Why are people freegans

Community Bike Programs and Bike Collectives facilitate community sharing of bicycles , restore found and broken bikes, and teach people how to do their own bike repairs. In the process they build a culture of skill and resource sharing, reuse wasted bikes and bike parts, and create greater access to environmentally friendly transportation.

Freegans believe that even if a product is vegan, it does not guarantee that: Template:Fact. Freegans claim that people sincerely committed to living the "cruelty-free" lifestyle espoused by vegans must strive to abstain not only from eating, wearing, and using animal skins, secretions e.

Some freegans, sometimes called "meagans" [9] , consume meat and other animal products only as long as they would otherwise be wasted. Green Politics Explore. Wiki Content. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk 0. Cancel Save. Fan Feed. Universal Conquest Wiki. Among these are environmental activists within the freegan subculture.

The goal of the study is to describe how freegans construct and practice non-consumerism. The qualitative research on the freegan subculture was conducted in Brno, the Czech Republic. Two main categories were identified. Barnard, A. Ethnography , 12 4 , Search in Google Scholar. American Journal of Sociology , 4 , Barthes, R. New York: Hill and Wang. Baudrillard, J.

The consumer society: Myths and structures. Bauman, Z. Globalization: The human consequences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Boeije, H. Analysis in qualitative research. Edwards, F. Gleaning from Gluttony: An Australian youth subculture confronts the ethics of waste. Australian Geographer , 38 3 , Food waste in Australia: The freegan response.

The Sociological Review , 60, DeMello, M. Animals and society: An introduction to human-animal studies. New York: Columbia University Press. Eikenberry, N. Attitudes, beliefs, and prevalence of dumpster diving as a means to obtain food by Midwestern, low-income, urban dwellers. Agriculture and Human Values , 22 2 , Foucault, M. The archeology of knowledge. New York: Routledge. Fromm, E.

To have or to be? Goffman, E. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, N. Guerra, P. Portuguese Journal of Social Science , 16 3 , Charmaz, K. They resist electronics upgrades and changing fashions. They repair what they already own. They trade amongst themselves. They scavenge for what they need. And because most industrialized societies produce a lot of waste, freegans can usually get by quite comfortably with only the occasional purchase.

Of course when you scavenge all of your food , avoid buying clothes, furniture and gadgets and maybe even squat on abandoned property, you have fewer expenses. With reduced financial dependence, freegans are able to choose jobs that harmonize with freegan ecological and social beliefs.

They often find that they can work less and sometimes not at all. Freegans, however, are quick to point out that they're not lazy. Many use their spare time to volunteer , campaign for pet issues, teach repair workshops and, of course, scavenge. Freegans also believe that society relies too much on oil. Some freegans convert their cars to run on biodiesel. Others walk or bike when possible. Freegans imagine a future of small, localized economies where people work less and spend more time together.

Some even hope for a return to a pre-agricultural state, believing that gatherer cultures are the epitome of civilization. With such lofty goals, how do freegans actually scrape by? In the next section, we'll learn about urban foraging techniques and freeganism in practice.

Most freegans live in cities where trash is high quality and plentiful. New York City, with its density and wealth, is practically the capital of freeganism.

Because freegans tend to concentrate in urban areas, most practice urban foraging. Freegans look for furniture or bags of clothing on curbsides, electronics in office Dumpsters and food behind grocery stores and restaurants. Dedicated freegans usually establish a routine -- a set of Dumpsters they visit weekly or even daily.

Many learn when trash goes out and when Dumpsters are unattended. Although it's always illegal to venture behind a fenced-off area marked "no trespassing," laws on Dumpster diving vary considerably. Oddly enough, a ruling by the Supreme Court , California v. Greenwood, gave tacit approval to Dumpster divers. Although the ruling originally justified the police's search of a suspected narcotics trafficker's trash, freegans use it as an excuse to scavenge food and other cast-off items.

Cities with anti-scavenging laws, however, can still fine Dumpster divers. Many stores also discourage freegans. They're usually afraid of lawsuits from divers who get sick from discarded food. Stores that donate their excess food claim they leave nothing palatable in the trash. Freegans disagree. Stores throw out large amounts of aesthetically damaged goods like bruised fruit or crushed boxes. They also discard products that have reached their sell-by date.

Although sell-by dates provide a general idea of when food will go bad, they are not safety dates. Trash from grocery stores and restaurants is also different from that of the average residential "herbie curbie. Freegans also grow their own food. Some create plots on their own property; others practice guerrilla gardening and convert abandoned lots into community gardens.