So as I mentioned in the last post, my friend Mara and I had a plan to go dumpster diving on Saturday night (yeah we are that cool) and that we did. I went and picked up Mara, and we both began discussing how we really had no clue what was going to happen that night - perhaps we would find a few interesting items? Or maybe nothing at all. We decided to start with the CVS down the street from Mara's house.
So I hop in the dumpster, and Mara holds the flashlight. At first I just notice garbage, but before I know it I pull out a six-pack of Gatorade - score! At this point Mara and I think that we must have hit the jackpot, but we had no idea. In the next ten minutes or so I pull out a 24 can case of Monster energy drink, a 4 more Gatorade 6-packs, a 14 pack of Arizona 20oz teas, 4 6-packs of propel, and the crown jewel of 7 gallons of Arizona green tea! Needless to say we were pumped, but we end up wondering aloud about what a waste of drinks this was, but are glad that we are going to be able to keep it from going to waste.
Our next dumpster check is behind a big chain grocery store in a plaza, but we end up in the dumpster for the neighboring hair salon from which we rescue a sweet fully functional hair cutting chair (presently my friends new outdoor smoking chair). Just as we are going to move to the grocery store's dumpster, an employee comes out to throw in some garbage - so we decided it's probably good to try there on another night.
The last dumpster we hit up that night was another CVS just a short drive from our first stop, as we figure CVSs must be good sites. Mara grabs the flashlight and I hop in and start poking into the garbage bags. After a little inspecting I realize that the bag I am looking in is full of unopened snack foods. Wanting to investigate more, I pass the bag out to Mara, hop out of the dumpster, and we check out whats in side. Upon the discovery that the entire bag is full of unopened packages of cereal, cookies, sunflower seeds, and pita chips our initial excitement of free groceries turned into complete disgust with the wastefulness we were witnessing. The drinks did not upset us much, but something about the complete waste of this food made us sickened, especially since from working with non-profits I know that the local food banks accept food even if it is expired. Now I'm a little upset, but decided I should check out what else is in the dumpster, and am even further appalled as I find three more garbage bags full of food items.
Mara and I are now officially pissed. Both of us have worked with the local food bank and shelters in our areas, and cannot believe that such waste is occurring in our city! We decided to take all the bags of food and the drinks to my apartment to sort and inventory what all we had found. Perhaps, we wondered, there was some justifiable reason for tossing this amount of food.
About an hour later Mara and I were sitting in my apartment surrounded by 68 lbs. of food and 56 gallons of drink which had been thrown away. Even more surprising, only about 50% of the food was even expired! At this point our rage had cooled, but were no less disturbed by the waste that we now realized is happening at least on a weekly basis at these two locations. As we had been sorting and inventorying the items, we had been discussing the implications of our discoveries. All of this waste had come from only three random locations we had ended up at, so how much food was being wasted on a daily basis across our community? Way too much. We decided to offer the food to our neighbors and friends, who as poor college students were thankful and very pleased, but even after they chose some items, we had three Rubbermaid tubs left. Mara and I decided to take the extras to the food bank on Monday and see if they would accept them.
Here's the food and drink we found in two dumpsters! How crazy is that?Perhaps the most lingering question Mara and I had about this experience was why this food was being wasted. First we thought:
1. Businesses are worried about lawsuits if people get sick from the expired donaitons.
Nope. We looked online and there is a Good Samaritan law which protects individuals and businesses who donate items from lawsuits. No excuse here... but maybe:
2. The cannot pay and/or find employees to take the food to be donated.
Lame. The food bank in Erie has a pick-up program where you can arrange for foods to be picked up as often as needed. So it must be:
3. Businesses are not educated about the above material, or cannot be bothered to sort the food and set up the pick-up times.
I hope it's the first...
This morning Mara and I packed up the food and headed to the food bank to see if they would accept the donations. When we explained to the receptionist why we were there she called in the woman in charge of working with companies. We told her the whole dumpster story (I considered leaving out the dumpster part, but I just can't lie), and she told us that they couldn't accept the food because of Health Code reasons. We expected this would be the response, but the woman, Karen, agreed with our frustration with the waste of food. Karen told us that if we could give here the information on which stores were wasting this food that she would contact them to try to set up a donation pick up each week. Mara and I were ecstatic that Karen could hopefully stop the waste, and in addition before we left she gave us her information and asked us to let her know if we find other places that have good food in their dumpster. No prob Karen.
We left feeling much more cheerful, but still had three giant tubs of food in my car. We brainstormed a few different places that could use the donations, and we ended up stopping at a shelter just a couple blocks from my apt, and they were glad to have the donations. It was a relief to know that the food was now not going to waste.
Thus through this chain of events the Dumpster Vigilantes were born. Mara and I plan on going out tomorrow night (weather permitting) and checking out other stores for wastefulness. Hopefully we can help to change more of the waste into donations!
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