“It doesn’t smell too offensive, does it?” asks Jeff Emtman as he peers into the open Dumpster underneath the night glow of a street lamp. Among clear trash bags and miscellaneous boxes, Emtman pulls out a 50-pound bag of rice, five pounds of potatoes, two gallons of milk, a half gallon of butter milk, and a jar of maraschino cherries within ten minutes of looking through a grocery store Dumpster.
Like many others, Emtman, a student at Western Washington University, has turned Dumpster diving into a regular hobby. His practice is not solely for economic reasons, but in order to make a political statement.
“I do it for two reasons: the selfish answer, it’s free food. The non-selfish answer [is] I’m giving a big middle finger to the global economic system of oppression,” Emtman said.
He is one of many in the country who relate to a movement of what is referred to as freeganism, the practice of living by choice in a way that utilizes the minimal dependency on economic means. Emtman says he is appalled at the amount of waste that is accumulated in the United States and one of his motivations for Dumpster diving is to help reduce what goes into the landfill.
According to many freegans and websites dedicated to the practice of freecycling, the American society is based on consumerism and obsessed with discarding and replacing goods. To eliminate some of the waste advocates of the movement dig through business’ Dumpsters looking to recover any food deemed still edible.
Curtis Himes an employee of Avenue Bread and an occasional Dumpster diver thinks that people feel that there is a lot of waste and try to salvage it.
As a Bellingham Dumpster hot spot, Avenue Bread is one of the downtown businesses on the freegan circuit. Along the alley way of Railroad Ave Himes says people mull through the back looking in Dumpsters for any left-over food.
Himes says he sees people of all demographics poking through the Dumpsters behind Railroad Ave, from middle-aged women, to homeless people, to students, Himes said he has seen it all. Although Avenue Bread and many other businesses in town try to limit as much food as possible in their Dumpster by donating to places like the Bellingham Food Bank, Himes says he is sometimes amazed at the amount of food people come out with.
Business, like Avenue Bread, recognize the significance in the no-waste movement, but still discourage people from Dumpster diving. Like many frequently Dumpster diving gold mines, Himes said Avenue Bread put locks on their Dumpsters in the past.
Officer Mark Young of the Bellingham Police said businesses discourage people from Dumpster diving because they are concerned about the welfare of the individual and the residual issues that could occur if the individual could get sick or injured.
Young says there is no specific law that restricts people from Dumpster diving in the city, but if a business owner makes a call with a complaint, the individual can be charged with trespassing, littering, or theft. He also points out that if a person gets sick from Dumpstered food or injured while in the process of retrieving it, the business could be held responsible.
Rusty and unsanitary items left in Dumpsters can be seen as a health issue for those who interact with the material, and Young says one of the health risks while Dumpster diving is the chance of contracting hepatitis. “I appreciate people trying to make a political statement but you just don’t want to carry around hepatitis with you for the rest of your life,” Young said.
Contrary to Officer Young, Emtman said he, nor has anyone he knows has ever gotten sick from Dumpstered food. He says the Dumpsters on the route he searches are usually pretty clean and the food he takes out is either has damaged packaging or is barely past the expiration date.
“It’s not that the product is bad or too old, but the store has received a new shipment and has to replace the older product with the new,” Emtman says of the milk he discovers with a week left before its scheduled expiration date.
Sometimes the reasoning for throwing out food that is within its expiration date is for minor reasons, like a slit or dent in the packaging. Non-profits like the Bellingham Food Bank are a resource for businesses to donate products with minor defects, but Emtman says this doesn’t always happen. “Stores can get lazy, and after an eight hour shift who is going to want to work longer to haul a load of food to the Food Bank?” Emtman said.
There is an effort by local businesses such as Avenue Bread to sell or donate extra food to places like the Bellingham Food Bank or Grocery Outlet. The question that still remains is, if people are able to access this surplus of food for free, why Dumpster dive?
For Emtman he says it’s like Christmas and he finds goods he’d never buy in a store. Himes says some people are doing it to make a statement, but others are doing it to have fun.
“Sometimes I’ll see kids in the dumpsters with armloads of stuff. I try to tell them if they need food they can just go to the Food Bank, but they say this is more fun. They’re just in there having a great time,” Himes said.
