@thetrashwalker
August 8, 2021 3:27 AM Subscribe
The woman who rifles through New York’s garbage – exposing the city’s excesses (The Guardian) – Anna Sacks documents her ‘trash walks’ on social media, shining a light on the everyday shame and indignity of producing and living with so much waste
Agreed that all this waste is shameful, yet I’m concerned all this will inspire people to start pulling furniture off the curb again like we did before the bedbug epidemic. Those of us who lived here in the mid-to-late aughts and early teens will never forget. But more recent arrivals have no memory of a time when 1/5 to 1/4 of their friends had to deal with a bedbug infestation.
posted by panama joe at 6:31 AM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by panama joe at 6:31 AM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
The manager of a Food Emporium down here in Tribeca would put all the usable food, cheeses etc, in clean bags and set that on top, in hopes people take it, just don't make a mess. But in this neighborhood, there is likely to be no overlap between customers and scavengers, might be different in other areas. A friend in West Virginia got a job as "the food spoiler" at a market, piercing the items with a sharp metal rod, and pouring bleach on it. In that area I think many people would take any decent food sitting out there, rather than purchase it.
I asked the manager how they could afford to waste 6 still-hot roasted chickens, and the manager said, "we already got our value from it, just having it on display encourages shopping", but after that comment, they started taking out the breasts for chicken salad in the food bar.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:02 AM on August 8, 2021 [3 favorites]
I asked the manager how they could afford to waste 6 still-hot roasted chickens, and the manager said, "we already got our value from it, just having it on display encourages shopping", but after that comment, they started taking out the breasts for chicken salad in the food bar.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:02 AM on August 8, 2021 [3 favorites]
it is certainly possible to feed, clothe, entertain, and house yourself from stuff in dumpsters and the trash. but there is not a lot of incentive for them to let you do so... that said, i peak into every dumpster i pass by and still jump into quite a few of them.
posted by danjo at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by danjo at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Then he would use a box cutter to slice them up.
I first encountered this willful inventory destruction (of food! With hungry people nearby!) to preserve market share in Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath. The oranges, and kerosene.
posted by Rash at 8:46 AM on August 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
I first encountered this willful inventory destruction (of food! With hungry people nearby!) to preserve market share in Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath. The oranges, and kerosene.
posted by Rash at 8:46 AM on August 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
Meanwhile, there's $4B in new "carbon capture" subsidies in the new compromise "infrastructure" bill in order to keep Dow's profit model afloat. you know, the profit model that pollutes the ocean with plastic gyres and produces a quarter of the US's carbon emissions? While giving Black kids in Reserve, LaPlace, and Hahnville childhood leukemia at unallowable rates?
The model of overproduction is cooked into the nation's economic plan at the highest, simplest levels, even if you just do basic algebra on their carbon math.
posted by eustatic at 9:06 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
The model of overproduction is cooked into the nation's economic plan at the highest, simplest levels, even if you just do basic algebra on their carbon math.
posted by eustatic at 9:06 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I had housemates once who kept our freezer stocked with loaves of sliced bread from a local bread bakery. The bakery had a separate dumpster into which they only put sliced bread, good as new. Which we all quite appreciated.
posted by aniola at 9:36 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by aniola at 9:36 AM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
For anyone reading Splunge's comment, this of course goes far back before the 1970s. Here's John Steinbeck writing in 1939 in The Grapes of Wrath:
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
None of this is accidental. When she wrote the CEO of CVS and got permission from a regional manager to donate thrown out items from some locations, that wasn't systemic change (CVS has 10,000 locations); that was a PR move. And this granted permission will be forgotten about a month later and she'll have to go through the entire promise again when the security guards start hassling her. These bureaucratic and policy obstacles are not unintentional. They will make you walk miles to take the fruit, but in the end it can not be. None of this is accidental.
