Not homeless, the freegans: why do people voluntarily eat garbage


Yes, you read that right: the boys and girls from different countries are sure that everything you need can be found in landfills and dumps. They refuse to participate in the consumption of products for the money and call themselves freegans – the English free — “free” and vegan “veganism”.

But why is it necessary?

So they struggle with surplus production and save the environment. According to the report of the Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations, more than 30% of all the food produced in Western Europe, it turns out the garbage. And it is almost half a billion tons.

This spoiled food?


Do not have. Owners in developed countries is sometimes cheaper to throw away the entire batch of products than to hire a person to sort. For example, if a box of tomatoes few pieces is rotten, throw it all go. So it turns out that much of the “junk” food is fit for consumption.

And where is veganism?

Initially, feed at the dump up with radical vegans – people who do not eat animal products. But then it turned into the independent movement activists began to mine in the trash not only food, but clothing, and equipment, and everything necessary for life. Many of them quite tolerant of masiello and eat on the principle of “still lost”.

How does this affect their health?


Basically frigana not feed on leftovers or spoiled food – but quite normal food that someone just threw away. Most in original packaging – therefore, poisoning, or infection are rare.

At least, frigana, so they say. However, hardly any doctor will advise you to follow their example at least, because it is not hygienic. Besides, food can be tough storage conditions: even if the packaging says that the product is good, who knows, not spoiled if he, while lying in the trash?

And how many people are doing it?

No accurate data, but, it seems, quite a lot. Especially in the US and Europe is throwing away more good things, and the garbage is organized, not as in Russia. Employees of supermarkets and restaurants carefully pack the products in disposable plastic bags and just carry them on the street. Or put in clean garbage containers: freegans you just need to open them and take what is liked.

But in Russia freeganism – it extreme. We have overdue items rarely put on the street: apparently, homeless people don’t scare away visitors. And to sort garbage not accepted: edible products can get one container of toxic household chemicals. But here the activists are in the freegan community “Vkontakte” is already more than a thousand people.

Another fashionable modern movement, read the article “Who are biohacker and how they are going to become immortal?”.