waste

Exploring Freeganism as a practise and philosophy. How and why do freegans escape from society?

Written and researched by Monica C

What is Freeganism?

How is your everyday lifestyle? Do you wake up in the morning to force yourself to do a daily routine for those people you’re working for? Do you have to spend a lot of cash just to have something on your table? Do you always have to pay for debt and interest after buying “stuff” in grocery stores and shopping malls?

Freegans, the ones who practice a freeganism lifestyle, don’t have to do those things. Their daily routines don’t include going to work or visiting stores and supermarkets.

They enjoy a simple, yet different lifestyle. They live without feeling the need to work for somebody, but they always have food on the table and they always acquire everything that they need. The interesting part is they get of there things for free. They are creative people who know how to turn trash into gold.

Freegans are dumpster divers who scout for furniture, appliances, food or anything that has been discarded by other members of society. This is the way they choose to live because they don’t subscribe to consumerism and capitalism.

  1. What freeganism is not – challenging myths and stereotypes
  2. Freegans, slackers, freeloaders, and bums are the same.

Some people go by the above notion when questioned on their understanding of this grouping. They are still unaware of the freeganism movement, which is the main reason they often consider bums, freeloaders and freegans as the same entity. Also, some people find freeganism as a good excuse to slack off. Note, however, that freeganism is different from bumming or slacking.

Bums are homeless and jobless. Some view the term bum in itself as a derogatory or demeaning term but we will use it here for the purpose of clarity and explanation. For so-called bums, not having a job is not a choice – well, some choose not to work, but it’s commonly because of harrowing personal reasons. The dumpster diving lifestyle is not their choice but it’s mainly because of the lack of money.

There is a distinction between freegans and the homeless

You may see a freegan scouting for food or stuff in a dumpster like a bum does. You may say that like a bum, some freegans choose not to work a 40-60-hour/week job, but there’s a meaningful reason behind this kind of lifestyle – something that’s beyond personal problems or unavoidable circumstances.

A freegan does what he does because he doesn’t want to be victimized by capitalism and consumerism. He doesn’t want to work for the bosses who are getting richer by destroying the Earth’s atmosphere, biosphere and natural resources. He (or she) is a free person who cherishes his time for something more important than being always at his best just to keep a job.

Most freegans are not homeless. They can sometimes afford to pay for mortgage or rent. Many of them are educated. In fact, some of them still choose to stay in a job. They just don’t want to subscribe to those who keep on destroying the Earth by working for them, or they just feel bad about the wasted food or products.

Freeganism and frugality are one and the same

The other misconception about freeganism is that freeganism is synonymous with frugality. It is a fact that freegans live a frugal lifestyle. However, it isn’t just about frugality. It is about finding justice for environment, wasted food or products and animal rights. They have to be frugal because their main goal is to help save society from the negative effects of capitalism.

For them, subscription to consumerism contributes to pollution, waste products and animal cruelty, that’s why they have to live a frugal lifestyle and strive to reduce consumption whenever possible. Freegans reuse and recycle whatever they find to be reusable or recyclable.

Are freegans all anarchists?

Freegans are not exclusively anarchists. Generally, there is a need for proper governance of the society to maintain peace and order. Freeganism is a separate political movement from anarchism. There are freegans who are anarchist and there are those who support a standard political hierarchy.

Some freegans are against capitalism and not in favour of the existence of a government, especially if it’s the kind of government which chooses to help and support a sovereign individual instead of looking after its people.

To wrap it up, freeganism is an anti-consumerism movement. They are not slackers, anarchists nor bums. In fact, “freegan” is a combination of two words: free and vegan – free, in a sense that they get their food out of dumpsters and vegan because most freegans abstain from eating animal products. They’re just people who want to create some change in society in their own way. None of these are absolutes and variations of philosophy do apply.

anarchists against the system
The term “anarchist” has been taken and misrepresented

How did freeganism start?

“Eww, that’s gross.” This is the common reaction of people when you say that you’ve found something edible in a dumpster and would like to eat it! Hardly surprising I suppose given how we are conditioned to live. With this common prejudice, what do you think is the reason why freeganism became a popular movement? How did it begin?

It began in the mid-1960s when an anarchist guerilla street theatre group, known as Diggers, were performing in San Francisco, California. They got their name from a 17th century group known as English Diggers. The English Diggers had this vision to free society from its obsessive consumerism and possession of private properties.

