Freegan freshers: the students making savings by living off waste
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Version 0 of 1. It’s midnight, I have a torch and I’m sifting through the bins behind my local Tesco in search of food. The idea of picking through discarded packets of cakes and cheese in a pair of marigolds may seem pretty disgusting. But for a small section of society, standing in bins at night – or freeganism, as it is more widely known – has become a way of life. Freegans avoid buying anything as much as possible in order to boycott the economic system and be eco-friendly. For many young freegans, this can mean asking supermarkets for their discarded food, which is often left in bins. “It’s not unusual to find around £100 worth of food on any given night,” says Finn Weddle, who was a freegan while at university in Edinburgh. “But the lifestyle doesn’t suit everyone – you have to be happy to eat food from bins and ask strangers in cafes for their leftovers.” Related: Student food shopping: top tips for staying healthy on a budget But it’s not just about going through bins. Freegans reclaim anything that has been discarded, from food to furniture, in an attempt to limit their consumption. “People are always leaving their unwanted stuff out on the street,” says Katendi Heald, a student living in London. “I’ve been able to furnish my student house with beautiful tables, plates, a toaster and movie posters that I’ve found.” Most of us don’t think about the serious implications of the supermarket purchases we make– such as food waste. It is estimated that in Britain we waste around 4.2 million tonnes of food and drink a year. And before our food even reaches the supermarket shelf, it’s often doused with pesticides, flown by plane, driven by freight and packaged in often unnecessary plastic. Freeganism isn’t just for student activists, though. It’s also for those looking to save money. As students, we tend to be perpetually broke – I have occasionally skipped meals because tickets to an amazing DJ set tend to prove more seductive than my staple mushroom pasta. Adopting a freegan lifestyle can go a long way towards stretching out your student loan. Even just doing so part-time could be a great way of supplementing your weekly shop. If you are interested in getting started, it’s easy to find your local freegan group online. There are plenty of ways to participate in the movement that don’t involve taking a shower afterwards – you don’t have to start dumpster-diving straight away. In fact, doing so is something of a legal grey area. Related: Veganism on a student budget There is no clear-cut ruling on whether supermarkets have actually abandoned the food by putting it in the bin – but this is probably the reason most freegans go dumpster diving at night and not in the middle of the day. Checking the permission of shops and cafes to take their discarded items could be an ideal compromise. Restaurants and cafes often leave bags of unused food outside on the street at the end of the day, and asking them for discarded food at closing is also a good bet. Then there’s Freecycle, a non-profit movement creating a network through which people give and get everything from sofas to blenders for free. Free, usuable stuff is everywhere, all you have to do is open your eyes. Freeganism is just the beginning of a long struggle to change the way we consume and to start appreciating what we have on our plates. Keep up with the latest on Guardian Students: follow us on Twitter at @GdnStudents – and become a member to receive exclusive benefits and our weekly newsletter. |