One Year Ago: Dumpster Diving in West Oakland

What a year, what a year! Last January, I was riding bikes around Oakland in search of delicious leftovers. Now that I’ve learned to dumpster dive, I’ll never be scared of it again. Here’s my report, from 1/18/09:

This is what I found in Oakland dumpsters this morning. Well, this and a croissant which I burned already in the toaster oven.

Today’s grocery run took about an hour and cost me $0, plus I got a workout biking across town. I came home with 3 loaves of artisan bread (sour, sweet, rye) and half a loaf of sliced sourdough; a head of organic lettuce; a bunch of organic sweet baby broccoli; 3 peppers; a half cantaloupe (still shrinkwrapped); a bunch of fresh sage and parsley; and a container of mango-papaya salsa.

This is the second time I’ve gone dumpstering since I got to Oakland. The first time took much longer, as Lex & I had to bike all over town to find the good spots. That time we supplemented our booty with some ground beef from the store. When we got home, the whole house pitched in and we had some kickass burger kabobs (like hamburgers, but on a stick and roasted in the firepit. Inspired by a Christmas ornament, but that’s another story for another day).

A few of my temporary housemates have worked in food service, which helps when you’re trying to figure out if something could be contaminated. And yes, that’s extremely important. I won’t get into the details of dumpster-diving etiquette, but if you’re interested, you can find a lot of information here and here.

What I can say is that it’s really not that hard, OR as messy as you might think. It’s fairly easy to find good, unspoiled food—and once you find good dumpsters, you can usually visit them over and over.

If you’ve got the right kind of friends, you’ll soon find that there are hidden treasures and well-kept secrets that provide steady streams of free food. I’ve heard of a few places where store employees have a deal with local freegans, and vast amounts of fresh-enough, still-sealed goods change hands in midnight parking lots.

Dumpstering is a good way to survive in the city without having to shop constantly, which is good for my wallet and just a useful skill to have. I’m still buying meat and dairy from the store, and taking my vitamins; if I were planning to stay in Oakland longer, however, I might try to make a real go of the urban-freegan thing.

As it stands, though, I’m headed North in a couple of days. Time to get back to the woods! See you there…

PS – Punks, freaks, and bums aren’t the only ones dumpster diving. Check out this article on Burt’s Bees’ $25,000 trash-unpackin.