A Dumpster Diving Mini Guide

Hi guys, as some of you may know already, I am a very low budget traveler who enjoys everything that comes with the "cheap" or "free" label on it. Based on that, we can say that there are main 3 financial pillars in this kind of nomadic life we have to care about: transportation, accommodation and food. In my case, the first two are pretty easy to avoid, one by hitchhiking and the other one by camping mixed with Couchsurfing and volunteering jobs. But the last one, food, is almost impossible to avoid. However, when there is a challenge, there is an opportunity. That is why I decided to introduce you to the basics of Dumpster Diving in this post.

My bike basket after a succesfull day.

Dumpster diving is the "art" of checking supermarket´s (or any shop) containers in search for any item that could be valuable for us. The spectrum is wide and it can goes from old video games to fancy makeup that expired from the new tendencies. But what I want to share with you is just about food, which I consider the most valuable thing among the basic needs.
I know it sounds like a very crazy thing to do, but it is all about the wrong ideas we have in our minds about taking something that expired and ended up in a container. Remember that the expiration date is a symbolic thing in many cases. It doesnt mean you cannot eat it after that date. My mom was in dead silence on the phone for 5 sec after I told her what I was doing abroad. Then she got "better". I see dumpster divers like recyclers. People who consider something valuable while for others is just trash. And you could not even imagine how many tons of food in good conditions we waste everyday.
It may sounds like a crazy thing to do, but is not. Remember you are helping the environment and your pocket.

I tried for the first time in Australia, some years ago, and the bounty was not the best, just few veggies and bread.
After some years I got into it again while living in the amazing Copenhagen. That was the golden age of "DD"! Scandinavian countries are the paradise for this, the quality and cleaning conditions are extremely high, and not just about the things they throw away but also the containers themselves. We can say they are kinda tidy places!

At the beginning I thought this was a "taboo" practice and, obviously, reduced to a small amount of the population, but after a short time I even saw office people checking the containers out. In some places we had to wait our turn while other fellows were into the "business". And let me tell you, non of them seemed to be homeless.

Me, assisted by a friend.

At some point, me and some friends got so much practice on it, that we started targeting the organic supermarkets, like Irma, for example. Imagine getting free organic food in one of the most expensive countries in the world. Insane.
In some other places, we found supermarkets that prefered to leave the food in shelves at their back for you to avoid touching the containers, I guess. Denmark was amazing!

Back shelves :)

There is also the surprise factor involved here. You never know what you are going to find, that means to try new products you have never eaten before, either because is something expensive or just exotic.

There is also an alternative if you dont want to put your hands into it but you still want some free food. Just go inside the supermarket and talk to the manager. We used to say the truth, that we were travelers with a low budget interested in anything they were not able to sell, mainly because of expiration. The picture below shows what we got in our 1st attempt. That was an ALDI in Copenhagen.

My rules:
-Try to take what is packed and sealed.
-When you open a container and you find many items of the same product, be careful, there could be some factory or origin issues with that product and the supermarket decided to throw away the whole cargo.
-No meat or related. The item could have been exposed to a variation of temperature that may affects it.
-Respect private property. Jumping over fences or breaking locks is a big NO. In some countries, Dumpster Diving is legal while in others not.
-Be respectful and do not leave a mess after the task.
-Priority to those who need it the most. In countries like Denmark where poverty is not an issue, DD is fine. But if you are in a place with the opposite situation just step aside and leave it to those who have less than you.
-Share. Share as much as you can, remember that you got it for free.

If you need more info, check out the official website for Dumpster Diving:
http://trashwiki.org/en/Main_Page

Thanks a lot!

Even flowers :)