About a third of all food produced in the world annually (about 1.3 billion tons) ends up in the trash. Such information is provided in one of the latest reports of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. At the same time, with reasonable consumption, these figures could be reduced by at least 80%. In contrast to such statistics, a movement of freegans arose in Western Europe. The Telegraph has compiled a dictionary that will help distinguish freegans from vegans and homeless people.

Alternative - the need to choose one of two or more mutually exclusive possibilities, which the freegans decided by fundamentally abandoning excesses and culinary delights, speaking out against the consumer society in favor of the environment.

The founder of freeganism is the drummer of Against Me! Warren Oks. In the late 90s, he coined the term freegan, and also wrote the freegan manifesto - the pamphlet "Why freegan?". The word freegan itself comes from free - “free, free” and vegan - “veganism”. This is what radical vegetarians call themselves, and this is due to the fact that most freegans also support the main provisions of the vegan movement. But freegans use landfills and garbage containers for food. Unlike the homeless and the poor, freegans do so out of an unwillingness to be part of a consumer society. However, there are those who simply hide behind ideology in order to save money.

free market - garbage dumps, places near restaurants and grocery stores.

In the US, expired or out-of-date products are neatly packaged and then sent to clean containers. There is even a special Trashwiki service - an overview of garbage dumps with specific places and recommendations for freegans. In Russia, the necessary information is still reluctant to share. To find a trash can that regularly contains the necessary products, you will have to go around many doorways and use all your communication skills to negotiate with a supermarket security guard or a greengrocer owner. If you're lucky, you can just give away the products, which will then be thrown away anyway after a while.

Free fast food - food that can be eaten in a cafe.

For Russian adherents of freeganism, this is not leftovers, but free food. Such can be, for example, a bitten hamburger or a fallen cheburek. But, as the freegans themselves admit, finding food left in a cafe is not so easy today. Too many today are trying to save money and do not order too much. In addition, uninvited visitors are often kicked out of some cafes. However, in other countries it can be even more difficult. To reduce the amount of food being thrown away, a number of restaurants even impose fines. They first appeared in restaurants in Hong Kong, where the territory of the state itself is small and there is little space for garbage. For each uneaten sushi they take an additional $ 1.5. In the US, there are also restaurants that warn that a visitor will be charged a fine for half-eaten dishes, which can be up to a third of the order price.

Production or catch - this is what is not only eaten, but also photographed, and then proudly posted on social networks, usually anonymously. (It is rare that freegans in Russia tell their relatives and acquaintances about their beliefs).

Prey can be broken tartlets, expired sausage, yogurt, a slightly rotten apple or darkened bananas. May come across cakes, pastries or canned food. The main thing, experienced freegans advise, is not to take food without expiration dates or when the products are overdue for more than two or three days. Also, do not forget about thorough heat treatment.

Health- Freegans eat irregularly and, to put it mildly, unbalanced.

Hardly any nutritionist can recommend such a diet. Fruits are often spoiled, and dairy products are expired. In addition, few freegans eat meat or fish, some for ideological reasons, others because meat requires more stringent storage conditions. In addition, it is rarely thrown out. At the same time, the freegans unanimously argue that it is impossible to get poisoned by food from the garbage heap. Most freegans either really choose their foods very carefully, or their beliefs are so strong that they do not attribute the causes of their illnesses to their eating style.

The reaction of the people around the attitude towards freegans in society can hardly be called friendly. There are either those who are ready to eat from the dumps themselves, or those who do not understand them at all.

On various forums in social networks, you can see the following phrases: “My opinion is that there are certain standards of hygiene and sanitation, and, of course, there should be at least some moral principles.” “Only individuals who have no self-respect can do this. Well, we are not animals to eat from garbage dumps. “I consider their behavior a challenge to society, leading nowhere but to a hospital bed with food poisoning. It's either a disease or a deviation."

The main answer of the freegan: “The main idea is not saving money, but saving natural resources, reducing the amount of garbage and caring for the environment. Often freegans are supporters of Greenpeace, they sort garbage if possible, hand over recyclable materials, etc.”

Student - the most common type of freegan in Russia.

The idea, which arose in Western Europe and the United States, was noticeably transformed in Russia. If abroad it is rather an ideology, then we often have a way to save money. Due to over-consumption and over-production, a significant part of the contents of garbage dumps in developed countries turns out to be quite suitable for food and even rarely out of date. In Russia, you have to make a lot of effort and forget about the feeling of disgust in order to find something interesting. This, perhaps, is more likely to be dared by those who are forced to save austerity, and this is precisely what most students do.

Feeling of disgust - in freegans it is almost completely atrophied.

