Dumpster Diving to a Waste-Free L.A.
by Fay Li
December 10, 2009
Los Angeles is a city where people come to find fame and fortune. It’s a city that has an abundance of consumer products and also the consumers who strive for an upscale living of glitz and glamour. However, as a diverse city, we also find a group of people who choose a different lifestyle. They’re called Freegans.
"I see Freeganism as a way of living more simply, so you're using less resources...that would mean basically consuming less, so not using things that I don't need or if there's things that could be recycled or taken out of the waste stream, using that before I would go and buy something."
- Eric Einem, Freegan
For some Freegans, this alternative way of living is largely about waste, and especially food waste. To make a statement about the problem of food wastage in Los Angeles, Eric Einem and Grace Hill-Speed have become regular Dumpster Divers.
Dumpster Divers are people who literally dive into dumpsters to retrieve food that grocery stores, restaurants and others have thrown out. Typically, they’re not those who cannot afford to buy food, but rather, they’re voluntarily eating food that others have thrown out to make a statement about food wastage.
According to Jeremy Seifert, local filmmaker and creator of the documentary DIVE!, almost three billion pounds of food waste are throw out in Los Angeles County each year.
“Food makes up about 20% of landfill waste, which means we’re feeding our landfills as much as we’re feeding our country.”
- Jeremy Seifert
While massive amounts of food are being thrown out, Jeremy and his friends demonstrated their way of saving food. In the film DIVE!, they dove into the dumpsters of grocery stores to retrieve food that the stores have thrown out. From the film, we see that Jeremy was able to retrieve enormous amounts of food from the dumpsters, enough for himself and his family.
“ Eating food out of dumpsters is repulsive to most people, but there is a certain beauty seeing garbage transformed into a meal with friends.”
- Jeremy Seifert
Eric, Grace and Jeremy aren’t the only Dumpster Divers in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dumpster Diving Meetup Group holds regular events that bring together even more Dumpster Divers from Los Angeles.
“This meetup is for people who are interested in dumpster-diving, freeganism, living simply, reducing consumption, and reducing their ecological footprint.”
- Los Angeles Dumpster Diving Meetup Group
In the most recent meetup on December 4, the group met up in Pasadena and watched a screening of DIVE! before biking to various locations to dumpster dive.