But the most disappointing part of this article is here:
Because Sacks’s videos pull back the veneer of corporate pledges to commit to sustainability, they are often shared by followers who say capitalism is the root problem. But Sacks says she finds that argument “polarizing” and that it “immediately alienates” those who equate critiques of capitalism as endorsement of socialism or communism.
I'm sure there were many folks who thought the system of chattel slavery could be reformed. Maybe just add a few protections and guarantees, and they could continue with an ethical form of slavery. Unfortunately, the issue was just an inherently, uh, "polarizing" one: We fought a war over it and over a million Americans died.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:07 AM on August 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
None of this is accidental. When she wrote the CEO of CVS and got permission from a regional manager to donate thrown out items from some locations, that wasn't systemic change (CVS has 10,000 locations); that was a PR move. And this granted permission will be forgotten about a month later and she'll have to go through the entire promise again when the security guards start hassling her. These bureaucratic and policy obstacles are not unintentional. They will make you walk miles to take the fruit, but in the end it can not be. None of this is accidental.
But the most disappointing part of this article is here:
Because Sacks’s videos pull back the veneer of corporate pledges to commit to sustainability, they are often shared by followers who say capitalism is the root problem. But Sacks says she finds that argument “polarizing” and that it “immediately alienates” those who equate critiques of capitalism as endorsement of socialism or communism.
I'm sure there were many folks who thought the system of chattel slavery could be reformed. Maybe just add a few protections and guarantees, and they could continue with an ethical form of slavery. Unfortunately, the issue was just an inherently, uh, "polarizing" one: We fought a war over it and over a million Americans died.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:07 AM on August 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
If you've ever encountered a book with the cover torn off, that's what this is about.
I worked at a Borders many years ago and clearing out the old inventory was a big deal. For books that don't sell, obviously we don't want them around, but a lot of the times the publisher doesn't want them back (because books are heavy to ship and a pain in the ass to deal with and the damn thing isn't selling anyway). So you tear the cover off and send them the cover the way you would the head of your foes. They credit you for a book not sold. And what happens to the perfectly-good-except-for-the-cover book?
You are supposed to destroy them.
Now some places/managers recognize that, look, you have a book that's already not selling and now doesn't have the cover, it's not like you're going to make anything from it anyway, take the damn thing. But a of places take it extremely seriously and treat it like stolen property. Our managers threw themselves into making sure not a single one slipped out, tearing the book in half along the spine and scattering the pieces into different boxes before we took everything out to the dumpsters. (I think with CDs, it was removing and sending back the liner notes).
The dumpsters were watched by security cameras and Loss Prevention guys would lurk in the bushes out there some nights. Sometimes it was to prevent what I'd call actual theft, that is, employees could hide things in the outgoing trash, then go root around in the trash and pick it up and sell it on eBay or something. That makes a kind of sense.
It was completely absurd to me, the amount of time and money and effort that went to literally policing the trash. But it's also, you know, we have to uphold this whole show, that we are selling valuable things, so valuable they must be protected even when nobody wants them and they're going to be turned into pulp for the next valuable thing we must protect.
Watching the managers and LP guys get super into, like, dumpster stings in the way that petty tyrants given a bit of power do was also extremely funny. Like you're not stopping bank robbers or murderers, Jake, you're spending your night hiding in the bushes beside a dumpster to stop people making $8 an hour from flipping unsold Moby CDs on eBay for weed money.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:19 AM on August 8, 2021 [31 favorites]
I worked at a Borders many years ago and clearing out the old inventory was a big deal. For books that don't sell, obviously we don't want them around, but a lot of the times the publisher doesn't want them back (because books are heavy to ship and a pain in the ass to deal with and the damn thing isn't selling anyway). So you tear the cover off and send them the cover the way you would the head of your foes. They credit you for a book not sold. And what happens to the perfectly-good-except-for-the-cover book?
You are supposed to destroy them.
