I’ve only just recently begun to understand how totally and utterly a Freegan I am. Now, it’s understandable that you have no idea what a Freegan is. I will explain!
A Freegan is someone that lives off the waste of Western Society, or the First World, or Capitalism, or a System of Waste. Whatever you may want to call it! If you’re mother told you to clean you’re plate at the supper table and your father hit you for not doing so then you are like most of us. This however is only the tip of the iceberg.
Stage One: If I look at the clothes on my back right now I have not paid for a single item. In fact if I look in my wardrobe there is my Liverpool FC shirt and one or two other items but that’s it. Admittedly I don’t have a large wardrobe but it’s big enough. I don’t steal!
Almost all the clothes I “own” were given to me. The trousers by a friend in Nerja, the “Freakfrachter” tee-shirt I’m wearing came from my best mate, my shoes from a friend’s parents in Sydney, Australia, and the belt from an Austrian friend. This was the start of my Freegan roots. Its been years since I actively bought clothing, and often these days if I do it’s from a charity shop or a cheaper but still decent clothing store. It’s amazing how little there is I need to go out and buy.
Stage Two: This would have to be in the form of couchsurfing.com. Couch Surfing is one of the best things ever; a network of people who offer up a place in their house for people to spend the night in. In two weeks time a Frenchwoman will be at my place for two nights. She will not pay anything for accommodation and chances are I’ll have enough food to keep us both fed for the duration. Chances are she will spend little to nothing during her stay with me. I have stayed with approximately ten people; all of them lovely and all of them enlightening experiences that proved far more interesting and affordable than a hotel. This for me is step two; in no way am I taking advantage of someone, and if I felt like I were I would stop, it’s simply good people meeting and sharing with other good people. Plus; it makes, at the very least, inter-European travel possible.
Stage Three: I have been living in a town call Nerja, in Spain, for the past three months now. I have not worked but four days and am living off my savings. Two weeks ago I committed myself to investing in a piece of land in Laos with a good friend. If it works I’ll have money, if it doesn’t I’ll be broke. Bottom line is that I’m not broke. Now, after looking at my account balances I figured out that I will be “strapped for cash” once I send off this money. Since I arrived in Nerja I’ve thought about going to the Supermarkets in the night and going through their bins. I’m not interested in eating old or rotten or opened food, simply the staples, the hundreds of items they throw out everyday. I was having a hard time bringing myself to it however.
Revel, which is a British tabloid, was sitting on the floor in my living room one morning as I woke up. Generally I never go into the living room except to head to the terrace, but on this occasion I sat down and saw the picture of some celebrity and decided to numb my brain for awhile. As I flipped though the pages looking at airbrushed women without figures I came across an article about these people who call themselves Freegans.
The magazine being cleaver made sure that they found an attractive normal looking thirty-something Freegan to follow one night of bin hunting. By the end of the article they had found an amazing list of items ranging from butter to cakes to salad and ready-made chicken tiki. I was convinced, and that night I went out!
Its been one week now, one week tomorrow, and I have not spent a penny on food since then. Tonight I went out and got: Bananas, Peppers, Apples, Eggs, 3 types of Bread, Donuts, Yogurt, and there were strawberries but I haven’t finished the ones from last night yet!
All of this food is completely edible and there was more, but one doesn’t want to be greedy. The large bag of Salt I simply didn’t need, and the 3 bags of Flour I saw were also unnecessary. Ironically one of my last supermarket purchases was Flour, so I still have some left!
In the Categories Section you will see Freegans; this will list what I retrieved on the nights I go out. I know that this is not for everyone, and I completely respect that. My point is to show how much waste there is even in a small town like this. Just think of all those cities out there that throw out so much more than the four supermarkets of my town do.
If you do start please let me know, and if you want to find out more you can find the Freegans on Facebook or at freegan.info Good luck!