A real freegan will be able to get a piece of fruit or an open package of chips out of a trash can, even if a rat or a cockroach has just run over it. At the same time, freegans who hide their beliefs can offer their prey to unsuspecting friends. So, on one of the forums, a freegan girl shared her personal experience: “One of my friends does not know about my lifestyle, I don’t tell her, because. she will not communicate with me, and I have been friends with her for many years and do not want to lose communication. If I know that she will come, then I leave the best for her so that she does not suspect that it is not from the store.

Foodsharing - food exchange.

Volunteers first collect waste products and then distribute them to those in need. There are even special distribution tables. For example, in Germany there are about 900 of them. In Russia, the movement is not very popular. So far, these are only groups on social networks, where those who wish are offered products that they did not have time to eat before the holidays, or surpluses from their garden.

You have no idea what treasures can be found in the landfill! According to statistics, things worth millions of dollars are most often found in landfills.

And the reason is absolutely banal: many people sometimes do not represent the value of this or that object and, considering it unnecessary rubbish, part with it without regret. Sometimes old autographed books or unprocessed precious, but seemingly simple pebbles are thrown away.
Today we will surprise you and tell you about the most valuable and expensive items that were found in a garbage dump - but by chance or not, we don’t know. So go ahead.

1. Necklace with real diamonds

The ex-boyfriend's gift turned out to be thoughtlessly thrown away by the girl, for a simple reason - she thought it was ordinary cheap glass. Great stupidity!
After it was found in a landfill and turned out to be a real diamond!
By the way, the junkyard worker who found this necklace was arrested while trying to sell his find. It would be better if he brought the find to the police and received a reward. Here is the story of diamonds.

2. Stolen painting

Once getting rid of unnecessary trash, the writer Elizabeth Gibson discovered the canvas. True, she did not throw it away with all the garbage, but hung it on the wall.
Later it turned out that this was a stolen painting by an artist from Mexico - Rufino Tamayo. He was kidnapped in 2003. The find is estimated at one and a half million dollars!

3. Old computer

The well-known S. Jobs in 1976 decided to throw away his old computer, but he felt sorry for throwing it away, and he simply took it to a recycling center. An employee of this center decided to keep the computer for himself, and for many years the computer simply gathered dust in the warehouse. When Steve Job became a celebrity, the old computer was remembered, and it was sold for two hundred thousand dollars. All the same, it is worth storing trash, after decades it can turn into a real treasure!

4. Treasure in the landfill of the island of Jersey in 2017

Under a pile of garbage in a dump, ordinary hobbyists who went to the dump in search of valuable or expensive things accidentally discovered some very ancient coins.


The treasure hunters did not stop there and with the help of a metal detector they found ... now, like Zadornov, let's pause, and you get more air into your lungs ... - 700 kilos - coins and jewelry - Exhale! The found values ​​are 2 thousand years old, and the cost of this incredible mountain in the trash is as much as 17 million dollars!
And once again: the find was in 2017, this proves that in our time it is possible to find incredible treasures!

Nastya Noodles is 21 and has been freeganizing for almost a year now. She does not study anywhere and does not work, and she finds most of the food and things in the garbage dumps. According to her, almost any delicacy can be found in garbage cans - from vegetables and fruits to canned funchose and dishes from restaurants. In the same place, Nastya once found the diary of a seventh-grader Nazi and a model of a human skull. The Village Ekaterinburg talked to Nastya and found out how and why freegans find food in garbage dumps, how safe it is to eat such products, and how a girl is perceived in society.

Nastya Noodles

freegan

On the ideology of freeganism

Freegans are people who, instead of spending money on food, on things, purposefully follow them to the trash. The freeganism movement came from the capitalist center of the world, the United States, in the second half of the last century. Freegans differ from the homeless and beggars in the ideological component of the movement - in that they consciously want to reduce the level of consumption. We live in a world where shops and restaurants throw away tons of absolutely normal food every day, which is left by the evening.

Freegans have a lot in common with vegans. The word "freeganism" was formed from the English free - "free, free" and vegan - "veganism". At the same time, some freegans do not refuse meat: if you buy meat in grocery stores, then you sponsor corporations that kill animals, and if you find meat in the trash, then the animal has already been killed and thrown away. You are not involved in this - on the contrary, you free him. I don't even eat junk meat, but some people do, and never buy it on purpose, they are also considered vegans. One of the freegans sorts waste, arranges free markets, that is, distributes clothes for free. Some arrange lectures, charity concerts in support of someone.

One of the reasons many people become freegans is because they don't have the money. Some people simply reject modern society and do not want to live in it.

One of the reasons many people become freegans is because they don't have the money. Some people simply reject modern society and do not want to live in it. They squat Squatting is the process of unauthorized settlement of an unoccupied or abandoned building by people who are not its tenants or owners, and live there without permission, - approx. ed.), live on the lists and eat from the garbage dumps. In essence, they are marginalized in order to work less at work and earn less. Now the work is such that you get dumber at work - and when you freegan, you need five thousand a month to live, no more. Therefore, the choice of many is obvious.

