Dumpster Diving

[Zaeseled]

I work at the local store, each evening we remove any expired items from the shelves and throw them in the garbage. This one evening there were quite a lot of items that had expired, mostly meat, bread and milk. As I was emptying the 4th crate of perfectly edible food I thought what a massive waste this was.
Why are we throwing away so much edible food and not put stuff like this to good use? Stick it in a freezer and it'll last for a long while. I've actually started taking some of the stuff that's going to the garbage and eating it at home after work because hey, food shouldn't be wasted.
What are your thoughts on dumpster diving? Yay or nay?

Captcha: vegan diet
Do not mock me, captcha.

 

[porous_shield]

I don't see any problem with dumpster diving and I've taken some shelves and other things that a business was throwing away and they said I could have. Personally, I don't think I'd do it for food but I have no problem with anyone else doing so.

A small store near where I used to live used to gather the expired items that were still good to eat but couldn't be sold and give them to a few individuals around town that needed them. Unfortunately for them some people took advantage of the store's kindness so they stopped giving away as much and then someone got sick and tried to sue them and the owner took his ball and went home and closed his store. I don't know what became of the lawsuit but the space where the store was is still abandoned.

 

[Drakane]

There was a short lived (I believe at least, as I saw one episode and it disappeared to my knowledge) show on food network where chefs had to take "waste food" and turn it into a 5 star meal or w/e. It was basically showing how so much food is wasted because people won't buy it if it has a small bruise on it or doesn't look perfect. So I say, go for it.

Even most food items "expiration" dates are best if sold by dates. This means the food item isn't even expired it just doesn't leave much of a shelf life for it. So take it and eat it quick... free perfectly healthy food. Or better yet, take it to a food bank that can use it in the next day or two and feed someone that can't feed themselves. Make sure the food bank/soup kitchen is aware of the condition of the food though.

 

[krazykidd]

Well it's not wasting exactly . I mean, it's best before , which means that for a business ( which a grocery store is ) you want to sell the best products to your customers. You don't want them to complain that some of your food was bad because they would shop elsewhere .

As for throwing them out , well i hear people say all the time that they should give it to the homeless. I disagree with this because , the food isn't good enough to give to customers , but they want to give it to homeless people. As if homeless people are lesser than customers ( regular people that aren't down on their luck ). If you are going to give to the poor , don't give them junk .

While you could argue that homeless would be more than glad to have it, if it really okay to give them trash just because they would accept it when you could very well give them better items?

Anyways that's how i feel about it .

 

[shootthebandit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8548653/Woman-in-court-for-taking-waste-food-from-Tesco-bins.html

Basically tesco (UK supermarket) had a power cut and was forced to throw out a load of food. This woman lives in the flat above the store and she decides she would take said food rather than let it go to waste. She got £200 ($300) worth of mostly ham. She was then charged with theft for stealing what the supermarket had deemed 'waste'. How on earth do they justify that?

 

[game-lover]

I actually find it less gross than I used to.

Especially with me working in a deli where we cook hot food that we have to change out every 2-4 hours. Know what we do with that food? Toss it. And when we close down for the day any food left over? Also tossed.

Just seems rather unfortunate.

Probably wouldn't do it openly because of familial reaction. But I think if I could manage to be sneaky about it, I could likely take it on.

And on the day everyone predicts we'll be so low on food we'll have to start eating bugs, I'll be waist deep in a dumpster first.

 

[TallanKhan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8548653/Woman-in-court-for-taking-waste-food-from-Tesco-bins.html

Basically tesco (UK supermarket) had a power cut and was forced to throw out a load of food. This woman lives in the flat above the store and she decides she would take said food rather than let it go to waste. She got £200 ($300) worth of mostly ham. She was then charged with theft for stealing what the supermarket had deemed 'waste'. How on earth do they justify that?

I agree the fine was utterly riddiculous. Without delving more deeply i suspect this is rooted in the fact that the food had not been removed from the premesis. The items had been designated as waste stock, and presumably stored on site in commercial bins. As such at this point tesco had not relinquished ownership of stock in the same way that you do when you dispose of something in a public bin. Therefore by taking the items the woman in question was technically stealing.

Now you could make the case that the waste wasn't technically devoid of all value as waste food can be comercially reprocessed, usually into compost. However, to my knowledge none of the major supermarkets in the UK currently engage in this practice.

In terms of Tesco's motivation for persuing this lady, i suspect it has to do with deterant more than anything else. Unfortunatley we come back to Health and Safety law, where, you are responsible for someones health and safety on your premesis unless you have taken all reasonable steps to ensure they can't engage in an activity that would potentially cause them harm and they then do it anyway. This means they are obliged to go to fairly extreme lengths to stop people from aquiring out of date or other non-compliant stock from their bins, as were they to turn a blind eye and someone was to get sick then they would be held accountable, regardless of the fact the person in question made a concious decision to feast on waste food. Along the sames lines there was probably a concern about someone physically injuring themself riffling through the bins.

So, what i guess I am saying is: This whole situation just smacks of a complete lack of application of common sense. However, as much as i dislike Tesco I do have to suggest their blame in this instance is somewhat limited and if you want get to the real root of the problem you need to look to the OTT Health + Safety and Food Safety regulations.