The Diggers of the mid-1960s would engage in street theatre and artistic performance. They would also cook and eat foods that came from trash, gardens and local stores – obtained by stealing. They also had the heart to share those foods through the free stores they set up and they gave them away to everyone who wanted them.

Since then, the San Francisco Diggers had made a significant contribution in political activism against food waste. Food waste issues have been at the centre of political activism to increase ecological awareness.

This was part one of a three-part series. Keep an eye out for the second part dropping soon.

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Lifestyle

Escaping to a digital nomad lifestyle

Digital nomads chat at a meetup

Escapers worldwide are taking advantage of new opportunities to work digitally

Regular contributor Masooma B dissects a paper on the increasingly popular digital nomad lifestyle. Is it practical and beneficial to adopt a nomad lifestyle?

The Digital Nomad Lifestyle: (Remote) Work/Leisure Balance, Privilege, and Constructed Community by Beverly Yuen Thompson

Summary

The paper highlights major concepts related to the lifestyle of digital nomads. Their lifestyle has been critically seen through the lenses of privilege, inequality, community and work-leisure balance. Stebbins’ serious leisure concept and other sociological premises have also been considered.

Digital Nomadism

Digital nomads on leisure bases select their desired or preferred location and work with travelling.  Digital nomads just need a laptop and work-skills to perform their online tasks by either writing blogs, news features, social media advertising stuff, e-books, web designing, programming and much more.

Cohen et al., (2013) presented the ‘lifestyle mobility’ concept that referred to voluntary-based movement depending on the leisure aspect. It has been observed that less earning increases economic and emotional pressure and the workers tend to get more work to increase their pay.

Different perspectives to see the nomadic life

In the perspective of digital nomads, leisure and work balance was the major context. Robert Stebbins’ ‘serious leisure’ theory offers insight in to the lifestyles of digital nomads. The paper showed that their leisure significance was inverted in life as they prioritized it over workplace or office area.

Inequality-Privilege context was considered to analyze the demographics of a digital nomad, relative benefits and influences on relationships, while community perspective helped in visualizing their social position. 

Digital nomads are a type of people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally, conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Such workers often work remotely from foreign countries, coffee shops, public libraries, co-working spaces, or recreational vehicles

Wikipedia

Methodology

Thirty-eight detailed interviews were conducted with digital nomads. The author met them at three events

– The Lisbon 3rd 2017 DNX Conference “Digital Nomad” that held on 9th September.

– In Spain, Geneva during Retreat Digital-Nomad Girls that held on 18th September

– In, Spain, Barcelona during Conference 7in7 of experienced nomads 2017, 3 to 9 October.

Later, skype interviews were considered as a follow up to get more details.

Digital nomads use Skype to connect
Digital nomads use Skype to connect and keep in touch back home

Demographic Information

The participants were from the developed world; the majority of them were bilinguals. The age limit was 21–49 years and 80% of the sample were single or not in a marital status. They were Bachelors and Graduate degree holders while only six participants had lesser education.  Interview questions gave qualitative data that was organized, coded and arranged according to theme base.

Serious Leisure

Robert Stebbins said that mundane leisure activities such as television watching and sports etc., are different for nomads. His concept of serious leisure has six components such as perseverance, personal effort, leisure-career, identity, tangible reward, and distinctive essence or flavor in a sociological context.

He presented the alteration from professional or work-based identity to leisure pursuits as digital nomads describe remote work in the context of travel patterns that seems different from traditional tourism and relies on a basic learning concept.

However, it is difficult to distinguish them from tourists as they select the desired location, create their own lifestyle, and operate differently from the locals. 

Economic Context

In this context, it is a win-win approach. You earn with leisure and comfort. Professor Schor of Boston College carried a Pew survey and said that gig workers usually make less than $31,000 income on annual bases.

The persons who are full-time employees work part-time to earn extra as compared to those who only work as freelancers. In the current work, 29% were full-time freelancers while 42% were gig workers. 

Inequality and privilege context  

Aydogdu (2016) criticized this mode of earning and said it as technology-centered life where the real association with people and destinations is lost. The nomads also follow a capitalist approach and work hard to enhance their business gains. Nomads rarely have children and struggle to balance work and leisure.

Nomads usually move to the countries of ravaged economies to increase their currency value and local people also welcome tourists because it benefits them financially.

