Dumpster archive 02 : emo.ware

dumpster diving [archive 02]

08.03.2010: there's something about taking someone new dumpster diving that curses the whole endeavor. we were so determined we went to every supermarket in our area, even the ones that stock vegetables so bad we wouldn't steal them from the shelves, but we got nothing. five or six supermarkets, most of which usually guarantee more food than you can carry, and not even a moldy pepper.

two days later we're out of bread and decide to visit a popular bakery that's maybe fifteen minutes walk in the opposite direction to all our usual supermarkets. we only realised it was raining after getting ready, so we went anyway. and after spending too many minutes walking down the wrong soggy streets we still found nothing. wet and tired and defeated.

a week later we try again, since we were cycling through the area anyway, and finally we stop being so unlucky. we filled my bike basket with bread, maybe about six large loaves, and stuffed as much bread in our mouths as we could. cycled home through the silent streets, slight smell of bonfire carried by the mist. just another end of the world. could be.

and happy women's day, btw.

06.02.2010: running out of food on a saturday, in a country where the supermarkets don't open on a sunday, what else is there to do but go out dumpster diving and find:

4 large rye breads
3 large breads
1 sandwich loaf
8 ciabattas
4 museli buns
6 apples
1kg organic rice
1kg pasta
9litres milk

so now i'm posed with the question of whether to eat cheese made from milk that we've dumpster dived. i've been doing a good job of not eating dairy for about a year now, for all the right reasons, but few of which rule out dumpster dived produce. i don't think i'd eat cheese or yoghurt that we'd found, but somehow it becomes more removed when we've made it ourselves from dumpstered milk.

i'll think about it.

29.01.2010: we can't deny that we haven't been quiet this last year, but we can remedy that immediately. inspired by this recent photo of takings from one of our old haunts, and enticed outside by the snow storm, we can finally report that we are back in business.

4.5kg potatoes
box of mushrooms
3 cucumbers
1 aubergine
1 cauliflower
7 bananas
1 mango!
11 clementines
pancakes
8 small ciabattas
2 sandwich breads
1 rye bread
some more mixed breads

and incase you've been missing our kitchen table:

but above all, it was fun.

12.11.2009: walking home last night we found ourselves randomly passing through an area well known for its excellent dumpsters. we weren't prepared but we went in anyway:

9 freezer bags of bread (various)
celery
2kg potatoes
rice cakes

so now my non-diving gloves smell, but that's easily fixed. and of course worth it to stock up on bread and potatoes.

30.08.2009: rolling dumpster is probably the best thing i've read since i learnt to read. based on a true story, the references are many, but you don't need to know it to appreciate it.

10.08.2009: still going strong, i've just been complacent and missed a few dives. tonight the young ones hauled home:

125g black berries
4 apples
3 organic giant plums
2 pineapple
5 (very) fairtrade bananas
500g organic grapes
4 peppers
1l organic soya milk
650g new potatoes
2kg organic potatoes
1 cucumber
150g sugar peas
30 assorted buns
5 loaves

and for old times sake:

it'd be a tasty business we're in, if it were a business.

09.07.2009: small but tasty:

2kg onions
huge bowlfull of grapes
2 lettuce
enough bread

the onions are great. a few of them are sprouting but the others are nice and firm.

23.06.2009: on the longest day of the year (or thereabouts) we can't really wait for it to get dark before hitting the dumpsters. and so it's surprising how few and unfunny the looks are we get, the dumpster on the corner of the street and emil completely inside it, complaining something about the apples or the broccoli. i can't remember. but it was a nice trip with no hassle.

6 loaves
4 pizza breads
1 melon
1 pineapple
1 broccoli
400g mushrooms
1.5kg organic red onions
30 oranges
8 apples
3 nectarines
1 lime
3 avocados

and that's one awesome smoothie i'm drinking right now. it's almost pink.

we've also had numerous spritely bakery dives recently. infact, our fridge has constantly been full of free bread since march. that's a result.

28.03.2009: two nights in row. small one-man dives. yields:

650g new potatoes
lettuce
3 loaves
16 buns
8 organic eggs
lettuce
2 breads
organic fresh pasta

there was various meat too but i'm not listing it in principle. i mean, what the fuck is organic salami anyway?

19.03.2009: that promising looking dumpster was looking promising for a reason. it yields.

7 organic aubergine
4 organic brocolli
1 organic small box of radishes
1 green pepper
2 lettuce
1 organic liter milk
more bread than we could count (two large bags full)
enough meat to fill a freezer tray

so we're very happy. and there's so much meat it almost makes me wish i wasn't vegetarian.

no scrap that, that's not even remotely true.

13.03.2009: in the last year our local area has gone from being the best dumpster diving spot in the city to the worst. so last night, desperate for free bread, we went off in search of new stores. again. armed with a couple of flashlights, a lovely evening (i'd say balmy but i'd be lying) and no map. our walk took us way further than we originally intended, who knew islands brygge was all dark alleys and pedestrian unfriendly building sites?

what we found was mostly bitter disappointed, sweetened slightly by one promising dumpster behind an exceptionally large supermarket. we will be checking it out again.

along another road we found a supermarket with their dumpster right out there on the street corner. there's something about the openness of it that makes me completely unabashed. passing cars or pedestrians, whatever, we have nothing to hide. and inside we found 84 bags of chips, which are perfect for our eurovision party (i'm actually serious). we also found a few potatoes.

not too shabby.

12.03.2009: we've had a number of journalists contact us recently, various questions for various purposes, so i thought i'd post some of my replies. try to kill the lull in action, etc:

Why don't you class yourselves as freegans or like the word?

there's two things. firstly there's what it means to be 'freegan'. it's a nice idea but it's not actually possible for us, and i don't want to claim to be something i'm not (i'm reminded of the "vegetarians" who eats fish, who are they kidding?). secondly, i've never liked the word as it implies a degree of choice, that you've chosen to be freegan, and the people who are closest to the ideals of freeganism are so because they have to do be, not because they're chosen it. the word is like a means for the middle class to seperate themselves from the scum - the people who squat, the homeless, etc.

but i still think it's all the media's fault. for instance, where did you hear about freeganism? it's a catchy word, simple principles blanket applied to a diverse group, the kind of thing the mainstream media loves.

i just remembered a third problem with freeganism. we all know that consumer democracy doesn't work, but there are many people who are trying very hard to provide customers with local, organic, fairtrade, healthy, ethically wonderful produce. these people need support,and by being freegan you're not supporting anyone. it's like you're not actually fighting the evil corporate supermarkets and food giants, you're just giving up and ignoring them. it's not a solution that will scale up. the only way it's at all effective is by getting attention and making other people aware of the problems. i guess freegans are hoping those other people will solve the problems.

i'm not saying dumpster diving is any different, but it has less pretense. and these are just the feelings i get from the words.. i'm as much a victim of media hype as anyone.

How did you get involved in dumpster diving?

i was first introduced to dumpster diving when i was living in brighton (uk). i lived with a couple of anarchists who would go out on mysterious "skipping" expeditions and come back with hard bread, floppy vegetables and half rotten fruit (i'm sure i only saw the worst of it). i was never much interested, the food would be left in the fridge and not taken care off and go moldy etc, it all seemed a bit pointless. but then i moved to copenhagen and started going out myself, exploring behind all the local supermarkets, and i couldn't believe the quantity and quality of the food we'd find. i guess it was a mixture of disdain for the supermarkets (and the entire food industry) and the new found ability to eat for free. i can't stand to see things wasted, food especially, so dumpster diving is a win-win situation (for everyone). and behind the environmental issues and politics there's always that primal hunter-gather instinct. wait, i'm being horribly pretentious now.

anyway, it started out as more curiousity than need.

