BY LORA MAGHANOY, FW Editor

I have to admit: I didn’t know much (if anything)
about freeganism until I saw an episode of
Oprah. Lisa Ling reported. It peaked my interest
for sure.

Months later while in university, the words
“sustainability” and “recycling” took on new
meanings (read: I all of sudden began to care)
and before I knew it, “dumpster diving” were
commonly spoken in my vernacular. Now,
I personally, have never dumpster dived- my
friends have. And while their growing dedication
to obtaining other people’s trash for their own
consumption inspires me, I’ve never had the itch
to jump on in with them.

There is something amazingly poetic about
the notion that “One person’s trash is another
person’s treasure.” The very idea is particularly
relevant today as we become increasingly more
aware of how much we throw away and the
ecological damage it produces.

Freeganism. I’m sure some of you
have heard of it. It’s a lifestyle choice in which
people use alternate methods for living, which
includes the limited involvement or participation
in the economy and a minimal use of resources.
Instead, they focus their attention on issues that
they believe are more pressing – community,
social concern freedom. Freegans (derived
from “free” and “vegans”) collectively believe
that our society is solely based on materialism,
competition, conformity and greed. We revel
in our excess and rarely think twice about it.
Freeganism boycotts this very society.

To learn more about their choices, I ventured
onto their website: http://freegan.info/. I was
immediately interested by the picture on their
homepage- a young woman in a dumpster, with a
bag of vegetables she uncovered in the pile.

“Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic
system where the profit motive has eclipsed
ethical considerations and where massively
complex systems of productions ensure that
all the products we buy will have detrimental
impacts most of which we may never even
consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase
of products from one bad company only to
support another, we avoid buying anything to the
greatest degree we are able,” reads its website.

Freegans abide by several approaches to
practical living:
1. Waste Reclamation
Freegans forage through the excess amounts of
waste our society produces and live off the things
they may find. Known as “urban foraging” or
“dumpster diving,” freegans rummage through
the garbage of retail shops, residences and offices for products that will prove to be useful to them.
The range of products is astounding – food,
clothing, stationary, and furniture- all clean,
safe and usable. By doing this, it attempts to
neutralize the effects of our throwaway culture.
2. Waste Minimization
Freegans are wholly aware of (and greatly
disturbed) by the insatiable amounts of waste the
people of our society create. While reclaiming
the waste as their own proves to be a smart
solution, they take it one step further by
recycling, composting organic matter into topsoil
and repair items instead of discarding them. The
key to this is simple: redistribute. If it no longer
is useful to you, give it to someone who might
find a purpose for it.

3. Eco-Friendly Transportation
A freegan with a car? Not a likely sight. They
understand the ecological impacts of the car and
choose not to take part in it. If a car is absolutely
required, fuelling up on “greisel” or “veggie-oil”
(used fryer oil from restaurants) is the acceptable
way to go about using them. They have groups
dedicated to helping people convert diesel engines
to run on this recycled vegetable oil. 4. Rent

4. Free Housing
“Freegans believe that housing is a RIGHT,
not a privilege,” reads the website. Freegans
often become squatters, occupying abandoned
buildings which cities have boarded up and
remain vacant because they are unable to gain
profit from turning them into housing.

5. Working Less/Voluntary Joblessness
Freegans believe that as workers, they are
contributing to a society that is often overlyobsessed
with obtaining more stuff and paying
the bills. By entering the work force, they are
directly involving themselves in a society they are
trying to avoid.

To some, freeganism might be deemed
too extreme. While sacrificing things that
we’ve come to depend on (and become quite
accustomed to having) might seem difficult,
perhaps the idea of realizing our mistakes and
trying to remedy them is a notion worth checking