Nomadic Community

Although nomads leave their family and hometown, the feeling of loneliness is expressed through their writing samples. Languages and customs differences between Southeast Asian and South American countries are clear. Nomads, therefore, search other digital nomads through online platforms and nomad conferences to develop a community.

Digital nomads create their own community
Digital nomads meet wordlwide to create a sense of community

Findings

-Nomads chose a distinctive lifestyle and for this, they are often considered irresponsible by their friends and family members. However, they survive and balance perfectly when they work in the form of large groups as a community.

-In the context of Privilege –Inequality, they prefer locations which offer demographic privileges and hedonistic pleasures. Research showed that Thailand’s Chiang Mai is a rich digital nomads’ spot that has co-working sites and aesthetic value places as well. 

Bali, Vietnam, Medellin and Lisbon are some other places. It shows that they remain unconscious about local culture, language, and surrounding people and enjoy their own sense of privilege.

These differences influence their social status and Alexander said that this privileged lifestyle negatively influences their behaviors while Kaplan (1996) termed it ‘nihilistic distancing’ that brings excitement in differences as if there would be no social distance, then the locals will show no interest and exclamation for tourists.

Amna, 7in7 conference volunteer, told that she promoted charity donation for digital nomads that would be brought back to the local communities to minimize inequality and to bring social change.

Sally, who was an Arab-American said that she traveled to locations where people used to converse in Arabic language and where she could build connections. They stated that color differences gave rise to distances and inequalities and the nomads usually do not try to learn other languages.  

-Different people stated their personal experiences of social variability and they said that gradual familiarity and learning of culture can improve situations when they need to engage with locals. 

-In an employment and economic context, the participants said that they compared it to a part-time service job with less experience. Earnings gradually improved and they were able to finance their college dues in this way.

One participant was multilingual as she was familiar with more than 2 foreign languages. By using her ability, she started to find nomads and developed a network and she enabled people who spoke different languages to find more tasks through a platform.

One client was earning a large amount by software developing and websites designing and optimizing mobile apps. He said that he had worked on Disney and then on numerous high paying projects, and therefore he seemed quite satisfied with his work.

It shows that nomads can earn high by strategically improving working conditions. Although they earn less than an office job, however, there always remains a great potential to increase the earning. 

– Nomads work by following their passion for tasks and adopt it as a hobby. They find leisure in investing their time for online earning. Some adopted it for their passion of traveling and by reading nomads blogs they got information about suitable places.

One participant, “Jenny”, achieved a chemistry-related Ph.D. She had UK passport, and she had the opportunity to work in Australia, Chiang Mai, Thailand where she worked as a digital nomad in co-working spaces. 

-Co-working areas were preferred by some nomads to aid connections with people. There is the number of companies that now bring together digital nomads such as 7in7, Remote and GlobeKick that manage entrepreneurship retreats and also shape it as a business-oriented approach where the business seminar is held for motivation and also for fun purpose. 

-One participant developed Facebook Group of Girls and the online community grew with time.  She also organized meet-ups and the author attended one such meet up in Javea, Spain. The girls from Brazil, London, and Sydney, and from all over the world, joined the group.  Conferences are executed in English which shows how the Western audience is the major focus.

-Finally, long term friendships or relationships were not possible and they were using online dating sites. 

Paper Conclusion

Freedom potential is obvious when compared to a full-time, static profession. Due to less salary, they have to work constantly but in the context of Neoliberalism, this phenomenon is not just related to nomadism but rather seen in all fields.

Their downward mobility is based on income potential as they also have micro-entrepreneurial goals to earn more. From a feminist perspective it’s a male-dominated occupation and also technology-based. It led to alternative conferences for digital nomads to promote meet-ups and community development.

It’s a creative approach: creative tourism, community building, social dynamics, and fix leisure duration. They make money and enjoy their trip. It is, however, a temporary lifestyle, as after constant challenges many switch again to a traditional lifestyle. 

In the context of entrepreneurial literature, a freedom-perspective is put forth, whilst the choice of location with leisure is an option at the cost of social isolation. 

The nomads who chose to live in an expensive place in middle-class countries devoid themselves of local culture and population contexts. However, high earning potential, independence and community building supports their passion. 

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Lifestyle

Walking is a Superpower

Man walking near water

Exercise powers the body and mind

By Steve W

Every afternoon, come rain or shine, Eric would take off his work boots, push on some battered Nike trainers and scoot off for a good 45 minutes. When he returned Eric passed no opportunity to let us know that he had been for a “power walk” and was mentally and physically ready for the rest of the shift.

