My freegan adventures [#1] Beginning

Hello Steemians!

I eat trash. You can laugh, you can be disgusted, you can, you are welcomed. I have no problem with breaking thid social taboo and saving wasted food fills me with positive energy. And it's really wallet-friendly. Ashamed should be rather those, who have no problem with throwing away edible food. But why do I eat food believed by others to be trash? Let me tell you my story. This is the first of few posts about my freegan experience in Poland, I want to share with you. All the pictures belong to me.

I started around 5 years ago in my home town. I was passing by local supermarket, while I saw wooden crate filled with apples, peppers and leek. I checked it, and it turned out to be still good! I knew that supermarkets throw away food, but I thought it was already rotten. While found stuff wasn't fresh, it definitely wasn't bad! Later on I stumbled upon some information about freeganism in the Internet and my adventure has begun. Facebook Groups, maps with marked open containers, Trashwiki, deepening my knowledge about wasting food, and a lot of frustration and disagreement. I couldn't believe how much food is being wasted!

Every discarded product has a story. Water, soil, transportation, package and heavy work of underpaid farmers, and now 1/3 of this stories end in the dumpster. Hell no! I do not agree! There is always possibility to act upon frustration and feeling angry! I started checking local dumpsters almost every evening in search for food and other products, which I could make us of. I lived few months on 70% freegan diet. Fruit and vegetables with some small dents or being packed in one bag with rotten product. Pasta, rice, kasha in dirty or open packages. Unsold bread from day before, replaced on shelves with the fresh one. And the most often; bananas, which had only one sin - they begun getting black. And this is exact time when they are starting to be really tasty!

There are three basic rules. Dumpster dive after twilight, leave containers clean and don't take more than you can eat or share with others, there is no point to trash freegan food again. Searching for food when it's dark allows you avoid shop workers, who are not always friendly, this is very important since more and more dumpsters is being closed. Leaving it clean is just human decency. In the next posts I will describe you why I believe it's safe, I'll give you some legal and ethic nuances and at the end some juicy adventures I experienced while dumpster diving. Let's take your gloves and flashlights and let me guide you in this freegan trip!

I have even sew my up-cycled bicycle bags, using old jacket and jeans. Every freegan meal makes me happy because I'm aware that part of people's work and resources are not wasted any more. But the biggest wave of positive feelings comes from changing somebody's mind or even introducing this life-style to others. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll find your dinner in the dumpster? ;) Or you already have? Please, tell me about your point of view and experiences. Thanks for your attention!