Dumpster Diving

My version of Happy Lifestyle Design asks three questions: How do I shelter myself, How do I give and receive value, and how do I care for my embodied soul? This post is about the last question.

I thought very carefully about how to phrase my question. What I eat and where I get it from matter . . . and there is more. Industrialized societies that are heavily influenced by European cultures tend to separate the mind, body and soul. I have decided not to. What I eat and where I get it from, how much I sleep, what sort of exercise I do, the relationships I have, balancing all of these contributes to happiness for me. And so I ask myself, how do I care my embodied soul?

I happened to talk to a friend of mine about van dwelling and the philosophies behind avoiding consumerism. He directed me to the NYC Freegan Meetup Group. The group meets twice a month to present Freeganism 101 and to give Dumpster Diving tours. I joined the group for a presentation and tour on Monday, April 15, 2013 (yes, tax day, how ironic). Before we left on the tour, several members of the group gave us some background about Freeganism and what dumpster diving is all about. I managed to keep it together but inside I was screaming, "Glory hallelujah!" I had found my people.

We hit the streets at about 9:30pm. Timing is important because the dump trucks arrive by around 11pm to pick up what the supermarkets throw out. We visited four locations. Le Pain Quotidian gets my highest praise. Someone there had gathered the best of the bread that was being thrown out into double-lined clear plastic trash bags then thoughtfully placed those bags in clear sight on top of the rest of the rubbish. In all of the locations, most of the food was still in its packaging and was, perhaps, one or two days past the sell by date. By the time I decided I had to go home, my bags were overflowing and I felt overwhelmed by it all. There was SO MUCH! I can eat really well and avoid consumerism!

Watch this short video to get a better sense of what Dumpster Diving and Freeganism are all about.

UPDATE: Youtube has pulled my video for reasons that I cannot fathom. This is really unfortunate. I hope to figure out why and get the video back up.