In Russia, the movement is not very well developed - even in Moscow and St. Petersburg, not to mention Yekaterinburg. There are many stereotypes around freeganism: that it is unsterile, that freegans behave like homeless people. But we always wear gloves, use flashlights, carefully smell and check the food, wash everything with soap and disinfect. It is impossible to catch something if you do not put everything in your mouth at once. There are a lot of free life hacks in Europe. For example, you can collect and donate bottles. They are drowning for the environment, so you can earn normally in this way.

About the path to freeganism, work and money

I came to freeganism last fall, almost a year ago. Now I am 21. The main motivators were the lack of money and the unwillingness to sponsor the system. I don't like the kind of work modern society offers. It offers to work for a meager salary from morning to night, hunchback in terrible conditions. This doesn't seem fair to me. It remains to either do what you love, or freelance. But a favorite thing is not always earnings. And freelancing sometimes goes against what you want - mass art or the underground.

Now I practically do nothing, I just start to draw for myself. I recently dropped out of university. I began to travel around and lived in Moscow, then in Yekaterinburg, then somewhere else in Russia. In the spring, my friends and I somehow squatted in the center of Yekaterinburg, arranged poetry evenings, concerts there, and painted everything there. There were a lot of Soviet literature and things, children's toys in the barracks.

We always wear gloves, use flashlights, carefully smell and check food, wash everything with soap and disinfect

Now my parents help me financially, but I want to refuse the help and live on my own. I spend little and don't even know what to spend on, I have clothes. Even if you do not rummage through the garbage, you can eat the cheapest buckwheat from the store. When I lived in Moscow, I spent four thousand a month: two - for an unlimited travel card, two more - for something needed. Money may be needed only for medicines, for essentials. If you are an artist, then you need money for paints, and plywood and boards can also be found in abandoned buildings. If I buy something in plastic or cardboard cups, then I draw on them. Even before freeganism, I used to paint on pizza boxes left over from delivery.

In the future, I want to get to the maximum of interaction with the world, with people. There is a dream - to unite with artists of the same interests, to do something joint, not only for themselves, but also for people. Some effective social art. All this can be associated with veganism, squatting, volunteering. It's good to do something for yourself and combine it with social work, with the help of disadvantaged people.

About freegan communities

In Ekaterinburg community The freegans on VKontakte were created four years ago by my friends, and now I am doing it. We have our own interactive map, from which you can find out where there are useful points and at what time shops and cafes get rid of products. From time to time we organize raids and explore the city together with other members of the community.

There is a certain group of people who oppose consumption. If you are interested in freeganism, you become curious about how else you can live. There is community freegans "VKontakte" - "Sfriganili", where you can find information about freegans in any city in Russia. Some people can be found right in the trash cans. For example, in the center of Moscow there are cafes that regularly throw a lot of ready-made food into a large trash can. At a time, she could gather 15-20 people - that's how they got acquainted.

Among the freegans you can meet different people - both students and workers. When I lived in Moscow, it happened that we took out 3-6 boxes from the shops - there was so much food that we didn’t even know where to put it. In addition to expired products, the one that has ended its expiration date also ends up in the trash. It is shorter than the expiration date, so stores also get rid of goods that meet all the standards of use, but are prohibited for sale.

There is a certain group of people who oppose consumption. If you are interested in freeganism, you become curious about how else you can live

About the homeless and the poor

If we talk about the homeless, then I think they know little about freeganism. When people realize that there is a freebie, they begin to treat it more greedily, so sometimes there is competition among freegans. The main thing is not to litter, because there were cases that if they littered, then for this reason shops and cafes closed the garbage heaps from all onlookers.

We need to take action to educate them. It is necessary not to give them free food, but to teach them to exist and survive more or less civilly. To tell that there is such a subculture, a way of life that they really throw away a lot of good food. Because when you give something to a person, he starts asking for more and more. In Moscow, I had no competition with the homeless, because there is a lot of garbage there, and almost all of it is open. In Yekaterinburg, in my area, I often come to the garbage dump and meet the homeless - I immediately leave, because I don’t want to take away and fight with them for food.

I think it's important to talk about freeganism to all the poor, the poor, those with many children, the unemployed who don't have enough time to work. These people need to be shown. This is unfair: you come to the trash, and there, for example, there is a whole box of thrown out bread that could have been given to those who are starving. Shops should make a law that food is not thrown away, but given away.

This is unfair: you come to the trash, and there, for example, there is a whole box of thrown out bread that could have been given to those who are starving

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, Food Not Bombs, activist groups that distribute vegan and vegetarian food for free, engaged in similar interaction. The movement originated in the United States in the early 1980s. Much of the food distributed by activists is surplus food that would otherwise spoil in warehouses, markets and supermarkets and be thrown away. Therefore, they also freegan and distribute food to poor people.

