You’ve heard of vegans, but what about freegans? The concept of freeganism has been widely talked about in the news lately on such programs as Oprah and The Colbert Report, but how much do you really know about it?
The term freegan is devised from the words ‘free’ and ‘vegan.’ Veganism is the practice of avoiding all products from animal resources or products tested on animals. Freegans take this one step further by recognizing that in our consumerist society, often times it’s not just the animals who are abused in the making of products-it’s humans and the earth as well.
Every day, hundreds of thousands of pounds of perfectly good food is tossed away from grocery store shelves in order to make room for new products. Freegans make the conscious choice to not contribute to the waste created by consumerism. “The reason for freeganism is to avoid over-consumption,” said NEIU junior Kirsten Kilponen. Kirsten has been living a freegan lifestyle for several years now.
Instead of overpaying for groceries when so much food has gone to waste, you’ll often find freegans rummaging through trash to find their food. For this reason, freegans are sometimes known as ‘dumpster-divers,’ which can shed a negative light on their lifestyle. A myth that is associated with the lifestyle is that freegans dig through everyone’s garbage. Most freegans only visit places such as grocery stores or bakeries to collect food. “Trader Joe’s was one of the last places in the city to leave their dumpster unlocked,” said Kirsten. “It was like a gold mine.”
One of the main concerns with the freegan lifestyle is the health issues related to digging through public trash. “The main misconception is that the food is dirty or spoiled and you’ll get sick from it,” said Kirsten. “In reality, most of the things that stores throw out are still sealed.”
Numerous blogs and web groups organize “trash tours” every so often to get more people in on the practice. “Freegans are very community-oriented,” said Kirsten. “If I found a giant box of bananas, I wouldn’t want to keep it all for myself-I would want to share it. No one goes dumpster-diving alone.”
Freeganism isn’t just limited to food intake, however. Freegans try their hardest to employ alternative strategies for living in the conventional economy by consuming a very minimal amount of resources. For example, Kirsten buys all of her clothes at thrift stores. She also boasts a furniture collection that is almost entirely from the trash.
“Crate and Barrel was next to the Trader Joe’s we went to,” she says. “They throw out all of their displays and anything that might have minor damage to it. We got new rugs, lamps, all for free.” When asked if she ever buys anything new, she responded laughingly, “underwear.”