Dumpster Diving: The Witness Evidence

Interested in freeganism but still don’t know where to start? Well, the first time is always difficult. To help you overcome your fears, Jon Miren, our expert in looking for the thrown-out treasures, told us about his first ‘dumpster diving’ experience:




“My cell phone rang. I clumsily tried to answer without using my fingers, as they were covered with egg yolk.  After a series of failed attempts and near drops, I managed to open it and take the call. On the other line was my girlfriend letting me know she wasn’t going to be home for dinner and that we didn’t have any food left at the apartment.  Coincidentally, I was already taking care of that situation. However, unlike all the other times when I have had to get the groceries for dinner, this time there were no tidy hallways with products arranged by category in neat colourful files inside a temperature-controlled environment, there were no lines of self-absorbed shoppers trying to isolate themselves from the rest of the customers by wearing headsets or staring into the bright screen of a smart phone.


No, this time was special! I had just come out of a garbage container behind a supermarket, where I had attempted, with some degree of success, to pull a few contortionist moves worthy of a spy film, in order to suspend myself on top of all the garbage by putting an extremity in each corner of the container and then letting go of one hand so I could go over all the food lying underneath me.  After a couple minutes of laughter and jokes, I was able to come out of the container with the help of Heather, she being the reason I was there in the first place.


After safely making it back to firm ground, we began dividing the bounty that consisted of several fresh oranges, 3 kg of hermetically sealed ‘fair trade coffee’, about twelve bananas, a couple of broccoli sprouts, 3 pre-made chicken sandwiches that still had two more days to go on their expiration date and a shrimp salad in similar condition! There wasn’t going to be any need for cooking that night! This was great news, considering that not only am I completely unimaginative when it comes to the culinary arts, but also tend to transform a tidy kitchen into a battered battlefield in matter of seconds.
Once the bounty was divided and I had put away my newly acquired ‘dumpster diving kit’ (a pair of rubber gloves, a thick plastic bag and a branch), goodbyes were said and I headed home.


After washing all the stuff I took with me, I found myself staring at the shrimp salad lying on my kitchen counter inside an unbroken plastic container.  To this day I don’t know what drove me to actually open it and eat it. Was it laziness brought by the idea of having to cook, a matter of principle (after all no matter where I had gotten that food from, I wasn’t about to throw away food!) or pure and simple hunger? The fact is that I ended up eating it all.


It was a couple of minutes after I had finished eating, when a wave of paranoia led me to commit the only mistake of that night: search online for the symptoms of shrimp food poisoning. This led to 4 hours of me being convinced at different points that I was getting dizzy, my vision was getting blurred and that I had a rash on my neck.


I am happy to report (and also a bit ashamed) that absolutely nothing happened to me! Since that afternoon, I have gone in various occasions to get my lunch from a dumpster. I have discovered new ‘hot spots’ and made new friends on every dive! So when it comes to dumpster diving, I only have two pieces of advice. First, try it! You can join the Facebook group called “save the food Malmo” and meet new friends, who will be more than happy to be your guides on your first dive, or refer you to the nearest dumpster in your neighbourhood. Secondly, take all the food but leave all fears and prejudices in the garbage.


If you are interested in getting your own dumpster diving experience or just getting to know more about the freeganism movement in Malmo, join the Facebook group “Save the Food Malmo” or even better, come to the event “Sustainable People, Sustainable Business, Sustainable World” and you will be able meet the activists of the movement in person!