 

[PFCboom]

So, this one time, some 7 years ago now when I was in high school...
Jesus, I've aged...
One weekend night, me and my butties are hanging, when a group of gents, lead by one acquaintance of mine, show up with a bulging trash bag. It was full of the things thrown out by a local bakery. Donuts and breads and cookies galore. Only myself and one friend were brave enough to join these gents in sharing this bounty. We ate well, that night.
And that's why dumpster diving will always be okay to me.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I work at the local store, each evening we remove any expired items from the shelves and throw them in the garbage. I've actually started taking some of the stuff that's going to the garbage and eating it at home after work because hey, food shouldn't be wasted.
What are your thoughts on dumpster diving? Yay or nay?

Yay.

Don't some stores donate things that are getting close to expiring to Soup Kitchens and so forth? I coulda sworn I read something about that around here.

I guess I just thought that was Standard Operating Procedure. But yeah, if you're using some of it, then good on you. Too bad you can't get it to others as well.

... you might want to suggest that Soup Kitchen thing to your managers. It's good PR for effectively free.

 

[loc978]

Should be frozen and donated to local soup kitchens, in my opinion. Even the guys at Cold Steel do that with meat they use for sword demonstrations...

Ah, I've been ninja'd.

Also, there's a very similar situation in US Army supply sections when dealing with things soldiers leave behind in their barracks rooms... and with equipment that is bought locally (as opposed to through a logistics catalog) by a given unit after it's no longer needed. Lots of that stuff goes home with soldiers, but more of it finds its way into landfills.

 

[Weaver]

I worked at a grocery store in High School and the amount of food wasted at the end of the day is absolutely unbelievable. I'd go to the hot-meals people at the end of the store close every day cause they would just give away the food they were going to throw out to employees. Still, they'd be dragging garbage bags of food into the trash.

We're talking like cooked chicken, french fries, pasta dishes, rice, etc.
Such a damn waste.

I was in produce and, to our manager's credit, he was a big fan of putting "almost bad" produce (stuff you could salvage) on what we called "reduce" which was basically a rack of crazy deals. So if there were some apples that were dinged up (but could make a pie for instance) we would put them at a really good price, like 6 apples for 30 cents or something.

Still, grocery stores waste food at a crazy rate. I approve of dumpster diving because of this and I'm not entirely sure why this food couldn't just be donated to a soup kitchen or something like that.

 

[Zaeseled]

Good to know a lot of other people share my opinion on wasted food. And while I agree that giving the food to a soup kitchen or similiar...BUT since I live on a small island self-declared nation with less than 250 people living here, I think that's not a viable option.

 

[Tiger King]

I watched a documentary on some people doing this in the states.
The guy filming it had a freezer full of food. The dates were expired but because they were all sealed in plastic and frozen they were still good.
It's sad how wastefull society is when you think that there are hungry people out there.

At one part of the documentary, the stores clicked on to what these guys were doing and started locking up the bins and having security watch the rubbish at night.
It's ridiculous, it's being thrown out but hell no people can't take it!

 

[rednose1]

The best excuse I could think up was what if someone where to get sick from eating the expired food, then sue? Lots of bad publicity, money/time spent on litigation, etc. It may be easier to just throw it away.

In reality though, yea, perfectly good food shouldn't just be thrown away. Donate to homeless shelters. They get a meal, and garbage doesn't pile up QUITE as fast.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I'm not sure I'd go quite so far as to actually reach into a dumpster for food, but yeah, maybe. If I'd just put it in there or something. At the cafe where I work we have to throw away loads of sandwiches every day, we gave them all to a homeless guy once- Considering this can be as much as 100 sandwiches occasionally it really does seem a waste.

 

[thiosk]

The supermarket waste stream has long been targeted as a method of reducing total loss. The problem is, when I go to a store and I buy some yogurt, and that yogurt is already rotten, I'm probably not going to go to that store for yogurt anymore.

There are whole communities of freegans who target consumption of this stream. Most of the food is still edible, and the freegan social responsibility movement tries to utilize it. It is a growing movement and they do quite well.

Its just a little eccentric. I prefer to burn excess food as offerings to Shub-Niggurath (the Black Ram of the Forest with a Thousand Ewes)

 

[Varrdy]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8548653/Woman-in-court-for-taking-waste-food-from-Tesco-bins.html

Basically tesco (UK supermarket) had a power cut and was forced to throw out a load of food. This woman lives in the flat above the store and she decides she would take said food rather than let it go to waste. She got £200 ($300) worth of mostly ham. She was then charged with theft for stealing what the supermarket had deemed 'waste'. How on earth do they justify that?

Because they are Tesco's - enough said!

It's shitty but I have firsthand experience of how they operate!

 

[Lawnmooer]

People throw away so many perfectly good things it's unbelievable...

Though how and where I was raised has ingrained into my mind that whenever I see a skip I think "Ohh, let's go shopping" the amount of people that have thrown away perfectly good bikes and furniture is so high that my family and I were well stocked in the house with various pieces of furniture and also had plenty of spare bikes and bike parts.

It's a shame when food stores throw away so much food, especially since they throw it away on the "On display until" date which is typically 2-3 days before the "Best before" date which is another 2-14 days until the food actually starts to degrade in quality.

I guess the store owners don't want to get sued, by lawsuit happy people that get ill from potentially bad food that they sell (Though giving it away to homeless shelters should be something? Giving food, even if it's not perfect quality to those who can't afford to buy any would be better than just throwing it away to rot)

So yeah... My stance on dumpster diving is that it's okay (Though I probably wouldn't personally take any food directly out of a bin unless it's got protective wrapping) and that more people shouldn't be so finicky about the "Best before" dates on food they have (I know some smaller stores occasionally sell things that are left over but have their "Best before" date on the day in question on sales, which I usually take advantage of)