Eric described walking as his superpower. It clears the mind, gets the breath and blood flowing. His overriding message: Feeling in a bad mood? Escape for a walk.

Brisk walking is said to have more long lasting positive effects than anti depressants. when it comes to a choice between donning the trainers, stretching the legs and going round the block a few times, rather than shovelling in a pile of pills, I know what I’ll be choosing. Quite simply, going for a relaxing walk is a mood enhancing experience.

Escape in to a sensory experience

Try to hit all the points of a VAKGO approach, to enjoy a positive sensory experience:

  • See
  • Hear
  • Feel
  • Taste
  • Smell

Being stuck inside on a nice sunny day often seems counter productive to health. Business walks are a great way of mingling a meeting with some fresh air and clarity. Instead of sitting eating shortbread and guzzling coffee in a boardroam, why not hit the pavement and have a business walk?

While I would not suggest for a second that I am important enough to be having any business meetings, on this blog we are all about escaping and I’ve found walking around a park or hitting the pavements while talking to a friend, associate or client on the phone is extremely beneficial.

You can too. As long as you don’t become one of those annoying people making it obvious that you are in an important business meeting and start talking really loud like Dom Joly on Trigger Happy TV! Loud inhaler phone calls aside, soaking up the sun’s rays and receive some nourishing Vitamin D is always a bonus.

Escaping the office on a business walk
Escaping the office on a business walk

Look upwards when escaping on a walk

A few years ago I was listening to a podcast and they suggested looking up more when walking. Many of us look down, head bowed, hunched over in a mock funeral procession when we are walking.

Just by looking up we spot so many things we might otherwise have missed. Varieties of birds perched on houses or other interesting wildlife. The houses themselves, how they are strucured or the patterns chiselled in to the roofs, brickwork or chimneys of older buildings.

The patterns of the clouds, the skylines or people hanging out of high rise flats. Look up, head up, stretch back those shoulders and employ a good posture. Elevate your mood. Feel the ground, feel your feet moving and touching the pavement.

Escape physically and mentally with a nice walk. Go a different route, get lost, find your way home. It’s an exciting way to burn calories and clear the headspace. Exercise, as I’ve come to realise over the years, is as much of a mental boon as a physical one.

hedge and foliage in the countryside
Hedgerows are full of nature and food sources

I enjoy it and the dog enjoys. Why not take a rubbish bag along and collect all the crisp packets and tin cans strewn along the road? Where I live in the country there are often fast food wrappings, cans of beer or varieties of sweet packets tossed out into the fields and hedgerows of a morning. I encourage my children to bring some disposable gloves and a bin bag to collect up the “cleaner” waste.

Around this time of year as we leave the summer and head into autumn (or fall if you prefer) the blackberries are juicy and ripe to eat in many cases. Collect them up in a little plastic box, take them home, discard the bad ones, wash them thoroughly and use the blackberries for a nice jam or pie, or even mix it in with ice cream. You can’t beat a bit of foraging, but make sure you don’t munch on anything you are unsure about.

blackberries on a bush
Fresh blackberries are prime foraging material

There’s is so much to see and do outside, to collect, to observe, to eat or to admire. Get the boots on and stretch those calves! There are few things as relaxing and simplistic as an escape into nature. That’s why walking is my superpower.

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Lifestyle

Why I don’t want to work from home…

By Steve W

…but still ditch the office desk

Sitting in traffic is one of the most soul destroying daily practices. The clock ticks by, tensions rise, traffic reports warn of imminent blockages. It can often feel like you’re literally wasting your time.

For so long I dreamed of ditching the daily commute. No more waiting in line at the entrance to the motorway. No more “parking sweats” as the frantic search for a space intensifies. That was until my shift pattern suddenly changed and rather than aiming to be in the building for 9am, it became 7am.

No traffic concerns

Leaving home at 6 o’clock in the morning meant minimal traffic. The parking spaces were not filled as quickly. There was greater availability closer to the office building. An earlier start meant an earlier finish too; leaving midway through the afternoon, avoiding the rush hour.

Then the dreaded Corona Virus hit. It quickly became clear that we would be required to work from home. In the hrand scheme of things I’m one of the lucky ones: no reduction in pay, no furlough, no dreaded redundancy. Three months with no traffic concerns. A chance to test out whether working from home is really as appealing as I always suspected.

