Q: Are you seriously so cheap that you will trashpick for food?
A: Personally, we don't dumpster dive because we're starving. We are not starving, or even hungry. You might think rooting around in dumpsters is disgusting. Sure, it can be gross. But you know what's more disgusting? Perfectly good food being thrown out and heaped on landfills when there are people who are starving. According to sources in this Culinate article by Jonathan Bloom, more than 40 percent of all food produced in America is not eaten and 25% of the food that enters our homes is not eaten. For me, dumpster diving is less about saving money and more about keeping edible, nutritious food from rotting in a landfill. Too many resources go into producing and transporting food in the first place for it to just get thrown away at the end.
Q: Isn't dumpster diving super sketchy?
A: Trying to reclaim some of the food that ends up in dumpsters is risky. It's illegal in many places. Find out what the law is where you are. You have to go after the store is closed or at least at a time when there's likely to be food in the dumpster, so it might be dark and creepy. The worst case scenario is that a store employee sees you and calls the police for trespassing, I guess. Store employees practice very varied levels of turning a blind eye. Mostly their problem is their liability for dumpster divers getting hurt in/around the dumpster or getting sick from bad food.
Q: Eh, so, where might one dumpster dive?
A: Grocery stores, supermarkets, specialty stores...you're gonna need open dumpsters, not locked trash compactors. A great place to go is a store that sounds like Schrader Moe's, because their over-packaged foodstuffs make it easy to reclaim items. In this post I'm focusing on food, but obviously there are many non-foods to be saved from dumpsters too.
Q: Isn't the food in dumpsters bad/expired/rotten?
A: Sure, sometimes. But expiration dates are just numbers that lawyers make up to cover their asses, and usually food is totally fine for a bit of time after that date. They can't legally sell it, but that doesn't mean it's not worth anything. With Schrader Moe's overpackaging, if one pepper out of four in a container is weird, they throw out the whole container.
Q: What treasures have you found in dumpsters?
A: Dumpstering is inconsistent. Sometimes you will be overwhelmed with how MUCH there is. And many times you will walk away with empty, dirty hands. Here is part of a good haul from Schrader Moe's:
Does that look like good food to you? Damn straight it does. We ate roasted red peppers for weeks.
Q: Can you give me any tips on how to dumpster dive?
A: Lots of people are much more experienced at this than I am. But my tips are: wear closed-toe shoes, bring a headlamp/flashlight, and don't make a mess. Do it discreetly and do it often.
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