In Yekaterinburg, food was distributed to the homeless near churches and the train station, but they refused my help and freeganism. It seems to me that we need to contact specific organizations that help people and supply them with food. In Yekaterinburg, it is difficult for me to do this, because relatively little food is thrown away here, and I have to feed myself first. This is rather a topic for St. Petersburg and Moscow.

About the finds

I try to go out for food every evening if I have time. Usually in my area there are sacks of potatoes, fruits, milk, funchose for a hundred rubles, in a jar, absolutely normal. Another life hack is to come to the markets in the evenings, when the sellers are already gathering. There are a lot of whole fruits and vegetables lying on the floor, you can also take them.

In Yekaterinburg, we find food mainly at stores - people already throw rotten stuff into ordinary garbage dumps. Freegans do not eat rotten food (except dairy products, which can be used in making pancakes). In my practice, freegans rarely poisoned - and if poisoned, then they were people with a weak stomach or those who ate not very good meat from the dumps.

They often throw out interesting things. I found old coins, old photographs, sneakers and a lot of clothes. In our city, people live poorer than in Moscow - Muscovites in wealthy areas get drunk and throw away what has not even had time to wear out. We have good outlets in the Botanica area and the Dinamo metro station. I live in Pionerskoye, and it's a bit complicated here.

The strangest thing I found was the personal diary of a seventh grade Nazi. Above were Nazi signs and images of Stalin and Hitler, inside there were many drawings. I think someone's mom just found it and threw it in the trash. I took the diary for myself, but then lost it somewhere. Once I found a skull - similar to the one that stands in school biology classrooms. I put it in my house.

Employees of shops and cafes treat freegans differently. Someone gives products, with some you can negotiate. Some people kick you out as soon as they see you. For example, in Moscow there is an expensive Azbuka Vkusa store, where employees are very sensitive to freegans. The trash bins there are behind a fence, so to get to it, you have to climb into private territory. In fact, freegans can even be accused of stealing other people's products. But this is ridiculous: the store has already thrown out the products, but in fact they still belong to it. In Moscow, I most often freegan at night, so they didn’t notice me.

In many cafes in the center of Moscow, food was simply taken out into the yard on large garbage trucks and they said: “You only clean up after yourself afterward.” But in one cafe, for example, the opposite is true: before taking out the products, they were specially opened and spoiled so that we could not take them for ourselves. They could pour products into one tank, pour cocktails on top and mix everything. And they were perplexed: “Why are you taking food from the trash can, go and buy it in the store.”

Ordinary passers-by perceive freegans normally. A couple of times they even took us for homeless people and gave us money. It happens that they begin to get to know me in order to find out what we are doing - for people it looks unusual. Some saw that it was interesting, and began to rummage through the garbage with me. In Moscow, I had a lot of funny cases with marginal people, I came across all sorts of freaks, touched on the head and old people. They started talking to me, telling some jokes, telling stories about their lives.

My friend once met a nineteen-year-old homeless man who left Samara to do business in Moscow. For six months he lived on a subscription, for three days at the Coffeeshop - he just took cookies there for a promotion

My friend once met a nineteen-year-old homeless man who left Samara to do business in Moscow. For six months he lived on a subscription, for three days at the Coffeeshop - he simply took cookies there for a promotion. He is no ordinary bum: he is a teenager who is trying to stir up a business, but does not know how to do it at all. All the time he walks with a backpack and with packages in which pans. It's just that he interacts with the world in this way and believes in Christ and sorcerers.

I did not encounter any aggression from passers-by. True, acquaintances told me how they were bitten by homeless people or beaten by grandmothers who sell food from garbage dumps. Yes, some people manage to sell the found food in transitions and at bus stops. Often, when I ride the subway with an open box, everyone asks me: “Is this for sale?” My loved ones don't know that I freegan, but I told them that there is nothing wrong with it.

"Rats don't get in the way"

In Moscow, a map of garbage heaps will soon appear, where you can regularly stock up on food deducted from supermarkets. Every day, tons of products are found in the city tanks that are not fit for sale, but are quite suitable for eating. There are several reasons: the shelf life is coming to an end, the packaging is crumpled, the label has fallen off ... According to the rules of trade, all this is illiquid and cannot lie on the counter. During the day we are horrified by the prices in grocery stores, and in the evening the staff combs the shelves, and food that was sold for a lot of money an hour ago is sent to the dumpsters in the backyards. This is used by freegans - people who consider it unacceptable to throw away food and "rescue" them from garbage dumps. Today, such skills can be useful not only for ideologically minded youth, but also for the middle class, faced with financial difficulties.

