It’s finally Friday night. After a long week of classes or work most people are ready to enjoy what nightlife Buffalo has to offer. You could spend the evening in one of the many bars strewn about downtown, check out some art at the Albright Knox, or maybe even catch a Sabres home game. Or—you can jump in the dumpster and eat what you find.
That’s what Derek Neuland, 25, and Eva Becker, 22, both Buffalo residents and Erie Community College students, decided to do on this particular Friday night.
Becker and Neuland have been living the dumpster diving lifestyle for a long while now. Neuland has been “dumpstering” for over five years, and Becker for a year and a half.
Dumpster diving, also known as urban foraging or garbage picking, is a recent cultural phenomenon, but by no means a new practice. When they’re not eating out of dumpsters or spending time in class or work, Neuland and Becker help the community by participating in Buffalo’s Food Not Bombs. This organization consists of activists who make traditionally vegetarian meals for the homeless using only food donations from businesses. The dumpster, however, is something they frequent about twice a week as a staple for their meals, only going to purchase food from the grocery store to fill in the gaps.
“We go more in the winter,” says Neuland. “It stays fresher and the dumpster is cleaner.”
Even though this night was a tepid 75 degrees, they were on a mission for dinner and maybe some dessert. Their hunt brought them to the back of a small grocery store in the University Heights district.
The whole area smelled of putrid onions but was well lit, negating the need for a flashlight. Neuland and Becker split up so they were able to search on either side of the dumpster.
“Want some flowers?” asks Neuland, before handing me a bouquet of withered carnations and dyed daisies. It was fresh enough, I thought. I wouldn’t have necessarily bought the flowers if I saw them in a store, but I certainly wouldn’t mind taking them for free.
Several bags of Tydeman red apples topped the dumpster and Becker pulled out a bag that seemed to have the least rot in it.
Meanwhile, Neuland dug below the surface and found an assorted pack of peppers wrapped in uncontaminated cellophane, conveniently located near a crushed, yet unopened, box of elbow macaroni.
Dinner was found.
Though there were plenty more apples and other possibilities left in the trash, they had found what they needed. They were sure to leave the scene as they had found it.
“I think it’s important to leave it cleaner than you find it,” says Becker. “Mostly so no one realizes you were there.”
During the walk back to their street, they told me stories about some of their most memorable dumpstering experiences.
“The first time I went dumpstering yielded a brand new George Foreman grill in the box. I have it to this day; it works perfectly,” Neuland brags, beaming about his find.
“Once Derek got cut on some glass,” says Becker. “Then we found band-aids!”
“Oh, and this one time we were going to make vegetable pot pie, but we were out of vegetable shortening,” she adds. “We went to the store to get some, but they were closed. We figured we’d check the dumpster. We didn’t expect to find anything, and there was vegetable shortening right there on the top.”
“It was the dumpster gods shining down on us,” adds Neuland.
Neuland unwrapped the peppers, rescued from a dumpster moments ago.
“The yellow one’s no good,” he says as he shows it to me. It was cracked open and browning at the edges. “The other two are fine.”
They were, in fact, store-fresh and firm.
He chopped them up while Becker and I cored apples and cut around any questionable spots. Some of the apples were brown and soft. “These aren’t good enough to eat, but perfect for baking,” says Becker.
“The food [we find] is usually packaged,” explains Neuland. “Sometimes things will be thrown out that aren’t past their expiration date, but if it looks good [we’ll take it].”
Becker and Neuland are “freegans”—a lifestyle that entails minimizing waste by living off of what others throw out. According to freegan.info, the hub of information for this autonomous movement, freegans are “people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.” For freegans, dumpster diving isn’t always a means to a meal, but a way to a protest against materialism and waste. This is usually accomplished through dumpster diving, the creation of community gardens, websites like Craigslist.com or freecycle.com, and squatting (illegally converting abandoned buildings into livable spaces).
For years, supermarkets and bakeries have been throwing out food before its expiration date due to overstocking and imperfections in appearance. Dumpster divers find this food and remove any spoilage for what they consider safe, free eats.
According to The Washington Post, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that up to 96 billion pounds of food goes to waste in our trash each year. Food Production Daily states that half of U.S. food goes to waste. According to the Hunger Action Network, 10.5% of New Yorkers experience food shortages. Surely they could benefit from the massive about of foodstuff being disposed of.
Between the three of us, we had enough kitchen items to make a goulash with the peppers and pasta and something resembling an apple crisp for dessert.
Becker explains her philosophy on vegan refuse. “If it’s vegan we’re probably not going to get sick because there’s less to go bad,” she says.
Some experts confirm this statement. Dr. Ruth Kava of the American Council of Science and Health tells the Daily News, “Most food that’s thrown out by stores is still safe to eat if you clean it and cook it appropriately.”
Jack Guzewich, an epidemiologist for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, isn’t so certain of that fact. Guzewich reports in The Washington Post that not all bacteria that could potentially get on the food in the dumpster would go away simply by cooking it.
Neuland’s only reply to this statement is a shrug. “I’ve never gotten sick,” he says.
Becker and Neuland are primarily worried about something other than food contamination. One of the riskiest things about dumpster diving isn’t E. coli or salmonella, but the issue of legality. Because dumpsters are private property, the contents are as well. Also, dumpsters are typically located on private property. In the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy, there are specific laws against dumpster diving, and the taking of the discarded items is considered to be theft. If you get caught in New York, you could be looking at some trespassing and theft charges.
Despite these jurisdictions, Becker and Neuland have been fortunate enough to avoid any run-ins with the law.
“We’ve been really cautious,” says Neuland.
“If we were caught, I’d just say I was looking for boxes,” explains Becker, “It’s kind of ridiculous that it’s illegal. I think once something is thrown out that means you don’t want it and have no use for it and why not let someone have it who wants it and has use for it?”
The risk is worth it to those who dumpster.
“It sounds silly to us because we do it so often, but reducing waste is a good thing about it. It’s a really good way to recycle, basically,” says Neuland.
Though it may seem like Becker and Neuland are doing a service to the community that most of us couldn’t stomach, some activists don’t agree with the trashy tactic.
In The Washington Post, Brian Kruglak, co-founder of Washington D.C.’s Food Not Bombs chapter, criticizes those who are not homeless for eating out of dumpsters. He challenges privileged people who take food from the homeless who need it to find other sources.
Becker and Neuland argue that they also do it out of necessity. As full-time students, sometimes they don’t get as many hours at their jobs as they’d like, making money tight.
“I don’t understand how people with our sort of salaries can get by without relying on dumpsters,” says Becker. “There’s good days and bad days, like there might be just peppers, but those peppers might be all that we eat that day.”
About 20 minutes and 400 degrees later, those words resonated true as we feasted on our dumpster finds. “All you need to do is find a couple of things and you can make something really good,” says Neuland.
Michelle Matthews is a junior English major and a Features writer for Generation.
