Diane, a reader, emailed me over this interesting video. It really made me stop and think. One big word came to mind… Wasteful.
Would you dumpster dive for food? I’m sure at this point your answer is no… BUT you may think a little differently after watching this video. I’m not going to say much more, so go watch the video here and come back and let us know what you think.
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I’ll check it out and let you know!
i don’t think so and i think it is illegal in my state!
I think your right
No way… I don’t think I could do it. But props to her effort!!
I would never do that! I think places should donate the boxed and canned goods but its disgusting they are taking out veggies and fruits since they actually eat the outside of those produts!!!
I agree, I think stores or restaurants should donate unused foods to charity organizations. If none of the unsellable food landed in dumpsters in the first place, food could be put to good use without people actually having to jump into dumpsters and pulling out food.
i agree
Even if its not eaten…it could be composted (sorry to sound so granola, but it could make some great dirt!!)
I was thinking the exact same thing about composting! lol I was like look at all the veggies I can throw in my trash can to make some compost to grow some new veggies!
alot of places can’t donate stuff like this because of liability! If someone got sick from the food donated they could come back and sue the company who donated! It is a shame that this is the way it is!
I would so do that as long as I knew exactly where the food came from and if it was not illegal!
WOW!! I just *assumed* packaged items would be donated…and that’s what happens when you assume! Dumpster diving is still not for me though!!
Wow, I didn’t even know this type of activity existed. I don’t think we can do this in MA, and that seemed like a fairly clean dumpster compared to what I’ve seen, but I’d like to give props to those who do this because it seems to take a lot of effort.
Thats disgusting!!! how unsanitary is that?
The closest I’ve come to dumpster diving is the time my roommate and I were taking our recycling down to our apartment complexes recycling area and we saw some Jack in the Box and Burger King coupons in someone’s sales papers in the paper recycling. We took them. 😀
Just taking a little too far for me!
Yep not for me. But I agree it’s wasteful. You wonder if she just contacted the store if they would donate the stuff that they would throw out anyway. That way the food wouldn’t be in the dumpster. Knowing corporate policy though they would probably just want to throw it out.
Wow, that’s crazy! That must have been a garbage bin from a health food/organic store. When I worked for Trader Joes, any old food etc would go to a local animal shelter, so there was never a garbage bin like that. Seriously something is wrong though if that food is being thrown out. So many people could benefit from that food if it were taken to a shelter or something, even if there is a little bruise on it. Wow, what a waste of good food……….but, I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable doing that!
My friend actually dumster dives at our local Trader Joes on a regular basis…at first it was just their beautiful flowers (that still had a lot of life in them) and then she couldn’t resist the organic fruits and veggies that were on top still in the packaging, so actually not all Trader Joes donates them…you should see all the stuff she gets…not as much as the girl in the video, but still a ton!!!
as a mom, the cleanliness factor makes me cringe and say no way, but i’m glad she’s doing what she’s doing and bringing a whole new perspective on reducing waste
and money!!!!
not for me!!! But how sad that we are throwing away so much food when so many are going hungry. Can’t stores donate the food instead of throwing it away?
I would not do that so long as I have a choice. Rats like to hang out in dumpsters and they carry a million and one diseases. If some people want to to dumpster dive, I don’t have a problem with that. But its not a bad idea to pay some money for groceries since buying groceries keeps food stores in business and therefore supplies JOBS to their workers. Make money, save a little, spend a little. Lets keep our businesses that supply jobs to people running people!
I think this was featured on Oprah or another show, because i saw something on it probably a year ago. It’s sad how much food we waste in our country. I personally wouldn’t do it unless i absolutely had to, to feed my family.
yep i saw it to
I have a friend that used to dumpster dive for the Sunday coupon inserts. My husband won’t let me. ha ha For food? I’ll stick with: it’s illegal. I am proud to say we do not throw food away at our house.
I have never dumpster dived for food, but when I was a kid I lived by a florist and my step-mom and I would dumpster dive every other day for a beautiful fresh bouquet made up of their tossed out flowers.
I wish restaurants and stores could just give away the food. What if they could leave everything they are throwing away on the back dock instead of the dumpster. If people knew it was there, it would never make it into the dumpster. But if you ask, they tell you that it is illegal for them to give away food that is past the due date.
Yea but then why wouldnt you just shop the back door area rather than the actual store… I know it isn’t and excuse for throwing away, but yea it kinda is…
That is a very good point.
I don’t think I would ever engage in dumpster diving. thanks goodness we are all in a situation were we can afford our food… with the help of our coupons and hip2save tips of course!
Tips though… if you talk to your local grocery store, publix or kroger, jewel etc depending on your state. You can get large boxes of ‘bad’ fruit for under 5 bucks!