Now some places/managers recognize that, look, you have a book that's already not selling and now doesn't have the cover, it's not like you're going to make anything from it anyway, take the damn thing. But a of places take it extremely seriously and treat it like stolen property. Our managers threw themselves into making sure not a single one slipped out, tearing the book in half along the spine and scattering the pieces into different boxes before we took everything out to the dumpsters. (I think with CDs, it was removing and sending back the liner notes).
The dumpsters were watched by security cameras and Loss Prevention guys would lurk in the bushes out there some nights. Sometimes it was to prevent what I'd call actual theft, that is, employees could hide things in the outgoing trash, then go root around in the trash and pick it up and sell it on eBay or something. That makes a kind of sense.
It was completely absurd to me, the amount of time and money and effort that went to literally policing the trash. But it's also, you know, we have to uphold this whole show, that we are selling valuable things, so valuable they must be protected even when nobody wants them and they're going to be turned into pulp for the next valuable thing we must protect.
Watching the managers and LP guys get super into, like, dumpster stings in the way that petty tyrants given a bit of power do was also extremely funny. Like you're not stopping bank robbers or murderers, Jake, you're spending your night hiding in the bushes beside a dumpster to stop people making $8 an hour from flipping unsold Moby CDs on eBay for weed money.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:19 AM on August 8, 2021 [31 favorites]
Ironically, I have a shitty work story on the other extreme. Summer 1993 I worked the concessions stand at a movie theater. Some of management's cost-saving measures included:
1. bagging up unsold popcorn at the end of the day, and reusing it in the morning, mixing the old in with a new batch or two;
2. recycling unsold hot dogs day after day until it sold or became so obviously grotesque that no one would buy it;
and 3. sweeping up spilled candy from the self-serve bulk candy dispensers and recycling into the "Super Mix" variety dispenser.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:35 AM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
1. bagging up unsold popcorn at the end of the day, and reusing it in the morning, mixing the old in with a new batch or two;
2. recycling unsold hot dogs day after day until it sold or became so obviously grotesque that no one would buy it;
and 3. sweeping up spilled candy from the self-serve bulk candy dispensers and recycling into the "Super Mix" variety dispenser.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:35 AM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
I have a lovely antique vase that my grandfather pulled out of the trash probably before I was born. I also remember him giving me barrettes he found in the trash. He had grown up in dire poverty in Lithuania. He probably couldn't believe what people threw away. But that normalized dumpster diving for me. I also went to grad school with a guy who dumpster dove to sell things to a snooty consignment shop in our town - I just loved imagining all of these rich people buying stuff he found in the trash.
I first became aware of dumpster diving as more of a way of life in an excerpt from Lars Eigher's book Travels with Lizbeth, which is a good read if you're interested in just how well people can live on other people's trash. I vaguely remember him saying that what separates the true dumpster diver from the dilettante is the willingness to eat food you find in the trash (I think he estimated he got food poisoning about once a month).
People throwing things out in this way is wasteful and wrong - but the way that corporations go about it - that seems like such a great evil that it makes me wish for a vengeful God.
posted by FencingGal at 12:15 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
I first became aware of dumpster diving as more of a way of life in an excerpt from Lars Eigher's book Travels with Lizbeth, which is a good read if you're interested in just how well people can live on other people's trash. I vaguely remember him saying that what separates the true dumpster diver from the dilettante is the willingness to eat food you find in the trash (I think he estimated he got food poisoning about once a month).
People throwing things out in this way is wasteful and wrong - but the way that corporations go about it - that seems like such a great evil that it makes me wish for a vengeful God.
