If you're a FREEGAN or Dumpster Diver...

Save you the trouble of cutting it off yourself for the copper wire

 

When my parents had the little restaurant in St.kilda
If a homeless/hungry person came in , my mum would always give them a meal for free
As did most of the restaurants in Acland st
But that was 30 years ago

 

In my younger years as a poorly paid metal worker, had a girlfriend worked at KFC, she would place left over chicken in a bag by itself and dump it at exactly 2100, as soon as the door closed when she returned to the store it was ok to grab it. She would place it beside the bin, just a quick snatch and grab.

 

Ok ok ive dumspter dived in industrial areas years ago getting scrap steel & aluminium offcuts for my workshop i love free chrome moly , reynolds tubing , aircraft grade aluminium & marine stainless for free

 

HHMM marine stainless , drool

 

My wife and friends were excitedly keen one night and went out around newcastle only to find that the majority of places actually locked their bins at night. Still, it gave her enough context to blog about it

 

Thats a risk I'm not prepeared too take after working in a supermarket bakery. The dumped bread bin not only contained the nights overstock but any bread that had been droped on the floor or soiled and damaged in some other way thruout the day.
Yep all went into the one green bin and same black bag that got taken out at the end of the night. Couldn't do it myself knowing that the bun I might be grabbing from the black bag may just be the one that fell on the floor in the spot where the other staff member mucked inside some urine on the soles of their shoes after having a ciggy break out the back in the alley. Bon appetite. :/

 

Also used to work in an eletrical store and the reason that the cords were cut was because the product had been returned as faulty. So rather than have some dumpster diver thinking they had made a score and eletorcute themselves on a faulty item we had to cut off the cords to avoid injuring others.

 

S/S & aluminium compliments of Dehavilland they had a factory near where i lived

 

Yeah it's a shame they can't/don't give that to a womens refuge or something like that. It could go to some worthy people.

Following on from what others have said, I used to work at a pizzeria as a teenager and later at a large retailer in my time backpacking in the UK. The amount of completed pizzas and just unbaked unused doug they threw away was pretty amazing.

In the UK I took great advantage of the staff shop that contained quite a few delicacies. It was common for the staff shop to offer Scottish lamb at such a cut throat low price it stopped me eating lamb in restaurants in the UK for years.

One time got a side of Scottish wild salmon for a couple of pounds to eat with my flatmates - vegetarian girls. They said they ate salmon so I thought I'd do something nice. But it was smoked so they all said ''Ugh". We all sat in the living room as usual and they just sat there watching me eat the whole side.

"Are you going to eat the whole thing then?"
"Of course" - LOL Good times.

Then on the other hand, I used to know someone who worked here at David Jones in their food hall. The waste there is enormous, it was hard to believe the amounts they described. Management wouldn't open what was being turfed to staff at a reduced rate as they had the idea that some staff would exploit that and deliberately make or order too much. Given they already threw out tons of venison and foir gras as well as cheap potatos every week I think their decision making process was flawed.

 

Yeah, i've been on a few diving expeditions.

You have to be selective though. You don't want to be picking something that is there as a result of a product recall or something...

However one thing that is for certain is that store employees are lazy. Some of the best finds are where a single package amongst a box of multiple items has ruptured and leaked/spilled. They couldn't be bothered cleaning it up or finding the offending unit that has popped/broken/spilled. I've scored 5/6 1kg tubs of sliced peaches (goulburn valley no less) as the box had been dropped smashing one tub and covering the others with juice, 9/10 cans of soft drink - one ruptured and covering the others with sticky drink, 4/5 packets of sticky date pudding, one leaking powdered mix in the box. They obviously couldn't take the 1 minute it took me to identify the good ones and save them. There has been plenty of other finds, i just don't expect to feed myself on a regular basis.

This is all at the local woolies. They put a lock on the bins for a while but they soon forgot to use them.

Bill

 

Road treasure is a whole new topic. I love coming across a good bit of road treasure !

I've had some great finds - spanners, pliers and other assorted tools - things that you only see at walking/pushbike speeds.



Bill

 

Care to share a few stories?

 

Don't blame the companies blame the health department and their regulations.
I used to work at a buffet restaurant for 6 years, it all got chucked, not even employees could take anything home for fear of them getting ill and suing the shop.

 

Actually now you say that I've seen a few YT videos on US cities where the City government has effectively banned feeding the homeless through just such regulations. I think even New York is on the list.

The more legislation and regulations there are, the worse the unintended consequences are. Especially those consequences that were never thought of until some beaurocrat had the completed regulation on his desk and had to interpret the regulation for actual use. Once upon a time, in Common Law the courts would examine these things and strike them out or amend them to reasonable workability. But going on the episode of Judge Judy I watched today, the courts are clogged with people who are busy suing each other over the cost of 1x bicycle stolen and not recovered.

 

There are some restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and whatnot who do give away food leftovers to charity ... http://www.ozharvest.com.au/donatefood.asp?pageID=617

and at least in NSW if they donate food they are protected from liability http://www.ozharvest.com.au/donatefood.asp?pageID=618

 

Loving hearing these stories. Walking, biking and diving are all great ways to maximise the usability of products that someone else has thrown out.

Despite a few people here talking about soiled and filthy food and damaged goods, there is still a MASSIVE amount of goods that are thrown out for no other reason than either laziness or health regulations.

Living in Australia has afforded people so many luxuries that people are buying into the BS that we have to buy completely sanitised food or pristine products in order to be accepted. Especially if you're able to acquire reasonably intact fruit and veg. It's often as simple as rinsing them in some very diluted bleach and rinsing in clean water thoroughly (or vinegar if you're anti-harsh products). Regarding bread and other dry baked goods - seriously isn't hard to work out the bad loaves - squashed or wet- don't eat. Intact and dry - go for your life. Let's dispell a few myths here too while we're at it. Dry products are MUCH less likely able to be contaminated by microbes and even less able to foster microbial growth (most loaves are hard and crusty). In the absolute worse case scenario, cut the crust off. Where you want to use your mind, you'll be surprised at how many ways there are at achieving sustenance.

As a person who's somewhat of a 'hippy', I always challenge these very loose rules and don't blanket DD or any other form of scrounging into one lump. It's not a case of seeing one bad experience and writing the whole thing off. Most people have bad days at work, but it doesn't automatically make them want to quit straight up.

Another good tip is bolt cutters, avoiding light, and leaving your pride at home. Pride doesn't feed the needy.

 

"Another good tip is bolt cutters"
big no-no, that is how you ruin it for others

 

Sure.. if you get caught. The law can legislate as much as they want. If you are being locked out of a garbage can (which means its no longer your property) and you're in need of food and have bolt cutters, go for your life.

...I doubt there's much need for it these days anyway. The bins I'v seen are open.

 

Remember, legally all "rubbish" is still the property and responsibility of the owner until a valid transfer of ownership has occurred. Hence, unless invited, taking items from a bin (or from the rubbish dump etc) is technically/legally theft. Whether someone will take the time to actually prosecute is another matter, but just making sure people are aware. I believe items in communal bins (eg unit complex) are the property of the body corporate (until collected) but don't quote me on that.