What does dumpster diving mean to you?

there's no such thing as a free lunch right? for a dumpster diver there's thousands of free lunches, unfortunately the cost (guilt free for the dumpster diver) is on the planet. it's about the waste generation, our obscene consumer society, the failings of supply and demand.. blah blah blah

What percentage of your day-to-day requirements are met by dumpster diving?

at the moment only about 5% of our requirements are met by dumpster diving, which is due to various annoying circumstances, mostly work and time constraints coupled with all our local supermarkets taking anti-diving measures. i don't think they're targetting us personally, rather other people who have been raiding the same bins and not being at all inconspicuous. recently there's also been a surge in the media about dumpster diving, so perhaps the supermarkets have had orders from the top to take action against us. either way, there's nothing but empty dumpsters and parking lots behind our local supermarkets. we've lost our good food sources and unfortunately it's not because the food isn't being wasted anymore (the dichotomy with dumpster diving is that once you've achieved your goals you can no longer dumpster dive) but because the waste is being hidden and locked away.

also i'm vegan and there's absolutely no way i could eat healthily just from the food we dumpster dive. it's just not realistic in our area. but how it does help is that it greatly reduces the cost of basic food and vege so that i can then afford to buy food from the independent local organic shops, which i wouldn't necessarily be able to do otherwise.

Can you tell me about some of the things you do on a day-to-day basis?

relating to dumspter diving or in general? in general i volunteer in a fairtrade/organic cafe in the city (run by the largest charity here in denmark) and also a student cafe/bar. i play in a number of diverse bands. i read too much. i go to school twice a week to learn danish. i cycle a lot. i'm a self-hating middle classer. and please don't quote me on that.

Do you ever worry about any health or legal implcations of dumspter diving?

we're rigorous about health issues so we don't have to worry. we're just careful. people worry too much and know too little about their food. they should be more worried about the pesticides on their fruit than we should be about bateria etc that can get through packaging and not be washed off. most food we take was on the shelf only a couple of hours ago, not much happens to it during that period. the only serious problem is when there's a recall and contaminated food is thrown out. if it's not obvious that that's what's happened then it can be dangerous. but still, the statistics are on our side.

What reactions have you had from other people about dumpster diving?

most people love it and can't wait to try it themselves. or, they subtely stop eating the food we just gave them and start telling us about the dangers of old eggs and dairy. mostly people know what we're like anyway, so it often doesn't come as a surprise (from family etc). when it comes to specific raids, showing them how much we've found (i'm sure you've seen our photos), people are either jealous of us or angry at the supermarkets. people don't realise quite how much is wasted. it doesn't take much maths to scale up the contents of one dumpster to work out how much every supermarket in your area wastes every day. and that excludes the waste at other level of the food supply chain.

What advice would you give to someone else who is thinking of dumspter diving?

i think if you'd like to dumpster dive you've already taken the hardest step. you can see the mess we're in and have the right values, you just have to stick to them and apply them in meaningful and effective ways. wait, that sounds terribly bullshitty and pretentious. i don't know. i guess realistically i'd tell them all the things that we've written in our dumpster diving guide.

28.01.2009: finally some genuine dumpster diving. genuine meaning you get old yoghurt smeared all over your hands. it means feeling your way through random dumpsters without a torch, and of course it's the locked dumpster that contains all the bread. we should have known it without looking, it would have saved me from yoghurt. but i was just in denial.

no worries. a locked dumpster can be prised up at the edges for some kind of minimal access. we managed to pull out a series of buns, breads and pastries, enough to keep us occupied as we slunk our way to the next bar. my prize was a tasty bread covered in pumpkin seads and something containing raisins. croissants, as always.

20.01.2009: we've had a serious lack of posts since last october, for which i'm sure there are many reasons, but it mostly comes down to defeat and laziness (also having a job that requires you to be in bed before 9pm). in the last few months we've seen all of favourite supermarkets start locking away their dumpsters. last night we went for a long investigative walk around our local area and found nothing. it really is no good.

i'm not sure what we will do but we'll try and come up with something. where there's a will there's a way. but when it's this cold, the will kind of wanes a bit.

we've also had a serious indian meal moth infestation. no small problem, but as of today we've been clear for 17 days (still too early to celebrate though, they tend to stay dormant when it's cold). but we've had to be very careful with our food and we've been forced to throw a lot out, ironic huh?. they get everywhere, we even had the fuckers in our tea, so now absolutely everything is stored in seperate airtight containers.

we don't know how they got into our provisions, but we can't rule out dumpster diving. maybe it should be added to the list of potential dumpster diving hazards.

10.10.2008: i get home and the kitchen table is covered by packets of bike lights. what's going on? most of them didn't work at all. some would switch on and then not switch off. there was barely a packet with both white and red lights working. but how is that a reason to throw them all out? i went through them, taking out the working ones, then finding good combinations of charged batteries and working electronics. and added bonus is we can also dispose of the batteries properly now.

we also restocked our bread, something that's seems to be getting more and more dangerous. we've had a couple of aborted attempts recently, but since it's not me going on these runs they're largely shrouded in mystery. the bakery we target is in the middle of town, and it's only under great intoxication that a heist is attempted. success or failure is obvious, there's either a huge bin bag of bread on our kitchen table or there isn't, but the exact details are often forgot in the drunken haze ("what? i bought bread home last night?", kind of thing).

as a disclaimer, we're normally a lot more responsible than this.

25.09.2008: just so you know, we still haven't run out of bread. our freezer is going strong. if we're lucky it may even last out the month.

but we can't survive on bread. a few nights ago a couple of us went out to see how our local scene is progressing. word on the street is "badly". the nearest dumpsters haven't returned and the rest of the pickings were slim. all we found was a half full can of hairspray. and that's not edible.

we need to make good on our promise of biking out to fresh pastures. soon.

as for non-food, we've been doing as well as ever. we've replaced numerous TVs, replenished kitchen utensils (all as good as new), pots enough, some great books, and i even found an enlarger, only it was missing a lens so i took it back.

05.09.2008: been too busy having fun to update, sorry. but we've only be rocking some rather fantastic bread anyway. only? check this out:

more bread than emil (wait, i know that sentence doens't make sense). that's the "dumpster diver's dozen" we picked up last night. a 4am bread run (don't go later than this, bakeries open horribly early). we got lucky though, we almost couldn't get in. the bakery's beefed up the locks on the doors to the courtyard where their dumpster is, we really had to push it hard. they'd painted it too. but seriously, if they want to keep people out (and this is completely understandable) they shouldn't throw away quite so much bread. just look at it. every night there's that much bread. and it's the third of such runs we've done recently. a couple of weeks back i cycled home with a two bin bags strapped to my bike, one on the front and one on the back. and it's fantastic bread too. we took almost $200 worth last time (well, that's not what it's worth, just how much it would cost).

i might have to resort to eating bread sandwiches. y'know, a sandwich with bread in it.

and everywhere i look i'm covered all in flour.

we we're a little too noisy though. when we discovered the new security we tried to enter through the side door. someone must have seen us because about half a minute later a guy came around the corner and started looking up and down the street. i was on look out duty and did a great job of looking unsuspicious and innocuous. it's easy though when the dude's clearly looking for a punk. he didn't even register me. it's a good job emil didn't come out at that moment with those two huge bin bags.

but hey, we're pros. we always make our getaway.

11.08.2008: i'm finally back in copenhagen, and back to a fridge and freezer both full of great bread. it's a wonderful thing to come home to.

unfortunately (and actually, it really is a shame), you can't live off bread. so we went out diving to see if any of our locals have improved. unfortunately not. we found:

loaf of bread
15 buns
18 eggs
6 litres of orange juice
flodeboller (you don't want to know)

our nearest (and previously best) supermarket is still keeping their bins inside. aldi is still awful (shouldn't complain, we got eggs and juice), and the dogn netto dumpsters stank. rancid mucus. the irma bins were completely empty.

we found our fun elsewhere.