Moscow freegans arranged for MK a tour of the store dumps of one of the districts of Moscow. In order to avoid the termination of "supplies", we will not publish addresses, but we will describe in detail the search algorithm. The information is worthwhile: in two hours of wandering, we collected a huge box of food suitable for food for almost 3,000 rubles.

This is the catch we collected in just two hours of traveling through the backyards of shops.

"We Freegans Don't Eat Leftovers"

In profile groups on social networks, you can admire what people took away for free, while you paid several thousand rubles for a similar grocery basket. “Today, seven packages of peaches. Half good for jam, half eaten live. Everything was in packs, about 20% was only spoiled.” “Again, a lot of products: cutlets, rice, soups, honey, sour cream, jam, fresh vegetable salads, apples, bread, my favorite cookies.” “Ten cans of beer, half a box of gorgeous tomatoes and a huge bag of tangerines - barely dragged it away.”

As a rule, ideological freegans are kind people. When asked to suggest places and teach the tricks of finding food thrown out of stores, they respond willingly. Because so much food is thrown away that absolutely everyone in need can be fed. The rules are as follows: unsold goods that are nearing the expiration date must be written off on the eve of "Day X". In Europe, such products are distributed to the homeless and the poor, in Moscow they are sent to the trash. And it would be okay if only “delay”, goods are sent there in wrinkled or torn packaging, which does not affect their safety in any way. This is what every chain supermarket does. At the same time, employees are strictly forbidden to take illiquid assets home, this is fraught with fines and even dismissal. Moscow historian and culturologist Igor Zhogin has been actively saving food written off from stores for many years. He agreed to go on a joint raid on the most successful points for this business in the Izmailovo region.

I always thought it was wrong to throw away food, - says Igor. “But you need to know that we freegans don't eat leftovers. We mainly collect packaged food, with the exception of fruits and vegetables. For any person who hitchhikes or goes on expeditions, it's okay to eat out of a communal pot or someone else's bowl.

It is important to understand that the ideology of freeganism does not imply a desire to get food for free or save money. The meaning of the current is that a person should consume only what he needs, not be a victim of the economic network of consumerism. The philosophy of this movement denies glut, greed. That is why freegans tend to give away the surplus of found products to friends or the homeless. However, there is nothing wrong with becoming a freegan for economic reasons. In the end, this desire will still achieve a good goal: less edible food will rot in garbage cans.

First of all, you need to get gloves and a flashlight, Igor advises. - Flashlight - because it is better to go searching at night, before going to bed. Firstly, it is at this time that stores most often throw out unnecessary things. Secondly, it is psychologically more comfortable when no one is looking, what are you rummaging around in the garbage. You can come early in the morning. Why is it important to take food? In the morning, anyway, a garbage truck will come and compress it. So isn't it better to eat? And gloves are needed so as not to plunge into some mayonnaise or something else that has leaked: good food is thrown away with other waste ...

It turns out that few stores have their own containers - they don’t want to spend money on garbage disposal, so they take everything to the nearest garbage dump.

It’s best to start looking for decommissioned food in your area, but for practice, you can go on a tour with an experienced freegan. The guys actively communicate in groups on social networks, share their booty and addresses. You can ask the janitors at the stores where food is thrown. Since this happens regularly, you can come with bags at least every day, the main thing is to find a fertile point.

"The rats hardly bother us"

We went hunting during the day. On the way, Igor says that almost all categories of goods are scrapped. Fruits, vegetables, as a rule, are not in perfect condition, but are consistently in good condition. There are just a little soft, there are barrels. But among the banal apples and cucumbers, there are also rarer exhibits: peaches, kiwi, grapefruits, mangoes, avocados. Some retail chains have corporate standards, according to which only the freshest items should be on display.

Recently I saw in a popular hypermarket: an employee stands and puts beautiful apples and tomatoes in a cart, and puts the same ones on the counter, - Igor recalls. - The reason for the replacement is not that they are spoiled, but, for example, that one banana or tomato came off the bunch. Everything, he is not worthy to lie in plain sight. Everything is done for a beautiful picture. The man complained that they couldn't even take it themselves. But he suggested: “If you want, eat right now in the hall, at least everything.” That's exactly what I did.

A lot of dairy and sour-milk products disappear. Empirically, freegans found out that yogurt and cottage cheese will be tasty and safe for at least a week after the expiration date, and if they ferment, they can be put on pancakes and cheesecakes. An interesting detail: in Russia, only one expiration date is set - the day after which the product is not recommended to be consumed. And in some countries, there are several of them on the product: while it is tasty, while it is “normal”, while it is safe, and when it is time to throw it away. And we often put an expiration date on products that do not have it at all. For example, honey. It can be sugary, but spoiled - no. Nevertheless, this fact will not save him from disposal.