Talk to the head of produce, they toss out crates and large boxes, (i have trouble lifting them so they are large) we call the horse apples or pears. they usually only like to sell these for $3 were i am if you are using them for animals. But only five or ten apple out the the box are really bruised. the rest make amazing apple pies, breads, muffins etc.
Just something to think about. I love gifting my muffins to friends, and its super affordable this way.
I couldn’t do it even if it was legal. I think it’s sad if it’s good food they are dumping out when it could go to someone who really needs it. You just don’t know where it’s been or what it’s touched after it’s been in a dumpster.
Now if it’s not food and it was legal and it was something I wanted I would help myself. 🙂
i just went dumpster diving this past weekend for…… coupons! i can walk to my garbage place and on saturdays everyone brings there recyclables and by midmorning it is tall enough for me to reach in and take whatever. i got at rite aid this week almost 30 bottles of dish detergent with coupons that i got. dont know why i didnt do this sooner. it was fun. oprah had a whole show on this awhile back. i probably will never do it personally but i see the point of it being absolutely wasteful. i am glad somebody is using it!!
it totally sounds like they may be dumpster diving at trader joes because of all the organic stuff they mentioned..
i admit i curb shop when my town has spring and fall cleanup days because my husband and i know how to restore things but there is a limit to what we take. glass and wood are what we tend to stick with. i also will look for any antiques that can be cleaned up and vinyl records.
I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say! Why are the stores not donating these items?
liabilty! they don’t want to get sued if someone got sick!
I already knew that people in general, especially large corporations, are generally wasteful. More sickening than dumpster diving is the amount of good food that gets thrown out when it could be donated to people who are really hungry and in need.
As far as dumpster diving goes, I’d take the boxed stuff if it’s wrapped in plastic inside the box, but there’s no way I’d eat veggies or fruit out of a dumpster… maybe bananas since you peel the skin off, but that’s it.
Gross! I would never do that if I had a choice. It is sad how much food is just thrown out. You just don’t know where it’s been!
I could not believe how much food was wasted when there are so many homeless shelter that could use it. I wonder where this was filmed. I have done some dumpster diving but never for food
Char
If I had to do it, I would be the girl that was on the outside of the dumpster just standing there. I’ve been thrown in a dumpster before….gross.
Must say not for me! But I was shocked to see what she found..
I saw something like this on opera. New York has dumpster diving tours!
wow, that is all i can say! well maybe not…it is a shame all of that food is thrown away. i am not sure i could do this, but i guess if in a position to feed my family or not, i may reconsider. i dont know.
also interesting in asking the produce for horse apples/pears. now that, i may consider, at least once to see if the stuff is any good. my husband would have a cow….(pun intended!)
Disgusting + unsanitary + illegal = NO!
First of all, mice and rats enjoy tasty treats left in dumpsters, that is COMPLETELY disgusting considering how much disease they carry!
Would it just be lovely to have to be banned from your “diving” store by a manager who knew this was illegal?!?!? Good lord!
And I won’t even mention how unsanitary the practice of dumpster diving for food is. ICK!!!!
wow…could not do it, but 6 months of no grocery bill is impressive…i would rather clip coupons 😉
I would totally do this if I could find a buddy to do it with me!
If you were in the PNW, I’d be your buddy!
I would be your buddy too! I would so give this a try!
Ditto!
Its amazing how much food is being wasted all around the U.S. Specially organic food! I wonder what store is wasting all that because its a shame. It should be sent to food banks or given to those in need.
My props to her though. Though its something that has never come to mind to ever dig into a dumpster except for the one time I made my hubby reach a newspaper for the inserts lol. I think she probably cleans or rinses her products before she eats them. I doubt she would eat something bitten or rotten. People get worse diseases or cancer in time by consuming all the different products out there that have all these different ingredients. Whats worse?
forgot to mention the hormones next to ingredients lol
i agree!!!
Wow. How sad that this even happens. I doubt I could bring myself to do it just from my skepticism about cleanliness. But, at the same time, it is so very VERY wasteful!
I recall an article about a similar thing where the clothing stores destroy clothes rather than donate them because shelters don’t come get them on a reliable schedule and it costs to much for them to deliver them themselves. Sadness.
I might have to go hang out behind my Whole Foods and Earth Fare one night soon, though, just to see for my own eyes.
Not too sure how her plan will work during the months of July, August and September.
Did you see the Girl’s Website? Allison Burtch was her name. WOW! She is a feisty one. Her blog states that she didn’t agree with the way AOL advertised her video and edited most of it. I find this an interesting concept. Why wasn’t that food donated and dumpster diving is illegal in most states because of the injury that can be caused, not the “taking” of food. Most of the food she shows isn’t bad. I eat bruised bananas all of the time. You can puree and freeze them, make baby food, or make banana pudding. WOW! I have been changed by this.
