Reactions to a video of me going dumpster diving got a wide variety of reactions, from intrigue…
Wow! It is amazing how many things get tossed out, but I don’t know if I could go dumpster diving.
..to disgust…
This is just not right. I don’t eat food that falls on my floor at home or that grandson has sneezed on. No way am I going to eat food from a dumpster. If I was homeless, maybe. Thankfully I am not in that predicament.
…to understanding…
my son bragged about our dumpster finds once, and the church gave us a care package for Thanksgiving!
…to outrage…
I worked at Starbucks for several years, and you would all be sickened at what was thrown out. Perfectly good baked goods are thrown out by every store, every evening. TONS OF THEM. Giant garbage bags full of them. The poor, minimum wage baristas are generally not allowed to take any of it (although I often broke the rules and took stuff anyway). There oughta be a law against this waste.
…to another kind of outrage…
What you are advocating is highly dangerous. Let me explain. I operated grocery stores for over 60 years. What was safe to eat, but damaged or close to its ‘do not sell’ date was marked down and sold in the store or was donated to charity. What we threw in the dumpster was often contaminated or unsafe to eat. Contaminated with what? Spills of household chemicals like bleach, soap, cleaning supplies, dirt, insects, and poisons. Unsafe to eat included foods that contained salmonella, botulism, or listeria. Salmonella and listeria can make you very sick or if you’re young or elderly kill you. Botulism will kill you even in small amounts. Yes, sometimes an employee will put something good in the dumpster and not all food there has these bacteria, but, can you tell the difference? Foods that have been recalled often go into the dumpster. When they are recalled, there is a serious safety reason. There are hundreds of recalls a year that you don’t hear about. If you wouldn’t buy it because it was recalled, why would you eat it for free? Do you have a death wish? What you are advocating is much like playing Russian Roulette. Sure, when pulling the trigger, most people will get off. Then again sometimes you are just out of luck. Is it worth it to take a chance on the safety of your loved ones or yourself?
…to practical…
Why don’t more people start groups like FoodNet (Nebraska) and then people who really need food could pick it up for free and not have to dive in dumpsters. I use to help with this group and we would pick up unused food from various restaurants, cafeterias, and grocery stores and take it immediately to a refrigerator or freezer (if needed). I was able to take some of the food for my family and we never got sick. I wish there were more groups like this one.
To be clear, I am not advocating dumpster diving, which is illegal. I sought to tell the story of Allison Burtch, who believes passionately in dumpster diving as a way to take individual responsibility for the waste our country’s food system produces, for better or worse.
Comments in order were left by Blakely, Lynda, prettybama, Chrystal, Ron, and Amy.
If you haven’t watched the 2:49 video, click more to see it.
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:29 am
I’m curious how many readers thought your dumpster post advocated dumpster driving. I was surprised to hear how strongly some were offended.
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:40 am
I’m surprised, too, at how many people were offended. From the video, it seemed like Allison gleaned mostly produce. Since even when we buy full-price produce we can’t be guaranteed of it being completely ‘clean,’ I really don’t see a problem here with taking produce that can be washed and peeled if it isn’t moldy or otherwise past its prime. My family and I volunteer at a food pantry each month; there aren’t enough volunteers or trucks to pick up produce from all the markets who would like to donate it. My understanding is that they don’t want to throw it away. We throw so much into the landfills, I applaud Allison for keeping some of the food from becoming waste. There is a particularly good exhibit about waste in Los Angeles in the new section at the California Science Center called ‘Ecosystems.’
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:15 am
ive dumpster dived when we lost all ourstuff moving i did it by a laundry mat because some people leave there clothes i got some jeans shirts its fun now i still do it when i need something the rest leave it out for the homeless
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:17 am
I used to work in the garage of a trash hauling outfit. If full trucks, esp. Commercial, were towed in, a couple guys would poke around for stuff, finds included a perfectly good garden cart, a digital camera, and other nice things that wound up in the trash. It was against the rules of course.
They drew the line at food, I guess somebody had gotten sick from salvaged food there. Be careful out there! We need you healthy to find bargains for us!
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
We used to sort of dumpster dive. We live in a middle class town a few miles away from a very, very wealthy town. On “Bulk Day”, my friends and I used to go out and pick up discarded furniture that the wealthy town would toss to the curb. We’d find books, very nice furniture, stuff we’d sell on Ebay, etc just tossed at the curb. We once furnished our deck with lawn furniture that was made in France that someone tossed out because it needed to be washed. We eventually had to stop diving because the wealthy townies would call the police when they saw a bunch of hippies in an old pickup truck trucking away their discards (even though we were quiet, neat hippies, it didn’t matter) and they made it very clear that they did NOT want us there. What was really sad was seeing tons of beautiful baby cribs that were used once and then tossed on the curb. I hate seeing things go to waste like that.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
My husband and I had a consignment store for awhile, and we found some perfectly good fixtures in the dumpster. In a couple of cases, the stores tried to sell them for $50 or more and refused to come down. We would have been happy to buy them for a lesser price, but they wouldn’t budge. Then we’d get them for free when they were thrown away. In other cases, we saw stores mark merchandise down to zero, break it up, and then throw it away. They didn’t want people to get the stuff out of the dumpster and use it or sell it. The thing is, they could have donated these things to a charity — these were items like watches and snowglobes — which could have given those items to poor people who could never afford to shop in those stores anyway, so it’s not like they would be losing a sale. They would create goodwill in the community and be able to write off the full retail value on their taxes. It’s very wasteful.
March 26th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Living on a military post when people put things out on the curb it is Expected that someone will take it! I love it, its completely excepted and saves a lot of nice things from going to the trash. I have a friend that, while taking a walk, got a perfectly working dyson!
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April 16th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
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