Here in this dump there are a lot of yogurts and canned food, - Igor points to a tank across the street from the store. - True, there are rats here, but they hardly interfere with us, they don’t touch the products, since they are securely packed. I often see that pensioners come and take away various food…

Milk is most often found among the freegan catch, carried away in whole packages. And how much bakery products are thrown away - horror! You can feed the whole entrance. And the most chic is on duty at the stores that bake their own products. By the end of the day, all unsold puffs, baguettes, cakes, etc. are written off here. The same goes for small bakeries.

Much more difficult - with meat: it is practically not thrown away. However, even if it is found, you should not rush to include it in the menu, since it is not known how long it has lain at the wrong temperature. Freegans have a special relationship with meat. Initially, Western freegans are vegetarians. And those who eat meat are called megans. In Russia, everyone is called freegans. And even those who do not approve of the meat industry in principle see nothing wrong with getting it out of the tank. They explain it this way: I do not buy meat so as not to participate in the killing of animals and production, but I will eat decommissioned meat, because the resources for its production have already been spent. There are many fruitarians among them, which is convenient because fruits and vegetables are the easiest to find.

But look, they left us apples, - Igor confirms the theory, approaching the boxes at the back door of the store. - And good ones! We take…

Right next to it are bags of onion peels. Igor carefully probes them and fishes out whole bulbs: it always makes sense to delve into the husk. The backpack is noticeably heavier.

GROODS BASKET THAT WE COLLECTED AT THE BACKWAYS OF STORES:

* three kilograms of imported apples

* three pomelo

* pack of waffles

* kilogram of fresh cucumbers

* two zucchini

* three lemons

* two tomatoes

* half a kilo of carrots

* two oranges

“We have one criterion: not for sale”

When we pass by a coffee shop of a popular network, Igor sighs sadly: before, ready-made food in trays was constantly thrown away here. And in such quantities that it was impossible to overpower one. Rolls, pancakes, casseroles, cheesecakes, meatballs... And now they have stopped - apparently, they began to save money during the crisis. True, not everywhere. Judging by the feedback in the profile group on the social network, in other areas, employees still take out trays to the delight of freegans. That is, how they take it out - they dump it in a common heap in tanks. Thanks for that too. Because there are stores whose management prescribes in the rules that the goods withdrawn from sale must be destroyed before being sent to the trash: cut, poured with cleaning agent, etc.

In the next three garbage dumps, we did not come across any food. The wrong time is after lunch. There will be something to profit from closer to the night. But we find other useful things: an easel, a folding stool, empty glass jars, cables, a doorbell, some boards. Igor hides all this in tall grass to pick up on the way back: it will come in handy for the dacha. Oh, men!

We pin great hopes on the container at the service entrance of a large supermarket, from where products are taken out several times a day. And at first glance inside, we understand that the hopes were justified: among the checks, packages and other garbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini are visible. As well as a can of coffee (however, there was very little coffee left in it), waffles and cookies. Armed with a stick, Igor fished out the vegetables one by one from the bowels of the garbage heap and began to dig further. And for good reason: at the very bottom, we found three large pomeloes and a bunch of lemons. Tip from the freegan - Fruits and vegetables from garbage dumps are best peeled. Still, they were not in the most pleasant neighborhood. In the midst of the research, a store employee approached us and asked what we were doing:

- We are conducting a social experiment: can you find something good in the garbage cans or not? Here we found it.

Do you think this is good?

- Well, yes.

Good for what?

- For food.

For food - for example, but not for sale.

- And you do not want to give what you write off to pensioners?

Once we have a separate container, it's easy. Now the problem is that we do not have a division into good or bad, we have one criterion: not for sale. Everything that fits this definition, including our rubbish bins, goes into this bin.

According to Igor, many store employees have stupid paranoia - that a person, for example, finds an expired product, then comes to them and accuses them of selling it. There is little logic here: after all, in the same way, you can take a delay in your refrigerator and go to the store to download rights. However, the guards often chase fans to pick up the decommissioned. So in this sense, the absence of garbage dumps at stores is just in favor of freegans, because the powers of security in the territory of public yard containers do not apply.

According to Muscovites with ecological thinking, the main problem of Moscow's grocery turnover is that the stores themselves do not want to think about the benefits of decommissioned goods. Sellers are afraid of everything and at the same time they themselves are horrified by the rules. Many people hate to throw away good food, but they do not dare to violate corporate guidelines. Those who are especially ideological show initiative - and, for example, bread, which is still warm, is not thrown into the trash, but simply put in bags near the service entrance.

This is how employees of a small store on the ground floor of one of the residential buildings act. Vendors regularly store decommissioned cakes, pastries, and other goodies in a separate bin, which many residents know about. It empties out in minutes. Moreover, among the sweets, there are often not expired ones at all, but simply with crumpled packaging, which in the case of cakes is already fatal, you can’t put it on the counter. However, even the expired expiration date in our time, few people are embarrassed. “A lot of people would love an expired cake right now! There are so many preservatives that they won't have anything. And there are too many poor people, people want to eat!” - share sore habitues of garbage dumps.

