File under 'alternative lifestyles'. Freeganism http://freegan.info/ What is a Freegan? Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed. Waste Reclamation We live in an economic system where sellers only value land and commodities relative to their capacity to generate profit. Consumers are constantly being bombarded with advertising telling them to discard and replace the goods they already have because this increases sales. This practise of affluent societies produces an amount of waste so enormous that many people can be fed and supported simply on its trash. As freegans we forage instead of buying to avoid being wasteful consumers ourselves, to politically challenge the injustice of allowing vital resources to be wasted while multitudes lack basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter, and to reduce the waste going to landfills and incinerators which are disproportionately situated within poor, non-white neighborhoods, where they cause elevated levels of cancer and asthma. 'Urban Foraging' (cough..) Perhaps the most notorious freegan strategy is what is commonly called "urban foraging" or "dumpster diving". This technique involves rummaging through the garbage of retailers, residences, offices, and other facilities for useful goods. Despite our society's sterotypes about garbage, the goods recovered by freegans are safe, useable, clean, and in perfect or near-perfect condition, a symptom of a throwaway culture that encourages us to constantly replace our older goods with newer ones, and where retailers plan high-volume product disposal as part of their economic model. Some urban foragers go at it alone, others dive in groups, but we always share the discoveries openly with one another and with anyone along the way who wants them. Groups like Food Not Bombs recover foods that would otherwise go to waste and use them to prepare meals to share in public places with anyone who wishes to partake [Editors note: dirty bastards. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!]. Eco-Friendly Transportation Freegans recognize the disastrous social and ecological impacts of blah blah blah... Therefore, freegans choose not to use cars for the most part. Rather, we use other methods of transportation including trainhopping, hitchhiking, walking, skating, and biking. Hitchhiking fills up room in a car that would have been unused otherwise and therefore it does not add to the overall consumption of cars and gasoline. Rent-Free Housing Freegans believe that housing is a RIGHT, not a privilege. Just as freegans consider it an atrocity for people to starve while food is thrown away, we are also outraged that people literally freeze to death on the streets while landlords and cities keep buildings boarded up and vacant because they can’t turn a profit on making them available as housing. Squatters are people who occupy and rehabilitate abandoned, decrepit buildings. Squatters believe that real human needs are more important than abstract notions of private property, and that those who hold deed to buildings but won’t allow people to live in them, even in places where housing is vitally needed, don’t deserve to own those buildings. In addition to living areas, squatters often convert abandoned buildings into community centers with programs including art activities for children, environmental education, meetings of community organizations, and more. Working Less / Voluntary Joblessness How much of our lives do we sacrifice to pay bills and buy more stuff? For most of us, work means sacrificing our freedom to take orders from someone else, stress, boredom, monotony, and in many cases risks to our physical and psychological well-being. By accounting for the basic necessities of food, clothing, housing, furniture, and transportation without spending a dime, freegans are able to greatly reduce or altogether eliminate the need to constantly be employed. We can instead devote our time to caring for our families, volunteering in our communities, and joining activist groups to fight the practices of the corporations who would otherwise be bossing us around at work. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! "Dirty bastards." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! "Help save planet Earth: give a tramp a lift." So: are they, as they claim, "people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources"? Or: are they - as Max and I believe - just a bunch of dirty bastards who are too lazy to work and who need a long spell in the armed forces? With all the food they can eat... and accommodation thrown in. At no extra charge.
Well, I think they tend to lurk round the backs of supermarkets more than round the back of your house. I wouldn't put anything past these types though. I advise securing your rubbish with a large padlock.
i have heard about this but i have never seen anyone do it, sure i have seen tramps and beggers but not freegans
If you've seen tramps and beggars, you've seen freegans. Freegans tend to wear a lot more badges but that's about it.
Holy shit shorty - we are Freegans! I have something to put in the fucking annoying "religion" box on government forms.
It is a waste of food. Surely it could be used by someone more deserving than these freeloaders. Years ago, waste food used to be fed to pigs.
Where have you been? I missed you!!!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Welcome back!
Don't you recognize his style? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! btw, I'm still mad at you for the spurious thing.
I luV you darling, not mad at you. :C~ Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! draqon is a meanie.:bawl: glad to have you back, safe and sound.
This thread is an obvious attempt to stoke hatred against innocent Freegans, who are merely doing their bit in saving the earth's resources. It should be immediately annihilated (or locked and cesspooled).
discussing an issue is the best way to achieve understanding of this issue by others. I want to become a freegan because I need to prolong my life ...for a certain purpose...
It's the pretence that they're doing it for progressive, holy, spiritual reasons that I resent. If they came out and said "yes, we're just scruffy, greedy freeloaders and we like getting something for nothing" I don't think I'd have a problem with it. Pff. Who am I trying to kid? I'd hate them then too. Just not as much.
I don't understand why with, supposedly, so many unemployed Americans looking for work, they are not employed to go through the trash and separate what is recyclable and reusable from "real" rubbish?