Here’s my thought on it: Dumpster diving seems unsanitary but wasteful at the same time. I’m not saying I would ever dumpster dive because I’m with those of you who find it gross, but one thing most of us don’t think of is the meat we’re consuming. I can almost guarantee that each piece of meat sold in a regular grocery store, is way nastier than anything you’ll ever find in a dumpster. I’m not going to get into the whole factory farming issue, but it is a repulsive process. I’m in the middle of reading “Eating Animals”, and each page makes me more sick. Just sayin’!
It’s illegal for any store, or restaurant to donate items that they couldn’t sell in their establishment, due to expiration dates. I give her props for saving tons of money, but I don’t think I could feed my children food from a dumpster. With all the money we save from Hip2Save, I don’t think any of us are desperate enough for that.
Amen!
When my husband was in high school he and his friends knew what days things usually got tossed out at their local Hostess outlet store so they would go at night and get as many snowballs, ding dongs, cupcakes, and twinkies as they could get their hands on. It probably wasn’t the most healthy thing for them to do but they had fun.
I think one of the best points brought up in that video though is that even if something says it has expired, that doesn’t mean that it really has gone bad. My mother-in-law gave my husband and I a whole bunch of food that she had stored up when we got married. Most of the cans had passed their expiration already (some more than others) but after talking to some people who had more experience in this are than we did we decided to keep most of it around. We’ve eaten a bunch of canned corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc that has been up to a few years past the expiration date and haven’t gotten sick once.
If we ever pull a can off the shelf that has bulged or if we open it and it smells funny we do throw it away.
Also, my brother-in-law works in the dairy department at a grocery store and sadly most stores won’t donate food if it has passed it’s experation date. Although, if you know the person who is in charge of throwing out the food, you can sometimes score some pretty sweet free stuff.
One thing my husband and I learned when we got a great deal on yogurt and we realized we bought too much for us to eat before it reached the experation date is that yogurt freezes really well and it’s great to use in smoothies (which is one of our favorite foods).
thats funny! lol highschool yrs huh
haha yeah I thought it was gross at first but when I thought about what they were getting out of the dumpster I’m not sure there is anything that could make twinkies any worse haha
We do not dumpster dive, but when I find yogurt on sale, we buy like 20 or more 4 or 6 packs. I buy the latest expiration date. However, we cannot eat it before it expires. This stuff it good atleast a month paste expiration. I say that b/c it has so much sugar in it. If it looked or smelled funny, I would throw it out. Oh, and we always pray over it…LOL!
We do not dumpster dive, but when I find yogurt on sale, we buy like 20 or more 4 or 6 packs. I buy the latest expiration date. However, we cannot eat it before it expires. This stuff it good atleast a month paste expiration. I say that b/c it has so much sugar in it. If it looked or smelled funny, I would throw it out. Oh, and we always pray over it…LOL!
I use to work at a grocery store and we had people that would come in and buy all the old produce at a much lower price. I know it is not free but seem much more healthy to pay a few buck for food that you at least know did not spend time in a dumpster.
Dumpster Diving is a no, no for me but for those who can’t afford they will do anything and everything just to put food on the table. Back home ( philippines) it seems like you found a pot of gold if you see those kinds on foods in the dumpster. I’ll cut coupons, find deals, go to the food bank and as long as coupons is available in the US my family we will never go hungry.
I don’t think I could do this. Your “Follow me Monday” video inspired me to drop off three big boxes of items that we weren’t going to eat/use. I felt great doing it! Hopefully this will save a few families from needing to dumpster dive.
fyi – I recently dumpster dove in my recycle can for UPC codes for a rebate – luckily they were near the top!
ewe .. I could not do it..
When I was in high school we use to get the bakery items from Publix that they would throw away at the end of the day and sell them to make money for school fundraisers. There was nothing wrong with any of the stuff we would get and we would get cartfulls of food for free to help raise money for our class. I know I would never go into a actual dumpster to get anything – but I saw something on this once I want to say it was one of those True Life MTV shows— props to those who do- they are much braver then I am
glad to see i wasn’t the only one disgusted by this. it is really sad that amount of food is disposed of when it could go to someone (prior to dumpster) that needs it.
i couldn’t do it.
I’ve worked in the food industry for over 8 years, and all the waste I see kills me! Perfectly good food gets thrown away night after night. Unfortunately, health code permits us from donating ANY of the food, even prepared food that is not expired/bad in any way. So sad!
My husband drives a garbage truck and he tells me all the time about people doing this…as a matter of fact one night he backed up to the dumpster and loaded it onto the garbage truck and almost killed the person inside the dumpster because he had no way of knowing he was inside the can…..so beware…its not worth your life!
that’s why you take a buddy to watch your back! 🙂
eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!