30.07.2008: i'm currently on the move, so to fill the void i thought i'd post a couple of videos i've been sitting on for a while, all worth watching.

this first is a sixish minute documentary from travis sheilds, meet the freegans.

then there's a slightly longer documentary called skipping meals, which gets bonus points for not using the word 'freegan'.

and finally there was short piece on the telegraph website dumpster diving with the freegans.

what i like about these videos is they all feature reasonably normal people. normal enough. maybe the word i'm looking for is respectable? the divers don't come across like obsessive idiots, which is how a lot of us in the north american press have been portrayed (it's not the interviewees fault). the dumpster divers in the above films are not being shown as freaks for the masses to laugh at, they're smart and generally well spoken.

what i'm not so keen on is the naming of specific supermarkets. they wont like it, and they'll react. and not by wasting less food, they'll just make it harder for us to take it. but then i'm sure the telegraph doesn't care about that.

10.07.2008: we just returned from the roskilde festival, which should explain our recent lack of posts. and whilst there wasn't much to do in the way of dumpster diving on the festival site, there were plenty of opportunities for preying on other people's waste, which was in great abundance (waste in abundance, something seems wrong about that sentence). as a vegetarian i found it quite difficult, what with the vast majority of food being meat, but i managed.

it scared me how much nachos people were eating. if only you could survive on leftover chilli peppers.

our highlight was when, after seeing me ask a guy if he was really about to throw away that broccoli and feta pancake, a couple of female workers gave us meal vouchers. that was pure festival magic. and then when the festival is over, everyone just leaves all their stuff behind. it almost feels like stealing.

anyway, now we're back and our fridge was approaching a sorry state of emptiness. so:

1kg sugary breakfast cereal
12 bread rolls
18 buns
9 ciabattas
4 loaves
2kg carrots
250g cherry tomatoes
3 onions

the bad news is that our local, and previously all time favourite dumpster, has disappeared. it looks like they've started storing them inside. this is extremely annoying because we know it's not our fault, we've had no trouble there and never left any traces of our presence. first the food stopped appearing, and now the bins. and it all coincided with a nearby street that until recently was occupied with much fun and festivities. nevermind. there's plenty of other dumpsters.

20.06.2008: i'm still in a critical mood, so i'll pick on freegan magazine. and i'm totally allowed to, because they're directly taking a whole bunch of my writing (hello there) without asking or telling me. i believe in the creative commons and hate copyright, so i don't actually mind them doing it, yet. because it's not like they can claim non-commercial use with all those adverts pasted across their pages.

this isn't my criticism, that they're not creating their own content but stealing it instead (isn't it actually quite fitting?). it's this sentence i don't like:

The Freegan dumpster diving frenzy that is occurring across the United States and other countries is attributed to the higher cost of fuel and food where consumers are looking to save money and the environment.

which is bullshit. wasn't the point of freeganism (stop me if i'm wrong here) to remove yourself from the evils of a "complex, industrial, mass-production economy driven by profit, abuses of humans, animals, and the earth abound at all levels of production"? not to save money.

and the higher cost of food? in the pursuit of ever more competitive prices (also ever higher profit margins, don't forget what's actually important), food production has been industrialised to the point of disaster. and, as said above, that is what freeganism is against. there's a reason why 'ethical' food (organic, locally grown and fairly traded) is expensive. it's because that's how much it costs. maybe the problem is that people aren't willing to pay the actual (and fair) cost of food anymore.

as for attributing it to the higher cost of fuel, and claiming to be trying to save the environment in the same sentence, how does that make any sense? infact, what does the high cost of fuel have to do with anything?

finally, dumpster diving is not a frenzy occuring across anywhere. worded like that it sounds like a current trend. or a fad. dumspter diving has been happening as long as "supply and demand" has existed, and not since the media got interested and people started giving it stupid names.

"The best things in life are Freegan". no, the best things in life aren't things at all.

anyway, i'm going to go back to being nice now. constructive and helpful. hopefully.

18.06.2008: someone baited me with this horrible piece of writing, which is for the best part nothing but a nasty and simplistic reaction to the mainstream media coverage of dumspter diving (shouldn't you know better?). i was going to ignore it, which is the best way to deal with people who pride themselves on being opinionated and politically incorrect (annoying), but there was something about the slew of unnecessary insults and badly thought out arguements i just couldn't let go. and it's important for two reasons, specifically it shows how easily dumpster diving is misunderstood (she has completely missed the point), and more generally it shows how wrong things go when people forge their opinions based solely on what the media says.

so, her main point seems to be summed up by the fourth paragraph:

But you must wonder if the compactors, freecyclers, freegans, frugalists, garbage pickers, and dumpster divers really just hate their own lives, and hate others for being happy, enjoying an increasing standard of living, or building a life of luxury. For certain, they hate the advancements that capitalism brings us, and they hate that consumers have so many choices for making their lives better, and oftentimes at lower costs and using less time.

there are a number of assumptions being made that need pointing out. the first is that all dumpster divers have a choice regarding their situation, which is clearly not true. the majority of homeless people are not homeless by choice. and when a student is heavily in debt, can you blame them for living off garbage that no one else wants? (or should only the upper class be allowed education?)

the term "freegan" does imply choice, but her knowledge of freegans seems limited to the unsurprisingly narrowminded media attention they've recieved. this is probably where the second asumption comes from, that freegans are unambitious, lazy, and don't contribute to society. presuming so reduces everyone down to nothing but consumers. many freegans do have jobs, and many also contribute to society in ways that can't be measured by economics, and in ways that benefit the whole of humanity, not just the top 5%. what they definately don't do is hurt the bottom 80%. dumpster divers are not "bums/freeloaders/losers", they're not living off others in a way that deprives anyone of anything (apart from maybe each other, if they get too greedy). they simply live off the waste, the stuff that someone else has decided they don't wont and rather than passing it on to someone in need (as 'food not bombs' does) has attempted to selfishly destroy it. dumpster divers cause no harm, we just take advantage (something all good capitalists should understand). we reduce waste that would otherwise go to landfill and help feed a few hungry mouths. so why the spiteful comments? where is her hate coming from?

well she's clearly annoyed about the words that we apparently call ourselves, and here me and her might be able to agree - i hate these words too. there's nothing worse than a loaded word (such as freegan or frugal) being blanket applied to a large and diverse group of people, especially if it leads to all of the above assumptions. but who was it exactly that called us frugal? or even freegan for that matter? was it one of us using the "propagandist we"? or was it the mindless media, attracted to catchy names and over simplified concepts, like flies to shit? and anyway freecycling is just a scaled up gift economics. don't be so fucking uptight and selfish.

apparently i hate other people's "happiness". unlike the wrath the dumpster divers seem to have incurred, the only hate i have is for those who intentionally or knowingly cause harm. why do we have to hate each other? is there not room enough for all our worlds to coexist? the "advancements" that capitalism has brought us include a grotesque wealth disparity (national and international), sweatshop labour, to the brink of environmental disaster, the destruction of public space and a marketing machine so strong it permeates our lives completely. it leaves very little room for much all else. so no, i guess we can't coexist.

sure, if you win the international birth lottery (congratulations, but don't try and tell me you're affluence comes from hard work) you can live a life of luxury, even an ethical one if you're rich enough, but it's still at the expense of other people. and unfortunately, for her argument at least, we can't all have elitist jobs such as "physicists, accountants, lawyers, doctors, mechanics, insurance agents" (i think we'd be better doing away with at least three of those anyway). where would your life of luxury be without the factory workers and the service industry toiling away beneath you (yes, like slaves) for little reward.

another one of my favourite paragraphs:

These free-wandering types strike the average person as being losers who don't want to work a job and who can't make it in the world of hard work and achievement. So they conjure up every excuse to "live the simpleton life," exclaiming that it "makes them happy" to be nothing, have nothing, and strive for nothing.

whilst speaking for the "average person". smooth. so am i right to conclude from this that all human progress and endeavour leads to materialism? how does she dare claim to know what can and can't make other people happy? and it doesn't take looking at many surveys to show that all our fantastic progress hasn't actually made us any happier.

