I Love Trash (and other dumpstering films)

David, a buddy from college, was one of the first people to get me into dumpstering, along with his partner Liz and their friend Greg. David and Greg made a low-budget film called I Love Trash while in college where they asked the question "what if we don't buy any things for 3 months?" They started with a veggie-oil converted car and their rent paid on a completely empty apartment. Thus began the experiment. They documented their journey, and it's pretty informative and entertaining. It showed at a few film festivals, and is thankfully now streaming on the internet (I used to have a DVD of it that is currently lost in a box somewhere). It opened my mind to dumpstering as a normal (not necessarily revolutionary) practice. I hope it does the same for you. It's a little hippy dippy and philosophical at points, and there are more than the fair share of streaming ads, but I'd say it's worth it (plus it clocks in at under an hour and a half). It deals with all aspects of dumpster diving (not just food waste), and the results of David and Greg's experiment are eye-opening.

Here's the link:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/i_love_trash

Other great dumpstering movies include:

- French New Wave matron Agnes Varda's The Gleaners and I - Currently steaming on Netflix instant. Highly recommended, although slightly free-form compared to most documentaries. I haven't seen this film since I started actively dumpstering, so I plan to watch it again this week.

- Dive! The Film - I can't actually attest to this one, but it looks good. I ordered a copy of the DVD from their website about 2 months ago hoping to review it here on the blog and only received it today after emailing the filmmakers to let them know I was waiting on it. The filmmakers were incredibly nice about the whole thing. It sounded like their distribution company was at fault, because I got the DVD about 3 days after emailing the filmmakers, who emailed the distribution folks angrily. Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming review on this one...

- First the Dishes, Then the Revolution - A short film/ad made by the folks at InOur Hearts who produce Grub, which is a community dinner hosted about twice a month in Brooklyn made out of entirely dumpstered food. Some of the people being filmed ham it up, but it's a fun little film to watch.

More May Bounty in a New Spot

So, in a fit of staying up all night with two friends, Sean and Stephen, there was much dumpstering to be had!

Sean and Stephen came over after they had hit a Panera and a Dunkin' Donuts already, looking for some help with finding a spot to dumpster for groceries. At this point, it was already almost dawn, but I grabbed my head lamp anyhow.

We started by heading over to Trader Joe's. Much to our chagrin, the dumpster was completely empty (and I had learned a valuable lesson about my Trader Joe's trash pick-up time).

On the way back to my house is a Food Lion, which I had never dumpstered at before, so I figured we could give it a try in case the dumpsters were still full there.

AND OH BOY WERE THEY FULL!

It was a sea of bananas, boxes, and produce! I found a full box of meat and fish right off the bat, which was still cold, but I didn't want to try my luck on any of it. I think it still would have been PERFECT if we'd shown up closer to when they threw it out- another valuable lesson learned. The Trader Joe's in my town doesn't stock much meat, so I barely dumpster any there. It's exciting to have found a place that stocks more.

The quality of the produce wasn't as good as Trader Joe's, but the variety was pretty bangin'.

Sean and Stephen walked away with about a full grocery bag each of produce including spinach, potatoes, apples, etc. The list below is what I ended up with.

5/30/11 BOUNTY:

- 1 pkg shitake mushrooms (mostly bad, but I salvaged a few good ones)
- 1 pkg sliced baby portabella mushrooms
- 2 portabella mushroom tops
- 2 squash (unsure of the type - both pretty small)
- 1 Del Monte Vegetable Tray w/ dip (including broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, & celery)
- 1 bag cauliflower (not in the best shape, but not bad either)
- 1 bag collard greens
- 1 pkg romaine lettuce
- 2 bunches of bananas (all but 2 bananas frozen for smoothies)
- 3 oranges
- 3 apples
- 1 lime

I feel like we could have come away with more, but the dumpsters weren't very well organized - instead of the neat bags that Trader Joe's uses, it was kind of a mess. There was also a pretty large margin between the good and bad produce. I'll be curious to try out this new dumpster again closer to closing time so that I can get still-frozen meat. I'm reticent to dumpster at Food Lion regularly because they close at midnight. That means I'd have to purposely stay awake to dumpster, whereas Trader Joe's closes at 9 and I can go right away on my way home from work...I may have to make a point of staying awake for the possibility of meat, though!