posted by FencingGal at 12:15 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
Travels with Lizbeth
As an overweight person, he said one problem was leaning into the dumpster and having your butt become exposed. So he collected a ton of yarn from some kind of sorority treasure hunt with yarn strung around as clues, and using two TV antennas, he knitted himself an extra long sweater that went down to his knees, so he could tip himself into the dumpsters with dignity.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:34 PM on August 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
As an overweight person, he said one problem was leaning into the dumpster and having your butt become exposed. So he collected a ton of yarn from some kind of sorority treasure hunt with yarn strung around as clues, and using two TV antennas, he knitted himself an extra long sweater that went down to his knees, so he could tip himself into the dumpsters with dignity.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:34 PM on August 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
Summer 1993 I worked the concessions stand at a movie theater. Some of management's cost-saving measures included:
One of these things is not like the others. I worked in and subsequently managed a movie theatre in the late eighties and early nineties — a small independent rep house — and I have a bunch of friends from that era who worked in everything from tiny one-screen places to sprawling chain megaplexes. Hanging on to the unsold popcorn at the end of the day and mixing it in with the first batches the following day was standard everywhere. I dunno how long it stays acceptably fresh wrapped in a sealed plastic bag, but definitely more than eighteen hours.
It’d be a more shocking story if the management had been insisting that you throw it away every night.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:37 PM on August 8, 2021
One of these things is not like the others. I worked in and subsequently managed a movie theatre in the late eighties and early nineties — a small independent rep house — and I have a bunch of friends from that era who worked in everything from tiny one-screen places to sprawling chain megaplexes. Hanging on to the unsold popcorn at the end of the day and mixing it in with the first batches the following day was standard everywhere. I dunno how long it stays acceptably fresh wrapped in a sealed plastic bag, but definitely more than eighteen hours.
It’d be a more shocking story if the management had been insisting that you throw it away every night.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:37 PM on August 8, 2021
Speaking of throwing birds away, they've probably stopped doing it by the millions in the egg industry by now.
posted by aniola at 12:38 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by aniola at 12:38 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
what separates the true dumpster diver from the dilettante
When I discovered the vast amount of perfectly good food being dumped down here daily, I would point that fact out to the homeless and other people who seemed like they needed some food. But most of these people would not reach into the dumpster themselves to get the food, however if I went in and handed it over to them they would eat it, so that kind of became my role, handing off food from the dumpster to the hungry people standing around and waiting nearby to receive it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:42 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
When I discovered the vast amount of perfectly good food being dumped down here daily, I would point that fact out to the homeless and other people who seemed like they needed some food. But most of these people would not reach into the dumpster themselves to get the food, however if I went in and handed it over to them they would eat it, so that kind of became my role, handing off food from the dumpster to the hungry people standing around and waiting nearby to receive it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:42 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
what separates the true dumpster diver from the dilettante
In this very wealthy neighborhood, many household goods, including working computers, are regularly discarded. One street person referred to me respectfully as a "black bagger", meaning I would check sealed black bags and not just go for what was readily visible upon casual observation. And it's not scavenging, its upcycling.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:55 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
In this very wealthy neighborhood, many household goods, including working computers, are regularly discarded. One street person referred to me respectfully as a "black bagger", meaning I would check sealed black bags and not just go for what was readily visible upon casual observation. And it's not scavenging, its upcycling.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:55 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
But most of these people would not reach into the dumpster themselves to get the food
Why is this? I can imagine being squeamish about the food, but if you're gonna eat it anyway that's not the problem. Fear of getting caught/in trouble?
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:04 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Why is this? I can imagine being squeamish about the food, but if you're gonna eat it anyway that's not the problem. Fear of getting caught/in trouble?
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:04 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I can imagine being squeamish about the food, but if you're gonna eat it anyway that's not the problem
Seemed to me it was about retaining some shred of dignity.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:07 PM on August 8, 2021 [5 favorites]
Seemed to me it was about retaining some shred of dignity.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:07 PM on August 8, 2021 [5 favorites]
OK, I can see that
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:18 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:18 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Also: vermin.
posted by praemunire at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
I dunno how long it stays acceptably fresh wrapped in a sealed plastic bag, but definitely more than eighteen hours.
We somehow ended up with several enormous bags of movie theater popcorn at an old job. (These bags were like 3 feet high.) We ate that stuff for weeks. Never tasted any different.
posted by Mavri at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
We somehow ended up with several enormous bags of movie theater popcorn at an old job. (These bags were like 3 feet high.) We ate that stuff for weeks. Never tasted any different.
posted by Mavri at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
Hanging on to the unsold popcorn at the end of the day and mixing it in with the first batches the following day was standard everywhere.