Of course, foraging for food involves two things worth pointing out: trespassing on private property uninvited, and opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is that it takes a lot of time to bypass the efficiencies and conveniences of capitalism, and revert to barbarian ways.

as mentioned above, capitalism is only convenient for the top few perecent of the population, those who live a "life of luxury" (and were most likely born into it), whilst everyone else in the world struggles and scrapes. as for being barbaric, i think you'll find it is capitalism that is "brutal, cruel, warlike [and] insensitive". no one ever started a war because they didn't want something.

as for trespassing, dumpster diving (especially this aspect of it) is legal in nearly all countries. but let's not get started on the flimsy concept of 'private property', which is for a completely different and much angrier discussion.

the 'article' falls completely to pieces by the end, ranting on about the "abundances of the marketplace are not a reason to condemn the human race and reduce yourself to living like a pauper", which makes no sense at all. it's those abundances (and unavoidable failings of supply and demand economics) that creates so much waste and enable us to live like we do. she finishes with a bitter as anything:

Just don't expect that I won't notice - and criticize - their hatred for humans, progress, and our civilized way of life.

i wonder if she also hates zero-carbon footprint people for not embracing cheap flights? or vegans for boycotting animal cruelty? human progress is taking our world apart. and i wont apologise for sounding like an anarcho-primitivist when it's the world, and hence the whole of humanity, that is at stake. your "civilized way of life" is destroying forests, poisoning and emptying the sea, polluting the air and, thanks to globalization, oppressing your fellow humans. it also seems to be making you quite hateful. there is nothing civilized about you at all.

17.06.2008: it has been a while since we went out, due to visitors and a general lack of morale. we were going to cycle all the way down to a large supermarket but by the time it was dark enough we were too tired to bother. so just the locals then:

9 organic bread rolls (65g each)
8 ciabatta buns
6 buns
3 herby halfbaked baguettes
2 durum breads
1 pumpkin bread
4 danish swirls
2 pecan danish
10 bite size brownies (200g)
240g chocolate slices
32 bananas
1 cucumber
750g green peas
75g pine nuts
2 cloths for cleaning glass

"if you're going to write a story, not just a list, write that one of the dumpster had a pungent smell"

12.06.2008: from elsewhere:

...i also pulled two grapefruit from the dumpster on my way out of the store, whilst the guy who'd just thrown them out had his back turned sweeping the floor. what i couldn't grab without making a noise, in broad daylight with plenty of people around, was a load of tomatoes, salad, mushrooms, bananas and more grapefruit. dumpster diving in this town would be all too easy. but then, walking around with our packs, sleeping bags, etc (ungdomshuset tshirt and "still not loving police") we do rather stand out. really, we're rather passe. i'm not sure why so many people stare at us so intently. now the train arrives and julie comes running back from the shop, clutching three oranges and you know exactly where she got them from.

...after breakfast we drove in hirtshals to buy lunch and order dinner. i wandered around inspecting the various dumpsters. all the major supermarkets were collected conveniently near to each other. the fakta actually bothered to lock their dumpster, but the padlocks were so rusted by the sea air you could probably break them with a pair of childrens safety scissors. it was full of milk, and the kids in the car opposite were very interested in what i was doing. the huge superbrugsen dumpster had no locks and contained some fruit and veg, but it was midday and some old woman was staring at me from her balcony above. we let it be.

10.06.2008: we must look a bit sussed, walking around at 1am in shorts and tshirt but wearing gloves. at least we're not dressed all in black. well, not all the time.

six stores and all we get is:

500g tricolore pasta
1.8kg chopped cabbage
2 sandwich loaves
3 loaves
45 buns
tin of tuna
2 litre of milk
bag of carrots
bag of fried onion stuff

actually it's a great amount of bread, and our freezer is now totally full. but we're seriously lacking a (dare i say it) 'sustainable' quantity of fruit and veg. it's time to get the bicycles out.

09.06.2008: here is a cautionary tale for the english dumpsters divers (and welsh too, i suppose), regarding the Theft Act of 1968 and the depressingly hypocritical Waste Recycling Group, contracted by Wrexham Council who claim to be "committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way - setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill". if that's true, why were police called when Genny Bove, 46, refused to return four plastic garden chairs to the general waste skip (garbage destined for landfill) where she'd found them? and why, after the council have decided to not press charges (there are signs around the centre threatening civil action under the Environmental Protection Act for people removing items, surely a joke?), have the police filed for prosecution under Section 1 of the the 1968 Theft Act?

the first question is easy to answer, bureaucracy and narrowmindedness (apparently "rooting through skips ... is clearly very dangerous and not allowed under any circumstances"), reinforcing the fact that the system is broken and matters need to be taken into your own hands. the second question is also easy, and can be answered with more than just "police are scum". firstly, the incident was reported as theft, and as such it's up to the police to prosecute or not (could the council possibly retract their claim of theft? or are they happy sitting back and acting like they've done the right thing by choosing not to press charges?). also, police work on some sort of (ridiculous) points system, where arresting and prosecuting a dumpster diver for theft is worth just as much as apprehending a murderer. just keep telling yourself the system works, i dare you.

genny wrote to me the following:

First, the police tried to 'sort it out nice and quickly' by getting me to accept a caution which I refused. Following that, they arrested, photographed, DNA'd, fingerprinted and interviewed me (no comment no comment) under caution on tape; have bailed me three times so far while they proceed with their 'investigation'; threatened to get a search warrant because - and with admirably straight faces - 'we need to recover the stolen goods and return them to their rightful owner' (so they can go back to the landfill skip presumably); tried to set up a video identity parade.

I'm on bail, reporting back on Friday so that the sergeant from a police station 5 miles away can come to Wrexham, and make me read out on tape or write on proper police forms, the signed statement I sent to the police a couple of weeks back. I decided to make a statement to the police saying I'd taken the chairs from the skip, thinking that this would save them the trouble of doing an identity parade, but a signed statement isn't good enough for the police, it was apparently impossible for an officer in Wrexham police station to take a statement, the local police station dealing with the case doesn't have tape facilities, hence the sergeant being required to come all the way to Wrexham to do the honours.

that's what you pay taxes for. you can read about her 'adventures' on indymedia (update) and the bbc (also various other places, email me if you want the list).

you have to admire her stance, and her conviction that she's done no wrong. respect for fighting the good fight. i personally would have legged it long before the police got involved, leaving the chairs if necessary. and failing that i'd have accepted the caution and had done with. actually, fuck that - "A simple caution is not a criminal conviction, but it will be recorded on the police database. It may be used in court as evidence of bad character, or as part of an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) application. The record will remain on the police database along with photographs, fingerprints and any other evidence taken". what a nightmare.

i'll post again when i get an update on the case.

