Freeganism for Opus Magazine: Eating for free and saving the world.

As a Uni student, I know first-hand how important food is, especially as one of the greatest forms of procrastination when studying. I am also only too aware of the very limited funds available to a full time student who has just recently moved out of home. Freeganism is the idea of foraging through bins, from neighbour’s fruit trees and begging for scraps that allows us to eat to our hearts content for free.  But is it possible? My three friends and I found that although it may leave you with little dignity, it most certainly is. I’d like to say we did it as a social experiment but mostly we were just hungry. 

We all jumped in the car one night and began the mission of searching through Coles and Woollies bins. Feeling very optimistic we were very let down to find the bins in either a disgusting state smelling like rotten fish, or completely inaccessible. After a few more tries we found that the best places to raid the bins are the smaller, independent shops. Fruit shops and fruit barns are a great place to start.

The best way to get edible (please note this is a very important distinction; don’t eat something just because you can) food is by asking right before a fresh food store is closing. Places we have succeeded in getting free food are: Donut King, Bakers Delight, Red Lea and Domino’s pizza. It’s not rude to ask if there are any left-over’s that would otherwise get thrown out, you’re actually helping the environment by recycling and preventing waste.

Truth be told, we were only playing at Freeganism. True Freegans do not participate in consumption of resources at all, only using what they can find and relying on the generosity of strangers.  Their beliefs are not just in boycotting an unethical economic system, but go further towards ideas of Free-housing, waste minimization and green transport.  

If you’re interested in more information on the Freegan way of life, go to http://freegan.info/. If you can get something for free or cheap that would otherwise have been wasted, do it. You’ll get that bit of dignity back when you think about how you’ve just helped the planet. Every little bit counts!