Not sure that makes it OK? I mean, certainly we would never tell the customers that some of their popcorn is at least a day old. People would often wait to get a fresh batch. I don't personally think it is terrible, certainly not as bad as the other 2 things I mentioned, but, again, it's not like the management wanted it broadcast.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:45 PM on August 8, 2021
Not sure that makes it OK? I mean, certainly we would never tell the customers that some of their popcorn is at least a day old. People would often wait to get a fresh batch. I don't personally think it is terrible, certainly not as bad as the other 2 things I mentioned, but, again, it's not like the management wanted it broadcast.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:45 PM on August 8, 2021
So is she taking stuff out to give away or alerting people/groups who could use this stuff or is she just publicizing the waste?
posted by Ideefixe at 3:29 PM on August 8, 2021
posted by Ideefixe at 3:29 PM on August 8, 2021
I was surprised to move from a city where a significant number of stores carefully box and segregate the still-good stuff and set it outside of the dumpster to a city where all the dumpsters have locks on them. It's not really that hard to avoid being a jerk, as a store manager, even if corporate headquarters won't approve of it in writing.
Even as a broke student, the amount of time required for dumpster diving rarely seemed worth it except for construction supplies and art objects. Picking through rotten plums to find the edible ones isn't actually more fun than the shit job you'd need to get to buy plums inside the store. But, it almost certainly is a more sustainable and responsible choice. Cheers to those who have the patience to do it regularly.
posted by eotvos at 4:15 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
Even as a broke student, the amount of time required for dumpster diving rarely seemed worth it except for construction supplies and art objects. Picking through rotten plums to find the edible ones isn't actually more fun than the shit job you'd need to get to buy plums inside the store. But, it almost certainly is a more sustainable and responsible choice. Cheers to those who have the patience to do it regularly.
posted by eotvos at 4:15 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
certainly not as bad as the other 2 things I mentioned, but, again, it's not like the management wanted it broadcast.
Huh. I don't recall ever being enjoined to secrecy about this SOP.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:26 PM on August 8, 2021
Huh. I don't recall ever being enjoined to secrecy about this SOP.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:26 PM on August 8, 2021
It's not really that hard to avoid being a jerk, as a store manager, even if corporate headquarters won't approve of it in writing.
One of my grad school classmates was the night manager at the McDonald’s where she had worked during high school and college. She started leaving the wrapped “timed out” food near, but not in, the dumpster to make life easier for people who needed it. As it turned out, that was a fireable “offense.”
posted by carmicha at 4:50 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
One of my grad school classmates was the night manager at the McDonald’s where she had worked during high school and college. She started leaving the wrapped “timed out” food near, but not in, the dumpster to make life easier for people who needed it. As it turned out, that was a fireable “offense.”
posted by carmicha at 4:50 PM on August 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
My managers at Great Harvest Bread had day-old bread set aside to donate (I assume to a foodshelf). To discourage the employees from taking it all, we were given "Harvest Bucks" so that we could "buy" the fresh stuff. One of my coworkers would always take the donation bread anyway, and I could never figure out why. Who exactly was she sticking it to?
posted by Emmy Rae at 5:24 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Emmy Rae at 5:24 PM on August 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
Sometimes when I see what my building neighbors throw out I can barely contain my anger.
I was surprised to move from a city where a significant number of stores carefully box and segregate the still-good stuff and set it outside of the dumpster to a city where all the dumpsters have locks on them. It's not really that hard to avoid being a jerk, as a store manager, even if corporate headquarters won't approve of it in writing.