29.05.2008: to prove that where there is will, there is always free food:

28 bananas
3 herby baguettes
2 litres milk
5 cartons of apple juice
rocket
3 cauliflowers
1 lettuce
250g cheese slices (diet cheese, not cheese at all - but shiny!)
10 onions
8 leeks
500g mince meat
400g marinated pig arse
3 lemons
400g chocolate spread
instant coffee
8 peppers (7 red, 1 green)
2 cucumbers
5 apples
1kg strawberry yoghurt
1 rye bread
11 carrots
5kg potatoes (most having seen better days)
sandwich bags
20 litres of soil
2 dish clothes

that was two hours of diving time, plus a whole lot of planning (hi-tech stuff, like studying satellite photos, but not extending as far as comparing architectural blueprints). we visited six stores, but due to shortfalls in our contortionist department (also a lack of lube) we only managed to access five sets of dumpsters. two of which were completely devoid of food, whilst another two were seriously lacking. the last dumpster, the one with the most food, was mostly just skanky. it's a store you'd think twice of eating from, even if you took the food straight from the shelf. but tonight we are in no position to be picky.

there was a lot we threw back too. there was half a litre of sunflower oil but it had already been opened. same with the hot chocolate powder and the cereal. there were also some tomatoes and plums that weren't rescueable (if that's a word). and you may have noticed the meat. this is emil's new experiment. and i find it hard to disagree with (incidentally, i was surprised when i heard of vegans who don't take dairy from the trash, because i've met very few vegans who are so for dietary reasons. my bad?). he's being very selective about the meat he takes, sensible and all that. and really, we do find a lot of meat that's only just gone out of date and looks good. it smelt real good too, those marinated steaks. but no, it's not for me.

the strangest thing happened too. whilst we were rummaging through our most promising dumpster of the night a car pulled up, blocking our exit. at first i thought it was just turning around, but then lights went out and the engine stopped. it was a man and a woman, just out of view, and they started talking for a while. i had no idea what they were saying or doing, so i suggested we go and hide (in retrospect this would have been terrible). but then emil continues going through the dumpster again, deciding to ignore them. fair enough, because the woman reciprocated and walked straight past us, going through the gate behind which i would have hidden. but then the man comes up right behind me, i can feel him pushing me trying to get a look into the bin. that's when it all went a bit weird and we decided to leave. there was something odd about his eyes, and the way he moved his head. like he was stoned or something. he asked how much moneys worth of food we find, 500kr? we told him way less. then left as fast as was politely possible. it was a shame too, because some of the bin bags in the dumpster were heavy.

27.05.2008: i think what we're dealing with here is a minor crisis. something strange has happened, and the result is that we're not getting any food. the dumpsters are there all the same, like they always are, but now they're only half full. the same trash is there, all those plastic bags and junk from the staff canteen, but the food is missing. all of it.

we've come up with a few potential scenarios. for instance, perhaps someone has successfully negotiated with the supermarkets (our two locals at least) to take away their waste food for use in a people's kitchen. i'm pretty sure this would require a law change, and the supermarkets would sooner give their food for pig swill (supporting their own interests, etc) than to hungry people. also, we'd be finding all the food that's actually become inedible. there's normally plenty of it, but not anymore.

there's always the chance that the supermarkets have stopped being so wasteful. perhaps they have learnt proper stock control. if this were the case then there would be no complaints from our corner, so it's probably not the case (like my logic? it's impeccable).

further scenarios get into darker territory, what if we've been rumbled? what if they've decided to finally crack down on us, not by locking the bins (the padlocks are there, but unlocked, wouldn't we just get around them if they were used?), but by hoarding the food until the garbage trucks arrive. this is us getting paranoid, but it's the only reasonable explanation we're yet to come up with.

last night all we got was a litre of peach melba yoghurt and two apples. we picked up a couple of kilos of overly sprouting potatoes, which we're going to plant not eat. there was a bag with foodstuffs in, but it had been filled with yoghurt. it wont do.

so what's the plan? we've been checking the dumpsters every night, just incase they're getting lazy about throwing stuff out. just incase it's a weird anomaly and it suddenly goes back to business as usual. failing that, we need to start going further afield, investigate other stores, etc. get on our bikes. that's all there is for it. hopefully this isn't new store policy or a city wide phenomena.

25.05.2008: it seems like we've been going out every night. and it feels like we've not really been getting anywhere. over the last few days we've been greeted by empty dumpster after empty dumpster, and what we have found we've really had to rip and dig for. the tally looks something like this:

15 bananas
2 melons
2 lemons
2 kiwis
2 oranges
grapes
5 tomatoes
6 carrots
3 broccolis
a thyme plant
2 long rye breads
2 bunches of roses (tasty!
roll of cling film (plastic wrap, whatever)
50 disposable cleaning napkins (very disposable, apparently)

i was especially happy with the plastic wrap, that stuff is indispensable when you have to remove a lot of your produce from its packaging. having said that, most stuff is perfectly fine without its packaging. but for cheese and chopped salad stuffs, just brilliant.

here's some colour, to brighten up the otherwise dull post:

firstly we have some kind of omlette made with dumpstered eggs, tomatoes, potatoes and cheese (a little too much cheese looking at the photo, but it sure was tasty). then our dumpstered oatmeal and banana cookies (including honey from the trash too). third comes our almighty sunday roast that fed five people (not inluding what was eaten as leftovers the next day). the meal used carrots, broccoli, green beans, parsnips, potatoes, artichokes, flour, eggs, bread and leeks, all from the trash (we'd bought mushroom sauce, almonds, celery and peas - not a bad ratio). lastly and leastly, fruit cocktails using the pineapple and melon we'd found. the campari came courtesy of the mexican embassy, in a strange and round about way. please don't think we're that posh. the stuff is vile.

23.05.2008: one of our ongoing projects (meaning: one that hasn't gotten anywhere) has been to develop some kind of dumpster logo. something akin to these:

the idea is to create a method of communication between fellow dumspter divers, to create a lifesize map, thrown over the 'real' city, marking out the mounds of trash that lay hidden down alleys and behind high fences, to plot the hidden dumpster landscape. some wordy crap like that.

then the other week i discovered that a dude called posterchild has already created one (great blog, btw). it's gorgeous too, but aesthetics aside, it has a few funadmental flaws. i feel really bad critising the work, but i think it's important that we analyse the implications of using such a stencil and weigh these up against its potential benefits.

the intention is that the symbol alerts other divers to a good dumpster, and it even has variations to describe the different types of loot you can expect to find inside (food, work materials, etc), which is genius. however, and this is my main concern, it is more likely to alert the owner of the dumpster, in a way far beyond simply leaving a mess - it explicitly says "we raid your trash". chances are they wont be happy and they'll take measures against us. technically it also breaks one of the basic rules of dumspter diving, that you should clean up after yourself and leave no trace you were ever there.

the other thing is that i can't conceive of other divers actually seeing the symbol unless they were already heading for the dumpster, flashlight in hand and bags at the ready.

so what do we suggest? firstly, the symbol needs to less obvious (but still universally interpretable) and much simpler, simple enough for anyone to draw or spray in a matter of seconds. secondly, it needs to be away from the dumpster and be directional - a symbol (or series of symbols) that can be seen from a main road and followed. just like a treasure hunt, except with real treausre.

20.05.2008: finally something to write home about:

2 tubs of yoghurt
4 eggs
1 litre milk
500g cheese (gouda)
16 bread rolls
9 ciabatta rolls
1 really nice loaf
9 red onions
celery
4 bunches of spring onions
2 pears
icing sugar
panty liners

the milk leaked everywhere, which is annoying because i'd stupidly put it into a paper bag. the cheese was slightly mouldy, but that was easily fixed. the celery is a little limp, but it'll be fine for soups etc. there was so many onions, we took 2kg and ended up with 9 after taking out any that were a little bad.

we struggled though, sifting through so much garbage. it's not normally this difficult. we honestly didn't think we'd managed to get much until we got home, cleaned it up and wrote it down.

we're spoilt, we know.

