I’d first heard about Freeganism, a worldwide anti consumerism movement, whilst watching Gordon Ramsay’s “The F Word” TV show where top end food critic Giles Coren gathered himself a meal from a dumpster. Since then Oprah has devoted several episodes to the idea along with the idea of living on less and reducing the amount of conspicuous and unnecessary consumption. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept itself, Freeganism is a movement, borne of a reaction to the mindless consumerism and wastage that goes on around the world. An offshoot of Freeganism, is Dumpster Diving aka Skip Dipping or Urban Gleaning, where people salvage still edible food (as well as other things) by foraging through commercial dumpsters. It’s not a huge movement here in Australia but it certainly has a very organised and strong movement in the US and UK. The participants include middle class people, students and pretty much anyone and everyone (ok except maybe A-list celebrities although I wouldn’t discount D-List Big Brother reality show types). People that can afford to buy the food, but don’t because there is so much thrown out already.

There is also an offshoot of Freegan which is the Meagan, vegetarians who only eat meat will be discarded and therefore its life hasn’t completely gone to waste. Which brings up an interesting question that my husband asked his vegetarian family. Would they eat roadkill? Their answer was, if they were starving although they would probably feel sick from eating meat. Hmmm.

For most, there is a line where if it goes into a bin, they don’t want it. But a lot will buy an item that is nearing its use by or best before date, if discounted or if in desperate need of that item. So the actual point of refusal is if it actually makes it into the bin. Once it’s in there, most people wouldn’t be interested in it but before that point, it’s fair game (depending on the produce, sashimi would be out). And I think whilst many would pick up hard rubbish items like furniture on the side of the road, they may draw the line at picking up a food item in a dumpster, either through fear of food poisoning or another reason.

And why Freeganism? Over 17 million tonnes of solid waste is disposed of in Australian landfills every year.*

An internet search revealed that whilst the US has websites devoted to where one can Dumpster Dive, or Skip Dip as Australians like to call it, organised by state, city and area, Australia has no such directory of sites. I decided to find out a bit more about it and contacted Ash Falkingham, Dumpster Diver expert and veteran of 4.5 years Dumpster Diving across the UK, US, Canada, Germany and across Australia. I got in touch with him through a Freegan message board where there were about a dozen freegans wanting to meet up and Dumpster Dive together. He responded quickly and was amenable to showing me around the best places to Dumpster Dive as he likes spreading the word.

When we picked him up at his terrace house, it was 8.30pm at night on a cold Sunday night. He was well dressed in a jacket, shirt and pants and carrying a spiffy camera. He was accompanied by his friend, another chap called Ross, another hardcore Dumpster Diver who lives in a Motorhome. We traveled to an Inner City Coles dumpster. They warned us that whilst this was an excellent place for food, it was probably the dirtiest dumpster we’d see tonight. Parking a little far away, we walked over to the Dumpster. I had no idea what to expect, having never looked in a Dumpster before (and on TV, don’t they always contain a dead body? OK too much Law & Order for me). But my husband’s eyes lit up and they grabbed a hand of bananas from the top in great condition.

Cat food with broken packaging

Soon they were pulling out all sorts of items including tortellini, pasta sauce, ham, cat food and bread, some covered in cream as a bottle of cream had broken open. For the most part it was in excellent condition and whilst there were items on the ground, Ash and Ross wouldn’t take those. With a box full we walked back to the car, stunned at what we had found. Around the corner, a trip to a crowded Petrol station yielded a dumpster without much except for orange juice all the way at the bottom. Keen to not draw attention to ourselves, Ross hung back while we eager newbies went to have a look with Ash.

Juices at a Petrol station dumpster

We were keen to try some more places so Ash showed us a location of a CBD Supermarket skip. He said that during the day, there is a massive amount of food in there and no-one bats and eyelid, especially if you look like an employee going through the skip. Unfortunately tonight, the roller door was closed.

Salvaged goods from Woolworth and Health Food Store

We drive further North to the lower north shore to a set of Skips for a health food chain and a Woolworths supermarket. The health food store dumpster is mostly full of paper, scraps and cardboard but foraging under the cardboard we find some Organic Earl Grey green tea and a Celestial Seasonings sampler box both brand new and sealed with plastic. In the supermarket’s skip we find a range of fruit and vegetables, some in better condition than what you’d see in the actual supermarket. Ross also spies two 20litre drums of vegetable oil and points out that it could power a diesel car.

Two 20 litre drums of pure cottonseed oil

We see an old man curiously looking at us and then take a crate and help himself to the things in the dumpster although he refuses Ross’s offer of a hand of bananas and walks off looking at us as if we’d fallen from a spaceship. Perhaps he’s a regular diver there and resents people taking his stash. Other people that walk past us look at us curiously and without judgement, perhaps because we are well dressed with photographic equipment and just happen to be grabbing stuff from the dumpster. Some people don’t even bat an eyelid.

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It’s a cold, wintry night that brings us to Bite Me Burger Company, and one in which we’re pressed for time having spent the half half hour looking for a park in Paddington. Ever since the Wagyu burger at Plan B, I’ve been trying to find other Wagyu burgers to try. Call it my latest obsession. So with only 45 minutes to order, eat and go, we enter Bite Me Burger, a small, red lit small Burger place on Oxford Street in Paddington with a neon red Coca Cola type sign. It’s bustlingly full, there is a football game on at the stadium nearby and we explain our impending movie dilemma to the staff. They suggest that we pre-order our meals as it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes for the burgers during a busy period and by then a table should be free.

Sure enough, we’re seated within about 5 minutes and help ourselves to water. There is a large communal table as well as two high tables at the front. We’re seated at one of the front tables but not the very front. Once when we sat there everyone stopped and watched what we ate which made us feel like monkeys in a zoo exhibit.

Everything is visual merchanised to within an inch of itself, the fork and knife come in a sleeve that says “Hold Me”. The ketchup is in a tomato squeezy and of course the salt and pepper co-ordinate.

Onion Rings $4.50

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