The Trader Joe's near where I live fills a cube van every week with food they will no longer sell for the local food pantry. Including cut flowers. Solid Mensch move in my book.
posted by srboisvert at 5:31 PM on August 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
I was surprised to move from a city where a significant number of stores carefully box and segregate the still-good stuff and set it outside of the dumpster to a city where all the dumpsters have locks on them. It's not really that hard to avoid being a jerk, as a store manager, even if corporate headquarters won't approve of it in writing.
The Trader Joe's near where I live fills a cube van every week with food they will no longer sell for the local food pantry. Including cut flowers. Solid Mensch move in my book.
posted by srboisvert at 5:31 PM on August 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
“I get so many comments [on Instagram] that say, well, corporations want to donate but they can’t because they’ll be sued,” she says. Yet in 1996, Congress passed the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act in order to create a national standard around the liability faced by food donors, as state laws vary widely. The act offers protection from criminal and civil liability to people who donate food that meets certain requirements to nonprofit organizations. Restaurants and retail grocers are covered under the act, but Sacks argues not enough people or businesses know about it or take advantage of it.
Parallel to realizing the bounty of usable goods found in dumpsters I began noticing locked bins and dumpsters more and more which is just another unjust step taken by retailers who invariably cite the risk of being sued for injury or illness caused by the people going through their discarded goods.
The documentary Dive was what first opened my eyes to both the abundance of edible food put in dumpsters and the ridiculous lengths that corporations - and even some smaller stores - took to to destroy items that could so easily be donated to charity or given to their employees. I recommend it.
posted by bendy at 5:37 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Parallel to realizing the bounty of usable goods found in dumpsters I began noticing locked bins and dumpsters more and more which is just another unjust step taken by retailers who invariably cite the risk of being sued for injury or illness caused by the people going through their discarded goods.
The documentary Dive was what first opened my eyes to both the abundance of edible food put in dumpsters and the ridiculous lengths that corporations - and even some smaller stores - took to to destroy items that could so easily be donated to charity or given to their employees. I recommend it.
posted by bendy at 5:37 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I remember Lars Eighner's book very well, as I found the essay that leads it off, "On Dumpster Diving" [PDF], a short time after I could have really used it. (I was never really homeless, although I couch-surfed for some months, but there were times when I had to skimp on food to pay for other things.) The advice still seems mostly solid; WRT the deliberate ruination of discarded food, Eighner notes, "Just before the pizza shop stopped discarding its garbage at night, jalapenos began showing up on most of the discarded pizzas. If indeed this was meant to discourage me it was a wasted effort because I am native Texan." He also has some hate for can scroungers; interestingly, that particular form of garbage gleaning was considered OK when I was a kid in rural Wisconsin. (In fact, several kids supplemented their allowance by scrounging aluminum cans in our small town, because they were beer cans and it was Wisconsin.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:53 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:53 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't recall ever being enjoined to secrecy about this SOP.
I don't know that I was either, but along with putting candy that had been on the floor of a movie theater lobby back into the dispenser (without cleaning it, mind you), it was something we had to do before/after the concession was open, and not in front of customers. One other kid complained, she was basically told, ok, you don't have to do that, and someone else did it. And I'm sure if a customer had complained, they would have found a way to blame us (most of the concessions workers were teenagers in the late high school or early college age).
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:30 PM on August 8, 2021
I don't know that I was either, but along with putting candy that had been on the floor of a movie theater lobby back into the dispenser (without cleaning it, mind you), it was something we had to do before/after the concession was open, and not in front of customers. One other kid complained, she was basically told, ok, you don't have to do that, and someone else did it. And I'm sure if a customer had complained, they would have found a way to blame us (most of the concessions workers were teenagers in the late high school or early college age).
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:30 PM on August 8, 2021
By blame us I mean somehow deny responsibility for the practice, throw a teenager under the bus, and continue to do it.
Anyway, it was mostly an unspoken rule/assumption that you didn't say anything to a customer unless specifically asked. I'm pretty sure the first time I opened and was told to get the prior day's popcorn, the instructions were something along the lines of, "Pour this old popcorn in, then make a new batch and mix it all around so it looks like it's all fresh," -- the subtext being in my mind, "pretend that it's all freshly made."
