Dumpster Diving

whiteonion wrote: »

I see nothing wrong with salvaging perfectly edible food. People throw away too much. I am disgusted by this rampant consumerism.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Eating out of dustbins wouldn't be my thing however.

whatdoicare wrote: »

No, because it's stealing.

whatdoyoucare?

No to food, yes to furniture and electricals.

In my school a couple of years ago there was an electronics recycling thing and the amount of working mobiles/laptops they were given was unreal

In the underground carpark in an apartment block I lived in for a year I got:

A TV
Fussball table
Desk
A chest of drawers
A thomas the tank engine lunchroll sandwich with only a bite taken out of it.

Good times.

i started a similar thread recently and just spotted yours today! heres my thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056130825
got a bit of a similar response as yours... people seem very offended by the idea that you'd eat this 'disgusting' or 'mouldy' food, when in reality most of its ok. it's just the 'best by date' or any damage that means the supermarket have to chuck it. of course you have to be sensible about it though if you choose to do it, like anything!

For eight months last year I worked in Tesco - I have vowed that when I move out I'm never paying full price for food. Never.

Firstly, it sickened me how much food I was ordered to load into bags and throw into dumpsters. Tinned food. Fresh bread. Sweets. Bottles of water and coke. Biscuits. Microwave meals. The list goes on and on. If you dived into you local supermarkets dumpsters you'd find tonnes. Some are secured (particularly in urban areas) but most are not. As for spraying with bleach - I've never heard of this and doubt it's a regular effort by supermarkets if it's actually true.

The Reduced Section

Seriously. Students, single people, single income families, those out of work: It is entirely possible to make a massive chicken curry using five chicken fillets, nice sauce and all the rice in Vietnam for less than one euro. How? The reduced section.

An hour before the store closes I'd go around with my SEL gun and reduce the crap out of anything that was yet to be sold and was about to go off. 5 chicken fillets for 45c. Two trays of mince for 35c. Yoghurt for 3c. I used to get loads of eastern Europeans and old guys perhaps down on their luck, coming up to me when I was on tills with baskets full of nutritious food that'd do them for the next five days. All for around E5. Freeze the meat when you get home. Sorted.

What's more if people came up to me (and were nice about it and didnt have a sense of entitlement and treat me like crap) I'd gladly mark down things for them if it was near it's sell by date or perhaps things that were reduced but maybe needed another further reduction. And because they were there, and it was the one way I could make a positive impact in my job, I'd often price items at 3c or so.

It can also be noted that it's entirely possible to get your five a day, two hot meals and lots of protein for less than E4 per day.

When I move out I expect my cabinets to be stocked full to the point of overflowing with a weekly food bill of around 40 quid or so.

Dean0088 wrote: »

For eight months last year I worked in Tesco - I have vowed that when I move out I'm never paying full price for food. Never.

Firstly, it sickened me how much food I was ordered to load into bags and throw into dumpsters. Tinned food. Fresh bread. Sweets. Bottles of water and coke. Biscuits. Microwave meals. The list goes on and on. If you dived into you local supermarkets dumpsters you'd find tonnes. Some are secured (particularly in urban areas) but most are not. As for spraying with bleach - I've never heard of this and doubt it's a regular effort by supermarkets if it's actually true.

The Reduced Section

Seriously. Students, single people, single income families, those out of work: It is entirely possible to make a massive chicken curry using five chicken fillets, nice sauce and all the rice in Vietnam for less than one euro. How? The reduced section.

An hour before the store closes I'd go around with my SEL gun and reduce the crap out of anything that was yet to be sold and was about to go off. 5 chicken fillets for 45c. Two trays of mince for 35c. Yoghurt for 3c. I used to get loads of eastern Europeans and old guys perhaps down on their luck, coming up to me when I was on tills with baskets full of nutritious food that'd do them for the next five days. All for around E5. Freeze the meat when you get home. Sorted.

What's more if people came up to me (and were nice about it and didnt have a sense of entitlement and treat me like crap) I'd gladly mark down things for them if it was near it's sell by date or perhaps things that were reduced but maybe needed another further reduction. And because they were there, and it was the one way I could make a positive impact in my job, I'd often price items at 3c or so.

It can also be noted that it's entirely possible to get your five a day, two hot meals and lots of protein for less than E4 per day.

When I move out I expect my cabinets to be stocked full to the point of overflowing with a weekly food bill of around 40 quid or so.

Dean, you're a saint and a scholar of making stuff cheap. Can you make all of Tesco's shops in Ireland price food down in the same way that you do?