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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Young anarchists with guts of steel raid dumpsters for edible "trash." The idea? Divert waste to end wastefulness.
Jun 10, 2002 | Normally I am a fun date. I like good restaurants that serve ridiculously vertical entrees and dry martinis. It doesn't hurt if the lighting is good and the servers are attractive. Cooking at home, I am a diva of fresh and perfect produce. I love slicing kumquats wafer thin into salads of freshly picked greens and concocting ever more exotic dressings. But lately I've been thinking a lot about the politics of food and, as we all know, thinking about fun always ruins it.
I'm not just speaking about the very scary genetically engineered potato on my plate, or the even scarier idea that we'll all die of mad cow disease in a few years, but the very premise of fine dining: conspicuous consumption and the waste that is central to its enjoyment. When I buy unblemished produce or eat at a restaurant, I am not just supporting a market that charges far too much money; I am part of an economy of excess and luxury that leaves far too much in the trash. Which brings me, albeit in an abrupt manner, to the topic at hand: dumpster diving.
Dumpster diving itself is not new; those without have been diving into the trash bins of those with since the beginning of time. But dumpster diving is not just about need. It is often about a political impulse to liberate the excesses of the rich for the poor. It is part of a larger ideology of radical nonconsumption. Thirty years ago, the Diggers liberated the waste of capitalism for those in need. Long before the Diggers, Franciscan monks liberated the waste of feudalism. What is new about today's waste liberation movement, sometimes known as "Do It Yourselfers" (DIY) or just plain old anarchists, is that it is part of the larger movement against global capitalism, a movement made most visible when they gather en masse at G7 meetings and other iconic events of the global economy.
The dumpster divers are the most logical subset of the anti-globalization activists because they live in a way that does not create any demand for goods and therefore their lives do nothing to propagate the very system they are protesting. It is difficult to know how many anarchists occupy this wing, especially since most of them are not particularly thrilled about talking to the "liberal media." (When I first started this article, many of the anarchists refused to speak to me because they felt I represented the "liberal media" and would therefore distort their views or, worse, expose them to police intervention). It is fair to say that the Do It Yourselfers have a national, if not international, presence that is evident on many of the anarchist Web sites and in much of the anarchist media (especially 'zines).
Do It Yourselfers are not just living off the grid, but off of the excess that the grid produces. In an incredibly idealistic act of faith, they believe that by redirecting consumer capitalism's "waste stream" to those in need, they are actually dismantling the master's house with the master's tools. Although I am far too cynical to believe that global capitalism will be affected by the redistribution of waste, I am impressed by the strict ethical code that gets this food to people in need. Through both informal and formal channels, such as Vermont's Food for Folks program that only distributes reclaimed foodstuffs to the needy, Do It Yourselfers are doing something that seems both useful and incredibly ethical.
I was so impressed by the strict ethical code of the dumpster divers that I began following them around Burlington, Vt., where I live. Because this is a small city, and dumpster diving is illegal, all of the people I spoke to asked me not to identify them. They also asked me not to identify the dumpsters since some owners might feel compelled to stop the "theft" of their trash by getting compactors and locks. Suffice it to say that the people I spoke to, all of whom were in their mid to late 20s, are able to get day-old bagels, food from grocery stores that would normally be thrown out because it has passed its expiration date or is overripe, and pizzas and other fast food that has sat under warming lights long enough that it cannot be sold, and even candy that is either imperfect or past its prime. In other words, a relative healthy meal and dessert too.