I'm sure some people would have been happy to know that they were eating day-old popcorn rather than letting it go to waste, but the average suburban family with kids out to see Jurassic Park and spending $6 for buttered popcorn and $4 for a soda, per kid, on top of $8-12 tickets sure as hell wanted their popcorn fresh and their soda cold, and woe be unto the pimple-faced nerd in a dipshit uniform who denied them their God-given rights as Americans.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:37 PM on August 8, 2021
Anyway, it was mostly an unspoken rule/assumption that you didn't say anything to a customer unless specifically asked. I'm pretty sure the first time I opened and was told to get the prior day's popcorn, the instructions were something along the lines of, "Pour this old popcorn in, then make a new batch and mix it all around so it looks like it's all fresh," -- the subtext being in my mind, "pretend that it's all freshly made."
I'm sure some people would have been happy to know that they were eating day-old popcorn rather than letting it go to waste, but the average suburban family with kids out to see Jurassic Park and spending $6 for buttered popcorn and $4 for a soda, per kid, on top of $8-12 tickets sure as hell wanted their popcorn fresh and their soda cold, and woe be unto the pimple-faced nerd in a dipshit uniform who denied them their God-given rights as Americans.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:37 PM on August 8, 2021
I appreciated her pointing out that some of this stuff should never have been made in the first place, but if it's going to be, it should be used.
The cheap stuff for sale right when you walk into Target always makes me a little sick. "Here's the latest plastic crap we sell for $1!" I'm sure most of it ends up in a dumpster and it probably isn't even useful enough to dive for.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:54 PM on August 8, 2021 [8 favorites]
The cheap stuff for sale right when you walk into Target always makes me a little sick. "Here's the latest plastic crap we sell for $1!" I'm sure most of it ends up in a dumpster and it probably isn't even useful enough to dive for.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:54 PM on August 8, 2021 [8 favorites]
In my alternate life I am squatting somewhere in stickycarpet's sub-basement and making my living scavenging in NYC.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:57 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 11:57 PM on August 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I remember Lars Eighner's book very well, as I found the essay that leads it off, "On Dumpster Diving" [PDF], a short time after I could have really used it.
Thanks for providing that link. It was cool to read the essay again.
This is making me wonder about a new possible subset of "Can I eat this?" Asks. How would it change the answers if the first line was, "I found this in a dumpster"? Eighner's thoughts make perfect sense to me from a logical point of view, but I still find myself screaming no.
posted by FencingGal at 6:42 AM on August 9, 2021
Thanks for providing that link. It was cool to read the essay again.
This is making me wonder about a new possible subset of "Can I eat this?" Asks. How would it change the answers if the first line was, "I found this in a dumpster"? Eighner's thoughts make perfect sense to me from a logical point of view, but I still find myself screaming no.
posted by FencingGal at 6:42 AM on August 9, 2021
Good post. Thank you!
This reminds me of the Agnes Varda documentary The Gleaners and I. I found a small snippet of the film here. I do love this film very much and will say to you "find it and watch it".
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:45 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
This reminds me of the Agnes Varda documentary The Gleaners and I. I found a small snippet of the film here. I do love this film very much and will say to you "find it and watch it".
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:45 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
we have to uphold this whole show, that we are selling valuable things, so valuable they must be protected even when nobody wants them and they're going to be turned into pulp for the next valuable thing we must protect.
So much this. Like when I walk through a mall or department store all I can think is “look at all this junk” like it’s all pre-landfill nonsense omg and yet when my socks or pants get a hole what am I going to do, patch it all forever I can’t go to work like that and yet there’s all this material wasted I literally can’t even the waste breaks my soul
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
So much this. Like when I walk through a mall or department store all I can think is “look at all this junk” like it’s all pre-landfill nonsense omg and yet when my socks or pants get a hole what am I going to do, patch it all forever I can’t go to work like that and yet there’s all this material wasted I literally can’t even the waste breaks my soul
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Where I volunteer all our bread and most of our desserts come from bakeries and other such places getting rid of food. But you need food runners for that, because you are collecting stuff they need to get rid of for the new stock.