19.05.2008: we've had a couple of dry days. yesterday we all went out and only came back with 30 bananas (which sounds a lot but isn't when you see how many are in the dumpster, these guys are still green) and 7 muffins. we threw the muffins out this morning because, well, they were kind of disgusting (who eats that shit anyway?), and we've already eaten half of the bananas.

just now we came back with 18 eggs (the crate of 30 had been dropped), a nice round brie, and eight plants. eggs and cheese are nice, but it's nothing really. we checked three places and found nothing but garbage. like it was a public holiday today, but it wasn't.

someone had been to one of the dumpsters before us, their presence given away by a trail of cream cartons discarded along our route and a few ripped bags in the dumpster. i presume they had trouble finding stuff also, hence the ripped bags, so i doubt it's a case of them taking all the food. leaving the cream was just amateurish though, they should have either tested it at the dumpster and not taken it, or disposed of it all properly, not just leaving it out on the street.

unless this a new way to mark a bad dumpster - a pot of open coffee cream at its entrance means don't bother checking. but probably not.

18.05.2008: welcome to the launch party of our long overdue dumpster diving guide. it's been many months in the making and we've finally decided to put it out there. it's about as comprehensive, helpful and plagiarized (actually, not that plagiarized) as we can make it, so we hope you like it.

comments and feedback will be welcomed. encouraged even. actually they're almost mandatory.

thank you.

to celebrate we are baking vegan banana and oatmeal cookies, finally making use of all those oats and finishing off the browning bananas. if you want one, come get it.

16.05.2008: the stupid dumpster was locked. worse still i could smell the delicious bread, cakes and patisseries trapped within. we struggled with the triangle lock for a while, it moved a little but not enough. we do own a dumpster key, but unfortunately it was attached the wrong persons trousers at the time. i pushed my arm through the arm sized gap at the corner of the lid, hoping to be able to pull out a croissant at least, but all i got was sticky. we'd been there too long already and started to leave, just as voice started to shriek down at us from a window somewhere above us. the courtyard is narrow and annoyingly well lit. i couldn't tell what she was saying so i just ignored her and carried on my way out of there, not rushing, because what was she going to do? i figured that once we were on the street we'd be anonymous and she'd have no idea who we were, but no, she shouted after us. something about us stealing bikes. what the fuck? we shouted back that they were our bikes. she quickly apologised and disappeared back inside.

our bad. especially since it's a very popular downtown dumpster. i guess if the residents were that bothered they'd fix the lock on the courtyard door (you can just push it unlocked)

julie was not to be out done, so we did a very selective dive on the way home at an equally residential location, taking:

carrots
broccoli
jerusalem artichokes
green breans

tonight, we feast.

15.05.2008: if we can't show off a little then what is the point?

making baba ganoush using aubergine, tomatoes and basil, all from the dumpster. apple cake with dumpstered apples, flour and egg. a glistening salad of dumpster food (excluding the mozzarella - when you don't buy food you can occasionally afford such luxuries). and last but not least (visually, definately least) a smooth and creamy dumpster parsnip soup. magic. where we've cheated is with the sugar, garlic and oil, but even that is only a matter of time.

now all i can taste, smell and feel is garlic. the first rule of cooking with me is halving the sugar and doubling the garlic. i'm not always the best person to cook with.

luckily the apple cake wasn't my doing.

13.05.2008: how long have we been doing this? and sometimes i'm still shocked by it. like tonight, when we come across these two dumpsters filled to the brim with food, haul as much as we can out, and we don't even make a dent.

10 eggs
21 organic apples
3kg potatoes (various sizes, mostly small)
18 parsnips
2 pineapples
8 bananas
1 melon
21 baby cucumbers
2 organic cucumbers
durum bread loaf
15 assorted bread rolls
2 corn on the cobs
1kg red onions
5 nectarines
masses of tomatoes (all on the vine)
1ltr milk

and apart from the nectarines everything is in perfect condition, just like what you might buy off the shelf. and apart from the fruit and the eggs (which were underneath the dumpster, never forget to check what the lazy employees might have dropped) we could have taken double or even triple of everything. one of the bins was crowned with leeks, two layers deep. and just beneath them was masses of broccoli ("beneath the leeks, the broccoli!"). i just can't understand it. but if you think we take too much (we feed many mouths), you need to see these dumpsters. imagine this times ten:

so tomorrow we make parsnip soup, cucumber relish and baba ganoush. then eat potatoes, like kings. or rather very rich vegetarians. who don't believe in such evil hierarchical systems that give birth to such abhorrent wretches as kings.

12.05.2008: i've been away, and as such have been missing out on some of the action. on tuesday, or maybe wednesday, and friday, the siblings plus visiting friend from canada went out and reclaimed the following:

4 aubergines
2 basil plants
carton of (really good) mushrooms
good washing powder
reasonably good instant coffee
two bags of ciabattas

then on saturday, with another visitor from canada (who was quite excited and extremely impressed), the fridge was restocked again:

several buns
pot of kiwi yoghurt
milk
8 leeks
1 cucumber
4 lemons
many tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
green beans
several large and small potatoes
jerusalem artichokes (jordskokker pa dansk)
very many bananas
1 grapefruit
6 plants (including an olive tree)

the actual numbers may vary, but it was a good amount of food to come home to. there's nothing better than cooking up a good free feast for guests, especially when they're really into it themselves. banana bread was also made, and several glasses of lemonade.

as for me, we did a small amount of early morning diving (torches not necessary) in the oldest town in denmark. the first night we found two large bags of apples (for apple crumble of course), some of those crispy things that are like a slice of bread but are supposed to be healthier, a bag of buns, and flowers. the next night (rather i should say morning as the sun had already rose to a considerable height) we were starving and toured the supermarkets again. we found a large bottle of lemonade (i was also very thirsty), a bag of carrots, several loaves of bread, some pitas and probably something else (did i mention i was also drunk?). we were round the back of a fakta and their bin was difficult to access because it was in some kind of wooden box, which is a shame because it was full of leeks and melons, not that they'd have been much use without a knife anyway. then i noticed some guy staring at me through a crack in the door, so we hightailed it out of there. also we should have known it was too late/early to raid a bakery, since they'd be in there baking bread already, but alex was determined (hey, this is her home town, she's allowed). ten seconds later she comes out, being told "nej nej nej" by some grumpy employee. nevermind.

also i took mild (very mild) offense at this:

This, and any derivative communities are just crying to be trolled to hell and back.

The premise? Since we all know meat is murder and since clearly capitalism is evil, we should all get our food from dumpsters. Rather than go with the old school term "dumpster diving", these hip young fellas have coined a more PC term, "Freeganism".

what's with the petty spitefulness? and what is it to you? i wish we could speak on behalf of all the "derivative communities", but apart from pointing out that actually a lot of people dumpster diver because they're very poor (something that's ignored by the term "freegan"), we can't. instead i'll just reaffirm how i personally hate the term (perhaps it was coined to avoid confusion with dumpster diving for information?) and ask what exactly is your point? as our blog demonstrates, it's not about salmonella and "maggot rice", it's about an abundance of fresh food hiding in your backstreets. it's about scarcity being a lie and the wastefullness of our society.

oh, and also meat being murder has nothing to do with it. capitalism yes, but only after the horrors of the food industry. and thanks for presuming we are both hip and young. but no thanks for presuming we are all male.

i did laugh at the "blood of the bourgeoisie" though.