Igor emphasizes that during the years of freeganism he has never been poisoned.

During the years of freeganism, Igor has never been poisoned. Even found red fish, which are very sensitive to the correct method of storage. And if the freshness of the gifts of nature is in doubt, you can subject them to heat treatment or put them into jam. This was done with five dozen bananas and apricots, which were recently found in the back of a supermarket.

FREEGAN HONOR CODE

* Do not invade restricted areas - only search near shops and apartment buildings.

* Do not take anything from medical containers.

* Never leave fallen debris near a container that has been sorted out.

* Do not take documents or papers with any records: interference with the privacy of people based on finds from the garbage dump is strictly prohibited.

Igor plans to create a map with the addresses of "fertile" store and yard dumps.

I also want to develop a new theme - to go to abandoned gardens and collect fruits, berries, herbs, etc. But here it is important that the site is open. I hitchhiked in the Vologda region, there are villages where there is only one residential building, the rest are empty. And fruits and berries grow on the plots. Does it make sense for them to disappear?

Igor also wants to ensure that stores do not throw away scrapped food, but donate it to charities or volunteers who will distribute it to the poor.

For example, in Helsinki there are several points of distribution to everyone who wants products with an ending expiration date. These are bakery and dairy products, meat, sausages, sweets, vegetables and fruits. Everything is laid out on the shelves, people go and take everything they need. Some products are handed out one by one, asking if supplements are needed and what the person wants to choose from. At the exit, everyone is offered to feed soup and tea with buns. True, you will have to stand in line, but after visiting these places, you can hardly go to the store for a month.

In France A few months ago, a law was passed prohibiting the throwing away of food. It is also forbidden to dispose of unsold food before the expiration date. The adoption of the law was preceded by a long campaign, which was attended by both ordinary citizens and organizations fighting poverty and irrational spending of products. From now on, grocery stores with an area of ​​more than 400 square meters are required to conclude a contract with charitable organizations to provide food as a gift. Otherwise, they face fines of up to 75,000 euros or arrest for up to two years. In turn, firms involved in charity are required to ensure that food is received and distributed in hygienic conditions. France is the only country in the world where this rule applies.

AT Denmark there is a supermarket for expired products - goods in it are sold at a price of 30-50% less than in other stores. The authors of the idea thus seek to reduce the amount of food waste in the country. Such an initiative is the first in the world practice, since it is aimed not at the poorest segments of the population, but at all categories of citizens concerned about environmental problems. It is known that over the past five years, Denmark has reduced the amount of food waste by 25%.

Yura is not homeless and not marginal. He eats food from garbage dumps, because he is convinced that all the necessary food can not be bought. This way of obtaining food is called freeganism or freeganism. Pavel Nikulin spent several days with freegans - the ideological opponents of the consumer lifestyle.

Crisis of overproduction

“And now someone will lose ** al!” - broke the silence of the night angry peasant exclamation.

I heard this terrible scream and pressed my back into a plastic trash can. Her hand groped for a rusty clerical knife found a couple of minutes ago.

The shout distracted me from digging in the garbage dump of one of the grocery retailers on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. I did not seem to have done anything illegal, but the thought suddenly came to me that I had been exposed and would be punished. My companion Yura closed his headlamp with his palm and raised his finger to his lips.

A minute in silence. The cry is not addressed to us. It's time to go back to the trash cans.

Tilt and shake it, Yura commands. Potato tubers roll out of the tank. Put them in an acid green plastic trash bag. There I also throw a package of champignons, zucchini, a bunch of carrots in a net, soft fat-free cottage cheese, which I usually eat for breakfast. Yura picks up some sweets in his backpack.

It remains to share the bananas. In my opinion, there are about two kilograms of them. Big bright yellow bananas with thin black veins lay in a wooden box. Real wealth. Holiday. Feast.

Yura is an anarchist. He has a house, he often does some work for money, he likes to travel.

“I rode for a month and a half without money. I was not very good at stealing, and it was dumb to steal there - I did not know what the responsibility would be. It was a big discovery for me that there were bio-yogurts, cane sugar, cakes in the garbage. What I can’t buy there is in the trash,” he says.

Freeganism became popular in the West not so long ago - a little over 10 years ago. The idea is that you can pick up edible food from the dumps, the amount of which sometimes reaches half the assortment of the store. Many of the freegans, like my friend Yura, are anarchists, or at least take strong anti-capitalist and anti-globalist positions. So their explanation for why usable food ends up in the trash is simple: an oversupply crisis. It is easier for the owner or manager of a store to throw a bag of potatoes or apples into the landfill than to sort it out.