It's really fairly rare in many places that huge amounts of usable grocery food is going to waste. If you're seeing that happen and have the time and transport, see about signing up as a food runner. We keep missing out on good things because we don't have enough people on regular schedules doing this.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 12:35 PM on August 9, 2021
It's really fairly rare in many places that huge amounts of usable grocery food is going to waste. If you're seeing that happen and have the time and transport, see about signing up as a food runner. We keep missing out on good things because we don't have enough people on regular schedules doing this.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 12:35 PM on August 9, 2021
Also: vermin.
If you go the dumpster/discarded food route, you should know at exactly what time the dumpsters are wheeled out to the curb from the refrigerated staging area, and be waiting. Usually around 7PM. Strike while the iron is hot and the food is cold, vermin deserve their share, but they don't usually get into dumpsters between 7 and 10 PM, and they generally go for bags out on the street after 10 PM.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:18 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
If you go the dumpster/discarded food route, you should know at exactly what time the dumpsters are wheeled out to the curb from the refrigerated staging area, and be waiting. Usually around 7PM. Strike while the iron is hot and the food is cold, vermin deserve their share, but they don't usually get into dumpsters between 7 and 10 PM, and they generally go for bags out on the street after 10 PM.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:18 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
This week on Mefi, I learned that rodents like being tickled, being jerked off for postcards, and can tell time.
posted by dr_dank at 2:09 PM on August 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by dr_dank at 2:09 PM on August 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
The cheap stuff for sale right when you walk into Target always makes me a little sick. "Here's the latest plastic crap we sell for $1!" I'm sure most of it ends up in a dumpster and it probably isn't even useful enough to dive for.
Oh, I knew that I had another relevant story. Back during the lean years that I mentioned above, at one point I was part of the cleaning crew for a local Target, and they had a solid policy that everything that was discarded going irrevocably into the trash compactor, absolutely no exceptions. That meant no gleaning aluminum cans from the staff trash for recycling, and no stashing expired candy or other food for snacking on our breaks. (Most candy and other food that has a lot of sugar in it expires slowly, if at all, because sugar is a preservative; some chocolate has a note on the wrapper that the chocolate "blooming" (i.e. the cocoa butter rising to the surface and making it appear whitish) doesn't actually change the taste.) The one time that we did, we got called on the carpet for it. The reason for this policy was that their own staff once had a habit of declaring things broken, spoiled, etc. and pulling it out of the dumpster later. (This was 30-odd years ago; no idea if it's still policy.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:07 AM on August 12, 2021
Oh, I knew that I had another relevant story. Back during the lean years that I mentioned above, at one point I was part of the cleaning crew for a local Target, and they had a solid policy that everything that was discarded going irrevocably into the trash compactor, absolutely no exceptions. That meant no gleaning aluminum cans from the staff trash for recycling, and no stashing expired candy or other food for snacking on our breaks. (Most candy and other food that has a lot of sugar in it expires slowly, if at all, because sugar is a preservative; some chocolate has a note on the wrapper that the chocolate "blooming" (i.e. the cocoa butter rising to the surface and making it appear whitish) doesn't actually change the taste.) The one time that we did, we got called on the carpet for it. The reason for this policy was that their own staff once had a habit of declaring things broken, spoiled, etc. and pulling it out of the dumpster later. (This was 30-odd years ago; no idea if it's still policy.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:07 AM on August 12, 2021
Am I the only one that read this as Ann Sacks of very expensive Ann Sacks Tile and more recently Design and Direct Source? First tile, now this!
posted by RobertFrost at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2021
posted by RobertFrost at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2021
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It still seems ridiculous.
posted by Splunge at 6:23 AM on August 8, 2021 [7 favorites]