30.04.2008: now we have a fridge full of bread:

12 spicy buns
9 bread rolls
12 organic ciabatta rolls
4 breads (a yoghurt bread, a sandwich loaf, rye bread )
2 celery
5 organic carrots
lemons
flowers
small pink raincoat

you can tell i didn't go on this dive because of the pink raincoat.

27.04.2008: i'd be lying if i said we always do it by the book. sometimes you're just too drunk or excited to follow the rules properly. i was coming back from a very cheap night out and figured it was the perfect time to check our new favourite dumpster. it belongs to a posh supermarket, but is situated right in the middle of a residential courtyard, making things tricky.

it was so late that all the courtyard lights were off, which is good, because as i was trying to find the right bin bag, carefully untying its knot, someone walked right past and didn't even notice me. but since there were no lights i decided, perhaps wrongly, that it'd be easier to just take the whole lot. so i did. and it was heavy too.

i suppose the good thing about this supermarket is a large proportion of what they throw out is actually bad (gr, mouldy bread). so after lugging it all home i had to bin a lot of it (again). it was worth it though:

4 half cooked baguettes
2 litres organic milk
1 litre juice
250g coffee beans
coffee cream
18 pitta breads

there was a large box marked with a cross and containing many tubs of "salad" (disgusting creamy mayonnaise stuff) too, but there was obviously something unidentifiably wrong with them, so it was all chucked. all 30+ tubs. and there was some tasty looking slabs of meat. yeah, real tasty. dripping yellow shit all over everywhere. exactly what i want in my kitchen.

23.04.2008: the mission's objective was more aligned with photo reconnaissance for a.. er, media project. but when there's food for the taking, food will be taken:

17 bananas
pack of biscuits
1 loaf
1 apple
grapes
bunch of plants

and kudos to alex who actually jumped in the dumspter to retrieve the buried bananas, despite the nasty smell.

hardest thing to photograph - garbage in the dark.

21.04.2008: sitting here eating my honeydew melon, i feel a little too bourgeoisie to say that we felt a little disappointed with yesterdays 'shopping', it looks like a lot but it didn't fill our fridge and didn't give us much for dinner. i made some simple cheese with the milk, and the scones were delicious, but we craved more. see, we're just as bad as everyone else.

but anyway, we did a double trip and amassed a total of:

8 red onions
10 oranges
1 lemon
3 red peppers
3 litres milk (two organic, all in date)
3 litres of juice
3 litres of different juice cordials
4 potatoes
1 honeydew melon
2kg flour
25 bread rolls
6 chocolate muffins
2 bags of cinammon twirls
360g tube of organic honey
500g brie
250g bag of mayonnaise
toilet clip-on cleaner
2 tubes of colgate toothpaste
1 tube of polos
2 kinder milk slices
bag of chocolates ('twists', like celebrations in england)

lots of food. also lots of not-food. a lot of it was thrown out due to damaged packaging (ripped or opened etc) we took the toilet thing for comedy value and can't fit it, it didn't come with instructions. some of the milk is a bit suspicious since it's still in date, but it's obvious if it's bad when you open it. maybe someone had left it outside the fridge and they then had to throw it out, maybe. if i knew we'd get more milk i'd have made more cheese. and the toothpaste is vile, with "cooling crystals" and everything. it's bright blue and burns your mouth. we normally buy our toothpaste from those expensive hippy shops, so figures.

please remember this is food for four people.

things we turned down include a crazy amount of fresh fettucini, which must have been thrown out for a reason as it was all in date - there were two crates of it. and i wish i'd taken more melons. it looked a bit skanky but it was delicious.

20.04.2008: shopping by the light of the full moon:

4 litres of organic milk
4 rye breads
6 organic ciabatta rolls
3 carrot scones
1kg oats
400g baby potatoes
2 aubergines
snack pack of baby carrots
6 apples
4 kinder milk slices
1 can of beer

when i went to take out our trash (packaging and what apples and potatoes were bad, etc) i couldn't help but notice the obscene amount of food someone had thrown out. there was at least three packs of sliced meat (most half full), a large tub of creme fraiche (barely a third used), a large block of cheese (which would have been edible had it been properly wrapped in foil), and several other unidentified tubs that were all far from empty. and none of it looked bad. you'd be forgiven for thinking we live in a world of plenty. this society has gotten itself into a sad state. affluence has turned everybody into assholes.

18.04.2008: it was a national holiday today, so:

nothing but dirty looks

the one place that was open today was still open. but no one listens to me when i say we're going out diving too early. and it'll get us into trouble.

16.04.2008: halfway home, sometime after 2am, i realise that i'm covered in flour. the front of my jacket is all white and i'm a total mess. i make a half-hearted attempt at brushing it off, doomed to fail, and rip another chunk from the loaf i'm carrying.

we'd been drinking in town, a smokey bar with lighting that made me yearn for my camera, a dingy place that had never made an attempt to remove any graffiti. i hadn't eaten since 5pm. and then only half a sandwich, so when we were kicked out we wandered up the road in search of a nearby bakery. six of us crowded around their dumpster as a guy i'd just met handed out fresh croissants and focaccia. i ate two on our walk to the next bar and they were beautiful. unfortunately we didn't have a bag, so we only took three loaves, unfortuantely also dusted in flour. a slightly dirty coat the next morning is a small price to pay for such good bread.

and to think i almost spent 50kr on a falafel

13.04.2008: we ran out of bread, so into the dumpster again. we had a nice walk around christiania, drinking a few beers and killing time, before heading out to the supermarkets. we can report that this is a bad idea. constantly needing to piss while out dumpster diving is no fun. sure there's plenty of places to piss if need be, but it's just not cool. and for the record, pissing near a dumspter is absolutely not on.

we tried the huge supermarket that used to offer us unlimited bread, which changed hands sometime in the last year, but again there was nothing. it appears they don't bake fresh bread all day anymore. also their new dumpsters are huge and unneedingly too deep. there's no way i'm getting inside one.

our second stop was cut short when we noticed someone smoking on their balcony several floors above our target dumpster. we've been shouted at before and don't want to aggravate the people living here, this is our favourite spot after all. unfortunately the entrance to this area is well lit, so us walking in all confident and then quickly u-turning must look a little obvious. i'm undecided but i suspect the alternative, creeping around in the shadows, is probably worse.

so third time lucky:

6 bread rolls
4 loaves
2 danish croissant things
2 bunches of leeks
6 broccoli heads
2 red peppers and 1 green
fresh dill
3 bananas
1 organic pear
1 organic orange
pair of non-slip gloves

we took so much broccoli because there was so much, the dumpster was absolutely full of them, and they were all so perfect i felt bad not taking more. i'll be making soup with them later. there was also a massive amount of bananas, but they were all in pretty bad shape, we took a few bunches and ended up with only three good ones. if we could have been bothered to make banana bread straight away we could have used more, but it was late. the non-slip gloves were hilarious, they're almost exactly the same as the ones i was wearing at the time, so much so that julie thought i'd left them in dumpster by accident.

so what do you do when you're in excess of bread, cheese and tomatoes?

make pizza!

you'll also be glad to hear that the kiwis we took from the dumpster the other day are finally becoming ripe enough to eat. as if this world isn't full of enough nonesense already.