Next time...

Encounters with THE ENEMY and new friends

It's been a big few weeks on the dumpster front.

Recently, I've made a habit of stepping into Trader Joe's (ENEMY TERRITORY) instead of just their dumpster, which has proved to be informative. It's always good to scope out the stores that you are scavenging from so you can get an idea of sell-by dates and what's available. Plus, you can give back to the stores that "give" you so much for free!

Things I have learned about THE ENEMY after infiltrating:

1) It's smaller than it looks on the outside. There's far less of everything than a bigger grocery store, which makes sense as to why my plunder is usually so varied or unreliable. Granted, I've been to a few other Trader Joe's recently and they seem bigger than the one closest to me.
2) I don't dumpster much meat (other than frozen stuff) from Trader Joe's ever - it's because they sell about 3 packages of meat and fish - their meat section is TIIIINY.
3) All the cashiers at Trader Joe's (minions of THE ENEMY) look way cooler and more interesting than anyone else I've really met in my area. Where have they been hiding? I need cool new friends now that I've uprooted from Baltimore! Maybe enemies can be friends too - if any Trader Joe's cashiers ever read this - let's be frenemies!

Speaking of cool new friends, I recently had the pleasure of dumpstering the other night with my climbing buddy's brother, Daniel. We had all just climbed our butts off and Daniel (being a reader of my blog) suggested we go get some groceries.

Upon arriving, there was a big, ominous van by the dumpster...I was initially skeptical...scared even. But, Daniel and I braved through and started looking around. There were two ladies putting bags from the carts into the back of the van. Had we just encountered other elusive non-city dumpster divers?

I made the usually great decision of using my social awkwardness to my advantage, and went over to say hello (generally, when you maybe shouldn't be someplace, the best thing is to pretend that you're oblivious to that fact and to act non-threatening).

After chatting for a bit, the ladies explained they were from a Seventh Day Adventist charity collecting donations for a homeless shelter. My previous tip-off had been wrong! The shopping carts I would sometimes find outside were in fact not for the taking. I felt horrible. Then, they asked what charity we were from...

"Uhm...we don't work for a charity. We're just poor college graduates trying to save grocery money to pay off loans."

The women got concerned about whether or not we were breaking the law (we weren't), and then more concerned about us going hungry - they even offered us a bag of ciabatta rolls (which we graciously took), but something about the encounter left me feeling kind of like a sham, like I was taking something that someone else deserves more.*

After finding out that the carts are off-limits, both Daniel and I respectfully went through the dumpster instead, and even spoke to an ENEMY manager. He said he didn't have a problem with dumpstering as long as we cleaned up. Apparently, dumpstering is rampant at the Silver Spring Trader Joe's - so rampant that the staff started writing the contents of the bags in sharpie so that divers didn't have to look so fervently or for as long. Super-cool!

I guess corporate enemies can secretly be friends after all...

Daniel made out with some cranberry juice, spaghetti, chicken tenders, onions, and about the same stuff as I did...

(He had the resourcefulness to already have a bag in the car. I did not, and it was cumbersome. Bags or crates plus a headlamp are must-haves for the night plunder!)

2/28/11 Bounty:

- 1 pkg tahini-free hummus
- 1 pkg Cajun-style chicken fettucine alfredo (frozen)
- 2 roma tomatoes
- 7 on the vine cherry tomatoes
- 3 gala apples
- 1 bag of granny smiths
- 2 ciabatta rolls
- 1 pkg whole wheat pizza dough
- 1 dispenser of French Hand Soap (seriously my favorite-smelling liquid soap ever)
- 1 pkg whole wheat flour tortillas
- 1 pkg pre-cut carrots & celery
- 2 individually wrapped "thin" chocolates

I enjoyed the chocolate after washing all the food off at home - serious nomz! The carrots & celery have already been made into a big batch of Jeremy's Soup.

*Shameless plug: This is why volunteering for homeless shelters collecting food donations or (even better) advocating for Food Not Bombs is so important as a dumpster diver. There are so many people who are hungrier and more destitute than most of us, and so much food gets wasted every day. The injustice is ridiculous and heart breaking.