“The best dump is the one where you need a little work to get there - climb over the fence, bend something. To make it hard,” Yura explains.

“All dumps are open. I've seen them sometimes get their locks cut off, but these dumps are popular and run out quickly. You come, and everything is taken apart there, ”he spreads his hands and smiles.

Together with him and his two comrades Anya and Gosha, we pack the collected food on the lawn near the supermarket.

Kefir is better not to take. Heavy, and deteriorates really quickly. And you can take milk and yogurt safely. They often live longer than the expiration date, - Gosha shares his experience.

What about cheese? I ask, seeing how Yura takes a piece covered with mold on the sides.

Cheese is really cool. Right after the food was banned, we found a whole tank full of hard cheese.

Hey! - a guy and a girl call out to us, appearing from somewhere out of the darkness. Also Yurina's friends. The guy has a big bag. The girl has a plastic box full of cakes, bananas, yogurts, beer and wine. The guys willingly share part of the booty. I don't claim their food. I take home mushrooms with potatoes, cottage cheese, bananas.

I fried mushrooms with potatoes for dinner. I had breakfast with cottage cheese and bananas. Satisfying.

"Belp of Capitalism"

Not then did your grandfathers fight so that you would give up hunting and gathering! Gosha jokes. He calls freeganism “a burp of capitalism,” although he does not hesitate to freeganize himself. - Freeganism is a cool tool. You can find jraku and all kinds of clothes. Really for free and without getting involved in commodity-money relations. You also see how capitalism works. The bananas people f*cking over in Ecuador are worth a lot of money and end up in the trash heap.

We are sitting with him, Yura and Anya in the food court of one of the St. Petersburg shopping centers. People nearby now and then leave half-eaten portions of rice, french fries, salads. For a decent dinner, you can get food in twenty minutes, and wash it all down with someone's unfinished Coke. I did just that while I was waiting for the guys, the day after going to the first dump.

One of our comrades does not eat non-fair trade products such as coffee or sugar, but overeats them from the garbage, - Yura nods (fair trade or fair trade is often positioned as an alternative to free trade. Fair trade supporters are sure that market prices do not reflect the true cost of production, and believe that the new trade rules should promote economic growth in developing countries and offer better trading conditions for producers and workers - approx. - He does not pay money for goods that are produced under slave conditions, and then thrown out by the ton.

Bananas are indeed the most common product that can be found in the trash, so any freegan, as Anya jokes, knows thousands of banana recipes. She lists the freegan's main food basket: bananas, milk, potatoes, carrots, "in short, anything that spoils quickly, or something that loses its presentation."

95% of food can be found in garbage dumps, Yura says. But you still have to buy something. For example, in the dumps there are no products with a long shelf life - sugar, vegetable oil, flour, tea, coffee and any household chemicals like washing powder. True, the Europeans found a way out of this situation. Western anarchists, when they ran out of coffee, pierced the packages they needed with knives, and then took them from the dumps, Yegor said.

What about meat? I ask.

Yura does not eat, because it seems to him that it is easy to get poisoned with meat from the garbage heap. And Gosha eats, although he considers himself a vegetarian.

This meat to dick, plus you can find all sorts of delicious things like salmon, which I have not eaten for many years. I used to think that a vegan should not drink milk. And then I realized that if you don’t buy and don’t steal, then there’s nothing to worry about, you don’t participate in consumption and don’t support the industry. Do not eat meat and milk from the garbage - it's not very. Rotting and rotting. Who cares?

Should food be free? - I ask Gosha, while Yura goes to look for someone's unfinished glass of cola.

Yes stopudovo! This follows from the right to life. This is our privileged position - we can go to the garbage for food. Some African children do not have this opportunity. Even the homeless will already be chased away by security, and we look decent.

And most of us work. This is just one of the methods to get zhraku. We are not saving up for a wheelbarrow with an apartment. We don't spend on wine. We invest money in important projects, to help our comrades.

Crime scene

Guys, is this even legal? - I asked Yura and Zhenya.

Still, we entered the locked dump.

In Europe, there were cases when freegans were dealt with by the police, but here usually no one cares, one of them answered. In most cases, they try not to notice people like us. We simply do not exist for them, although sometimes they can yell or, conversely, suggest that the milk has not yet deteriorated.

***
We manage food quickly. This time we have a lot of flour, yogurt, eggs and, of course, bananas.

***
When I was watching TV, someone on the screen said that it's not shameful to dig through the garbage, but it's shameful to be happy from it. I thought about it in the half-empty car of the St. Petersburg metro, which carried me to the city center. I stank of rotten chicken, my shoes were smeared with crushed fruits and vegetables, but my backpack was inflated from food found in the trash.

At that moment, for some unknown reason, I was absolutely happy.