10.04.2008: here's an email i received a few weeks ago (it was posted via the comments form so i feel justified in publishing it here):

The only problem I find with "freegans" is that you are taking from those who are truly in need. There are people who have no other choice but to go to a dumpster. they don't even have money to shop at the goodwill. Its like sometime I take clothing to the goodwill and then sometime I put in a dumpster because I know there is someone who needs it. but now we have those who can afford to buy and have decided to take from the truly poor because its in style. You aren't doing anything but taking from the poor and sick who are out there and have nothing but a dumpster to go to. They don't have anything else. They don't have a home to take the "dumpster food" to and wash and cook and make a great gourmet meal. They eat the food right then and there.

then let them eat cake!!

joking aside, she raises some good points, so i figured i'd try and put together some kind of reply. and it's difficult, because obviously i can afford food (quite blatantly, if i can afford a website etc). this is also why i don't like the word "freegan", it implicitly includes a choice and it's inherently middle class. and yes, i'm just a self-hating middle classer.

but anyway given that the statement is true, that by taking food from a dumpster we're directly depriving homeless people, there's a few defensive arguements i can come up with, of varying quality and conviction.

the first, and possibly only solid defense, is participation in Food Not Bombs. this point is self-evident and is well documented elswhere, so i'll leave it at that for now.

looking at the bigger picture, what we're driving at is how wasteful and unsustainable our society is. argueably, supermarket food wastage is one of the least important aspects of this, but it is the tastiest. and also the easiest to highlight in a way that everyone understands - free food. the freegan/dumpster diving contradiction is that its ultimate (succesful) conclusion is that food waste becomes zero. attaining the goal (destruction of the food industry) disables the process and is hence an altruistic goal. so in that sense, yes we're destroying a source of food for homeless people (and ourselves), but we're also trying to establish a society that actually gives a shit about such things and can sustain everybody.

taking a more mathematical angle, you need to balance the loss to homeless people with the losses to the rest of the world caused by participation in the food industry. without significant research this argument is going nowhere, and due to the small scale of freeganism and the large scale of the food industry, it'd probably go nowhere anyway. but i still think it needs consideration, especially if the actual impact of freeganism on the homeless isn't as significant as stated. this is a possibility.

are we really taking food that would otherwise be eaten by someone who needed it more than us? it seems valid enough, but i just don't think it's true. whenever we dive we take only a fraction of what is available (excluding that cheese the other day, our bad) and we distribute when and where possible. but that's beside the point, we go at all times of the day and night and we've never not been able to find food at our regular locations. it works both ways, if other people were eating from the same sources then at times they'd be nothing for us. but that's just not the case. there's enough for everybody, as proven by the contents of the dumpster.

the dumpster never lies etc. let them eat cake, and whatever else we can find.

of course, what we should be doing is growing our own food. and we do, a little. but nevermind.

maybe now is a good time for some panels from an uncle scrooge comicbook entitled "how to make it rich":

any ideas for a better monologue?

09.04.2008: to celebrate action (actually it's more for ease of use) i've done some significant behind-the-scenes technology updates to the blog. this is all dandy, but it has required a change in our web address - we're now at
http://www.emoware.org/dumpster-diving/

subtle i know. but if you link to us or bookmark us or whatever, could you please update :] ..thanking you very much.

sigh, i wish i'd just built the blog properly to begin with. but nevermind.

08.04.2008: i fucking love this city:

4.9kg cheese
6 cucumbers
cauliflower
a tub and a half of mushrooms
lettuce
rye bread
4 oranges

it was a quick dive, half due to the rain and half due to the best dumpster this side of town. with our bags full of cheese and cucumbers, where else could we go? we took a very small fraction of the cucumbers, and they are all perfect. i'm thinking that perhaps we should have taken more and made relish or something. the cheese is just amazing:

and i do feel a bit bad that we took so much, it's a little greedy, but rather that than it rotting on a trash heap. we wont let it go to waste. and if you want some, feel free to pop round and get cheesed up.

one of the three dumpsters was full to the brim (it was literally all you could see inside) with cat food. we almost took some just for the hell of it, but it was a little too ridiculous.

actually, we've talked about setting up a live dumpster contents directory (i.e. "dumpster 0438 currently contains nothing but cat food"). if done well it could be brilliant, but it would require a large 'always on' user base. the time scales are much too short to be practical. an SMS network would work better, but i imagine that would be too costly. any ideas?

06.04.2008: we've returned to copenhagen and the old posse is back together, both the reason to celebrate and the party:

as a welcome home gift emil has given us each a netto work shirt, which he'd found in a dumpster a while back (along with a netto fleece). now we can go undercover. in our absence he's also found a dumpster key, this is all great news.

so, for our first trip out (and with new housemate alex) we headed to a nearby irma whose dumpsters we'd failed at raiding before. we'd been given a tip off and had to reinvestigate. previously we hadn't the guts to try all the residential entrances, so after a small amount of fumbling we were in. surrounded by so many kitchen and living room windows i felt a bit vulnerable, but it was gorgeous, all these twisting paths and gardening stuff. we were just about to give up when i found the bin clearly marked as theirs. it turns out what we'd seen through the locked gate was their trash, complete with their trademark tough black plastic bags that, amongst other things, contained:

3 bags of bread rolls
3 small posh loaves
roll of filo pastry
bag of ground coffee
9 oranges

we made a premature exit because a resident was wandering around and the last thing we wanted was a scene. we love our new bin too much.

next we tried an old favourite, the supermarket down the way that's recently changed hands. the layout is the same but they've upgraded the dumpsters with padlocks and technology. they're also much deeper than before. we didn't take anything, too much meat apparently (i was too busy taking photos), but we'll be back there for sure.

so as not to end the night on a bummer we visited the first store we ever dumpstered from. it was like coming home, and our take was suitably brilliant:

1 litre orange juice
1.5 litre mixed fruit juice
9kg tomatoes
2 tubs of kiwis (too hard to eat yet)
red lettuce
bag of carrots
5 tom's chocolate turtles
4 cans of beer (tuborg)

yeah, beer. we finally found beer. it was a truly magical moment. an employee had bought them back in january and they'd been left (presumably) in the staff room. there was a bunch of other junk in the bin that also had the telltale green sticker, so i guess they just had their bimonthly clean out.

there's a nice demonstration of the fruit and vege. tomorrow we make soup and sauce.

so. we've been gone a year and a half, and a lot has happened in our absence (namely ungdomshuset and a whole load of riots). i was a bit worried it'd be a very different scene, but so far it's just the same. emil tells me that it's bigger now, that people hold dumpster diving lessons and someone's created an online dumpster map (that was our idea), so i'm sure there's also more hostility towards us. but nevermind that, it's damn good to be back.

15.02.2008: yeah, or maybe not:

13.02.2008: i did a short interview with a woman from CNN last night (yeah, i'm totally scene), who was doing research for an article on dumpster diving and freeganism. one question i answered particularly badly, about the increasing trend in dumpster diving, so i thought i'd email her a better response:

from talking to people on my various travels (ok, mostly just over the internet) i get the feeling that dumpster diving used to be a lot more common than it is now, especially in north america where it's become difficult since stores started using trash compactors and incinerators. but at the same time there has been a definite increase in people talking about it, and especially in the media. i think this is almost solely down to climate change becoming the new trendy topic. it's opened up a space to talk about our affluence and how wasteful our society is, and that naturally leads to things like dumpster diving and freeganism, removing yourself from the loop, etc, and looking for alternatives.

but then, i guess this is redundant because you know why you're writing an article about it better than i do ;]

thoughts, anyone?

18.01.2008: we've moved up north, into the forest, where it's cold and snowing hard. this means two things. firstly that we're no longer part of the toronto food not bombs, and secondly there wont be any dumster diving for a few months. the main reason is illustrated nicely by this photo:

which is a direct result of the second reason - bears. the third reason is there are no supermarkets, grocery stores, or even convenience stores anywhere near us. the nearest is half an hours drive down the road. and we don't drive. so fuck that.

fortunately i'm working in a kitchen for the moment, so i get to pick up all kinds of scraps (well, stuff a bit better than scraps). it's pretty cool except i'm not actually getting paid for it. but then paid work sucks anyway.

so i guess this means we'll be catching back up with you in the spring. until then..