Whether it’s due to growing environmental principles or
increasingly empty wallets, some UCSD students are flocking to trash as the
answer to their consumption woes.
Freeganism, a term coined in the 1990s, is a way of living
in which individuals reject the consumerist economy by practicing
unconventional strategies such as Dumpster diving for food. Now with increased
concern for the Earth’s climate, freeganism has become more popular among
students like Eleanor Roosevelt College junior Justin Lowenthal, a Sixth College
resident advisor who organized an educational event on freeganism for students
during Fall Quarter 2007.
“Personally, it’s a value of mine to be more conservative,”
Lowenthal said. “That’s what I want to introduce to other people so they can
understand the impact they have being a consumer in our society.”
In a similar effort to educate others, UCSD alumnus Marko
Manriquez created www.freegankitchen.com, a Web site where he hosts a gourmet
cooking show using only ingredients taken from Dumpsters.
“The
is a culture of enormous consumer appetites,” Manriquez said in an e-mail. “We
consume and waste so much but it never really seems to satisfy our desires. I
wanted to share this revelation with others. I created [Freegan Kitchen] as a
way to both satirize our consumer media bubble while at the same time empower
others to alternative forms of sustainability — all the while leveraging the
tools of the system to critique itself.”
In addition to offering cooking tips and insight into the
movement’s main philosophies, Freegan Kitchen also includes an educational
video on how to Dumpster dive. According to Manriquez, looking through
Dumpsters is the most exhilarating part of freeganism.
“It’s fun and kind of a rush when you first get started and
don’t know what to expect — like a scavenger hunt,” Manriquez said. “You name
it, chances are it’s lying in a Dumpster somewhere.”
Although many UCSD students are interested in freeganism,
Lowenthal said both issues of time commitment and local security can impede
students looking to try out the lifestyle.
“It’s a lot easier to go to the store, you know?” Lowenthal
said. “Especially here in
many resources to get food because the grocery stores are a little stricter on
their waste regulation. Because [of] the upscale nature of this place and [the
fact that] it’s not that liberal here, it’s just harder to pull off.”
Manriquez, who is hoping to finish a Web-based widget
application by Earth Day that Dumpster divers can use to work around closed-off
Dumpsters, agrees that this is a growing concern among freegans.
“This has become a problem as freeganism becomes a victim of
its own success in terms of more and more Dumpsters becoming fenced off and
locked up,” Manriquez said.
According to Matt Clark, the Villa La Jolla Drive Ralphs
service manager, store policy bars individuals from rummaging through the
store’s Dumpsters.
discovers people looking through its Dumpsters two or three times a week, all
employees are instructed to tell Dumpster divers to leave, and call mall
security if they refuse.
Although Dumpster diving is illegal and, according to many
supermarket policies, a liability if an individual becomes ill after eating
discarded products, individuals can only technically sue if they can prove
malicious intent of poisoning or contaminating the food. However, Marlon
Geller, a UCSD alumnus and Freegan since 2005 said staying safe is simply a
matter of being aware.
“If you don’t take meat or dairy products out of the
Dumpster this will increase your chances of not getting sick by a long shot,”
Geller said in an e-mail. “But, in general, you can tell if something is
contaminated or not by using your senses. I know it seems too obvious, but look
at it, smell it, sample it.”
While freeganism has caught the attention of many
environmentally concerned students,
junior Andre DaMetz, who learned about the movement from Lowenthal’s seminar
and recently started Dumpster diving, said it is not enough to solve
waste issues.
“I don’t think it will change the situation of all the waste
that goes on in the
DaMetz said. “I think the
does waste a lot of food, and I think by being a freegan, it gives a personal
gratification that you’re not contributing to the massive structural system of
waste. But it’s definitely not popular and I don’t think people will become
freegans just because the concept of jumping into a Dumpster to receive food; I
think there would be health concerns about it.”
According to Manriquez, people make choices about
sustainability in all facets of daily living.
“I think sustainability or ‘being green’ or whatever label
you wish to call it is something that pervades all aspects of life — we are each
faced with the sustainable or not-suitable choice in pretty much every aspect
of our lives,” Manriquez said in an e-mail. “There are many ways of integrating
sustainability into our lifestyle. People just have to get creative and have
fun with it — freeganism is just one way of doing that.”
