How Freegans Eat Bashny.Net

We see what has happened to wasteful consumption of resources on the planet in recent decades. Previously, few people thought about how much unnecessary waste a person produces in the process of life. It is only in the last few years that people have begun to share the idea of conscious consumption and are trying to optimize the process of garbage accumulation.



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For example, refuse disposable plastic items, wear their own water bottle, dress in second-hand and avoid unnecessary purchases. To give a second life to things is understandable and noble, but what about a second life? expired? There are people who have done this too, Freegans. Today's edition. "Site" It will tell you who Freegans are, what they eat and why they decided to do it.

Freeganism is a way of life based on freedom from consumerism. The bottom line is that people voluntarily refuse to buy things and products. The main source of food, clothing and even medicines are garbage and landfills. It sounds strange, but it has its own rational grain.

Let's dig a little deeper into the story. The Freegan movement originated in America in the late twentieth century. Freeganism was originally a radical form of vegetarianism. Frigans also refused to eat meat. But they had one tricky loophole: if the meat was free, they could eat it. Later, freeganism became a separate movement and slightly changed.





Freegans began to produce not only meat, but also other products, as well as clothes, appliances and many things necessary for life. All this, as it turned out, can be found in the trash and even in very good condition. You ask, what makes these people so strange? It's not that people can't afford to buy food and things, because more often freegans are young and working people. It's just their conscious choice.

Here are some statistics: according to experts, from 27 to 50% of food that comes to the shelves of stores in the United States, do not reach the consumer and end up in the trash. And often these products are not even expired, but simply recognized as unsuitable. Here, for example, they brought a batch of tomatoes to the store and found that there are spoiled ones among them, but no one will go through them, but just throw out the whole batch.



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And it happens every step of the way. Large shops and restaurants every day send to the garbage products that are still suitable for consumption. And freegans consider it a waste.

That is their philosophy: they do not want to be involved in waste. They believe that while people in developing countries are starving to death, throwing tons of good food into the trash is a crime.

It's a kind of protest. They want to prove, not by word, but by deed, that one cannot be so wasteful. And we think it's a pretty noble mission. But by this point, you've probably had a lot of questions about how they get their food, what they eat, and whether it causes disease. Let's figure it out.





If you think that freegans, like bums, rummaging through landfills in search of something nutritious, then this is not at all true. American freegans are looking for food in the garbage bins of supermarkets and restaurants. As a rule, employees of such establishments pack food in clean bags. They understand that the products can be useful to the homeless, so they separate the still suitable products from the spoiled ones. Packages are left on the streets in clean dumpsters.

Of course, not all institutions do this. Many stores have their dumpsters closed and guarded. By and large, only discarded products that expire the next day are no different from those that lie on store shelves. Only the first ones are free. That’s why many stores just don’t want anyone to have access to them.



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Freegans who live in New York City are the luckiest. There, the movement is very popular, and participants even have their own website where you can learn everything about how to start looking for food in garbage and what to do with it. Also on the site there is a map where all the garbage cans are marked, on which you can find something worthwhile. People share experiences, leave comments and talk about especially hot places.

So in the civilized world, it's possible to find food in garbage. Our situation is, of course, more complicated. If in Western countries, freegans are used to and are already more happy to meet, then everything is much worse. The trash cans of the big shops are locked up, and the guards would rather drive you away than understand. And this is not strange, because they are then reprimanded for being allowed into the territory of strangers.



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Well, the owners of domestic stores are not in a hurry to carefully pack out expired products in packages, often arguing that all sorts of things will run in now, still scare normal customers. Of course, it is better to rot so that no one gets it. Occasionally, employees tear up packages and throw away food so that no one can eat it.

But things are not so bad, and the movement is slowly gaining momentum. People find ways to get food from trash, negotiate with security guards or look for open dumpsters. A lot of people live like that, so there’s still an opportunity.

Freegans say that the garbage can often come across products with an unexpired shelf life, although this is not the main indicator of the suitability of food. Some expired food You can eat too. For example, milk can be drunk for a couple of days after the specified period, and sour milk even for a whole week. The bread is edible for about 5 days.



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Do not be guided by the expiration date and when choosing meat, its freshness should be determined only by the appearance and smell. Experienced freegans recommend not taking risks and still avoid meat with a strange smell and color. Health matters!

Freegans claim that they have never been poisoned by food from the trash. They say that with careful processing and testing of food, there will be no health problems. It is important to select the products carefully. If, for example, cottage cheese is already slightly spoiled and smells unpleasant, freegans recommend making cheesecakes from it. This can be done with any product.



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On the one hand, this is a very correct movement, based on very noble ideas, but on the other hand, it is clear that this will always be something marginal and misunderstood by the masses. It is clear that they can not all at once take and become freegans, but everyone should think about how to consume resources sparingly and thoughtfully!

We need to think about how we live and what we leave behind, because it affects the world and the state of the environment. Recently we talked about why you should abandon the use of single-use plastic straws.

Environmental protection can be combined with other good deeds. For example, in Spain, they came up with a way to help those in need by collecting plastic bottle caps. This is incredible!

What do you think about freeganism? Would you do that? Tell us in the comments!