Motivated by freedom of movement

I swiftly settled in to a neat routine. Getting up early, daily exercise completed, nice breakfast cooked, home schooling out the way, logging on to the computer. It worked seamlessly for the first month. That was until it didn’t. Suddenly going in to the converted “office” with its infinite mess and dull lighting became a drag. It was like crawling in to a cave each day.

The lack of airflow added to sluggishness. The standard work was getting done, but all of those “extras” that I had added confidently to the list at the start of lockdown were not disappearing off the to-do and motivation was waning.

As we started getting drafted back in to a working environment -single days at first, increasing gradually as the months went on- I suddenly rediscovered a semblence of motivation. Getting back on the road, in to civilisation (no matter how weird or awkward with social distancing and face masks) felt invigorating. My productivity increased not only in work but in my personal endeavours to.

After thinking it through it wasn’t necessarily the fact that I had returned to my physical place of work that had allowed me to rediscover my motivation. The location was irrelevant. It was the freedom of movement that I found so motivating.

Working remotely is still an option

My long term ambition remains working remotely, in employment that does not require me to attend a specific location every day. However, working strictly from home, in a home office environment, did not work out well in the short space I tried it. I thought working from home would be great. Turns it wasn’t as liberating as I expected.

That said, being chained to a designated location is not the answer either. I’ve discovered I need a middle ground. The ability to pick and choose my spot for the day. Have laptop, wil travel. The cafe, the library, the coffee shop, the back of a car with a WiFi box – the choice of locations is endless. It may change each day, but the key point is the choice of location. Working as a Digital Nomad, picking my own times and spaces to work in are of more interest than strictly working from home.

It’s a shame that it took something like a pandemic for me to find this out. However, something we think in theory is the answer does not work out in reality. Maybe one day I’ll be sitting on a beach with alaptop somewhere, growing grapes by day and coding HTML by night? I still want to work from home, as long as “home” is flexible enough to move with me.

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Lifestyle

Escape to Portugal

Why one freedom seeker escaped to Portugal

By Steve W

When it comes to escaping the rat race there are worse spots you could end up in than Central Portugal. That was one of the main appeals when Bolton native Owen Lloyd Martin relocated with his then-wife to the beautiful warmth of a country that spawned Port wine, Piri Piri Chicken and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Rising in the morning to capture the floating, etheral mists on the hillside or observe the wildlife moving around freely in its natural habitat, this truly sounds like an idyllic location. Martin lives near a reservoir, in the Pedrogão Pequeno region on Arrochela Farm.

Speaking to Carl Munson on Good Morning Portugal, Martin explained the joys of living near the water: “I was with a friend the other day and she was telling the story of sitting in a pontoon eating sandwiches with the children and the bread fell in. All of a sudden there was a multitude of carp all around her. She decided to get in the lake and swim with the carp,” he said.

Martin’s off grid set-up helps sustain his remote lifestyle. Solar panels add power. A limited quantity of mobile internet data keeps him connected with the outside world, while a homesteading mentality allows for fruit and vegetable growing.

Summer temperature highs hit as much as 42 degrees, although the average is a slightly cooler 36. When the rain falls, it falls, as four seasons often swing by in one day. When the cold weather comes, chimneys around the village can be spotted blazing.

“I chop wood for a fire late in the day,” Owen explains. “I’m nice and warm then. I’m asleep by the time it heats up so why expend the energy chopping wood all day?”

The dry days allow Martin to grab his wellington boots and sow seeds for food supplies. Portuguese weather does not always allow for winter gardening, despite what you might think.

Martin grows lemons, various orange types for freshly squeezed juice in the mornings, pomegranates, limes and grapefruits. Peanut plants are the latest vegetables being tested in the sunny climes.

Martin recalls the first time he realised that a tropical, distant life in Portugal was exactly for him.

“Getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning, walking down to the lake with my fishing rod and my headphones, I cast a line, saw some buzzards and an eagle, watched the carp swimming around.”

The neighbours’ home brew is also a weekly hit for this relocated Englishman. Not proficient in the language, Owen enjoys the hospitality, kindness and generosity of the Portuguese people who appreciate his attempts to communicate in the local dialect.

Sunday is market day, a time for mingling with people of all ages across the community; many engaging in religious practices. Martin concludes by explaining how his decision to leave the UK for Portugal was strongly based around freedom and personal liberation. Two core ideas that can motivate many escapers to follow their own dreams.