Freeganism

About three weeks ago I was home flicking through the channels on TV when I came across an advertisement for Oprah’s upcoming episode. It featured Lisa Ling, from National Geographic, and she was discussing something I had never heard of before “freeganism”. I decided to watch and it was very interesting. For those who have not heard of this term before it describes a group of people who have chosen a lifestyle of anti-consumerism. These individual’s are living an alternative lifestyle whereby they attempt to limit their consumption of resources and do not give in to consumerism. They partake in what is commonly known as “dumpster diving”. They raid grocery store dumpsters salvaging unspoiled food that has been discarded as they have passed their expiry date, but is still edible. They not only salvage food, but also household items such as bed sheets, furniture, clothes, basically any items that are still usable. They choose to live this way not because they have become homeless or are poor, but because they want to make a political statement about over consumption and capitalism.

I relate this to space, place and scale in that by raiding a place (dumpsters) whose physical space has been occupied by discarded items that are still usable, lends a hand to limiting the amount of waste going to landfills on a global scale. I focus more on space, as North American’s we are large consumers of everything. Not all stores discard their products; some do donate to homeless shelters and food banks. This type of recycling helps to keep unnecessarily discarded items out of land fills, and also aids those members of society who cannot afford to partake in the gross consumption of consumerism. A very practical idea is to buy local produce rather than canned as this will help to save on the amount of garbage we produce. Going green is a wonderful idea for the environment, but be cautious that you do not go and discard everything you currently own to replace it with all green items as you will be contributing to filling up all the landfill space around.

I must note that many Freegan’s earn a decent salary and are highly educated individuals. We as consumers are constantly tempted by advertising trying to encourage us to throw away and replace our goods. This over consumption of products is ruining the space that we live in. By living a Freegan lifestyle they are reducing the amount of garbage and pollution that so called waste contribute to space as a whole. I find this idea of Freeganism very intriguing and I am unsure that I could adapt to such a lifestyle, but I do feel compelled to make an attempt to limit my consumption of unnecessary products and reduce my contribution to wasted space.

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200802/tows_past_20080227.jhtml