Bin diving for food

There is no such thing as a free lunch, but for freegans Ashwyn and Alf, rummaging around in bins for food is a part of their lifestyle.

As freegans they believe in reducing waste and using their time to benefit others, one way is finding food in bins, which they use for their own consumption or distribute to friends.

These are just some of the things that they found on their scavenge.

Soundbites Alf and Ashwyn, freegans (English)

(Alf) We've got a mixed vegetable selection,all looking rather fresh (Ashwyn) From UK and Spain (Alf) Mushrooms from Ireland. (Ashwyn) Irish mushrooms (Alf) grapes from India

Every day in the UK seven million slices of bread, 4.4 million apples and 1.3 million yoghurts are thrown away.

Supermarkets said they are working to reduce waste by improving packaging and portion sizes. But some of them do lock their bins making it difficult for people to take food from them.

So is bin diving stealing?

Alf, freegan (English)

'Can you steal rubbish? Surely if somebody throws something away, then they're relinquishing ownership of it. If you're making use of something that has a terrible cost to the environment, and costs for the supermarket themselves, and you're obviously reducing that, then that is something positive.'

Food waste in a developing country is happening in the midst of a global food crisis.

Greg Barrow is from the UN World Food Programme. He is concerned with the increase in food prices and the fact that it is having an impact on developing countries. But scavenging for food isn't something new.

Greg Barrow,

Senior Public Affairs Officer, United Nations World Food Programme (English)

''In developing countries you'll often find that people scavenge for food in rubbish dumps and on the fringes of markets,often they find food that is unfit for human consumption so it's a different scale of problem in the developing world it's much much more an issue of lack of access to food and people who are really desperate to get any kind of nutrition if they can find it from almost any place.''

Alf and Ashwyn are able to feast on their booty, and use the items that they have found. But for thousands in developing countries, the commodity of food isn't always so accessible.

Basmah Fahim, Reuters.

Freeganism is an anticonsumerism lifestyle
rummaging - To search thoroughly by handling, turning over, or disarranging the contents of.
relinquishing - a verbal act of renouncing a claim or right or position etc.
scavenge - to search for (anything usable) among discarded material
fringe - the outside boundary or surface of something
feast

Noun

1. a large and special meal for many people

2. something extremely pleasing: a feast of colour

3. an annual religious celebration

Verb

1. to take part in a feast

2. to give a feast to
booty noun plunder, winnings, gains, haul, spoils, prey, loot, takings