Disclaimer: OUSA does not endorse dumpster diving as it can have serious legal ramifications.
Are you a cash-strapped student tired of eating instant noodles and spending your entire StudyLink payment in a single shop? Well then, you might have a fair bit in common with dumpster divers. Critic Te Ārohi sat down with a local group to get the lowdown on the dive.
Most of the dumpster divers Critic Te Ārohi spoke with are students. For the last year or so, they’ve been going to the bins outside supermarkets in Ōtepoti, sometimes as much as twice a week. “Me and a pal used to half-heartedly peek in dumpsters as early as, like, 2018 with mixed success. But I’ve only really been doing it regularly, strategically and successfully for about a year now,” said Joey*. Meanwhile, Jemima limits herself to around once per week as “at the end of the night there is so much food I stand there overwhelmed and then we have to eat white bread for weeks afterwards.”
There’s a lot of bread, apparently. But Joey said he often gets “enough unexpired yoghurt and weird keto shit to sustain me for weeks.” Other scores have included 20 litres of Lewis Road Creamery choccy milk (the boujee one), hot chocolate powder, cherry tomatoes, berries, ice cream, bagels and a plethora of vegan goodies for everyone complaining that our recipe section was too expensive. Not to mention large quantities of wine, beer and, most importantly, “mislabeled but functional sunscreen”.
Reasons for dumpster diving vary between divers but a common theme shared amongst most is “the thrill of the hunt”. Bailey told Critic Te Ārohi that dumpster diving “reconnects you with what you’ve been alienated from in industrial society. It puts you back in your body. You grab wasted food and run, supporting your friends along the way. It’s feral as fuck, and kinda hot.” No, you.
Now you might be thinking, "but isn't dumpster diving gross and unsanitary?" Yes! But for the well seasoned (no pun intended) divers, getting their hands a little dirty is a low price for free food. People often also worry about expiry dates but Critic Te Ārohi was told that quite a bit of unexpired packaged food is also thrown out. Dylan said “the measure of best-before dates can often be inadequate” due to the many ways in which unopened products are preserved. And at the end of the day, there isn’t even a standardised measure of recording best before dates, making your eyes and nose the most reliable tools in detecting if something has gone off.
On the flip side, a Countdown spokesperson told Critic Te Ārohi, “Anything that is grown or produced to be eaten and doesn’t reach its intended destination is waste. This includes items that may have been slightly damaged in transit, or are too close to their best before date to be sold.” As such, according to Countdown, it is “unsafe to take food from waste bins”, as “while a product in a bin may look ok on the surface, it could have been recalled, or food safety could have been compromised at some point, which has meant it needs to be disposed of.” However, in the eyes of the law, it is legal to give away and sell food past its best before date.
Food insecurity affects around 40% of households in Aotearoa, so, unsurprisingly, savings are a big reason that people choose to dumpster dive. Meanwhile, a recent report published by the Commerce Commission found that retail grocery stores make a tidy $1 billion in profits every year. With the supermarket duopoly dominating Aotearoa, grocery prices can feel like a royal screw-over. “The corporate duopoly is a massive injustice because access to food is a human right,” said Jemima. Joey told Critic Te Ārohi that he’s “the world’s stingiest man” so he “hates spending money”, admitting that the only thing he spends money on is toothpaste.
Diving into the dumpsters behind your local Countdown or New World can yield a treasure trove of free food. Some dumpster divers subscribe to the philosophy of “freeganism”, meaning they survive solely on what they find in bins. Unfortunately, Johnny said he never finds his go-to staples (like cans and oats) so reluctantly ends up spending some money at supermarkets. Shock horror! For Jemima, it depends on the haul: “If there is no produce, I might go buy some so I don’t get scurvy.” However, dumpster diving undoubtedly frees up some of that limited StudyLink payment for more important things. Although you might even find that in a bin along with your weekly grocery shop, making money effectively useless. Bailey told Critic Te Ārohi that dumpster diving “improved my quality of life,” adding, “I’ll have free time and be able to avoid real work for longer.” Good life-life balance.
And let's not forget about the environmental impact of food waste. Dylan told Critic Te Ārohi that the reason why he dumpster dives is “because of the tragedy of food waste itself.” The bins outside supermarkets are taken to landfill where the unwanted food breaks down anaerobically and is released into the atmosphere as methane gas (which is 21 times more potent than CO2).
According to the Ministry for the Environment, landfills account for around 4% of Aotearoa’s greenhouse gas emissions. This would decrease if food wastage was minimised and the food that was thrown out was allowed to break down naturally and aerobically to create natural fertiliser (like composting). While there are some organisations such as KiwiHarvest that supermarkets can donate food to, such schemes need to be opted into by the donors themselves. As such, many take the easy option of simply throwing the food in the bin. A Countdown spokesperson told Critic Te Ārohi that they “partner with KiwiHarvest among other food rescue partners”, however the nature of having massive supply chains means “some level of waste is inevitable.” Meanwhile, Jemima said “I’d love to see [food sovereignty] become a more community-led thing.” As of writing there are no laws or legal regulations of any kind in Aotearoa that prohibit food waste. “Other countries like France have moved faster on this than us, and we need to catch up,” said Johnny.
According to Dylan, “Property rights have enabled the concentration of ownership of our food supply-chain systems, and as a result the decisions which are made about our food, including the decisions to destroy it, happen independently from the communities which rely on the food for nutrition, or which are affected by the generation of landfill.” For some, dumpster diving is a way to take some power back. Dylan spoke of the difficulty imagining a more connected system of food sovereignty as doing so necessitates a complete reimagination of society. Dylan said that seeing “hundreds of cartons of milk set for intentional destruction by exploitative capitalist conglomerates” has made him dream of “a different system of property relations, where the words ‘own’ and ‘have’ are less absolute, where the management of communal resources are done communally, and one where the bins, the supermarkets, and their overarching management structures have ceased to exist.” We at Critic count sheep.
Of course, dumpster diving has its fair share of risk. Senior Constable John Woodhouse, the Campus Cop, told Critic Te Ārohi that dumpster divers can be charged with theft or burglary. A Countdown spokesperson confirmed that “dumpster diving is considered trespass and theft as waste bins are located on supermarket property.” John advised students to request assistance from the local food bank or OUSA student support instead of the riskier option of dumpster diving. “Should I personally apprehend a person engaging in this type of activity, I would use common sense and apply an educational approach,” said John. However, for some hardened divers the risks are more of an incentive than a deterrent.
“It would be much less fun if getting caught wasn’t on the table,” said Johnny, while recognising that his white privilege would likely mean that the consequences of getting caught wouldn’t be that bad. Paige admitted that she doesn’t know the consequences for getting caught “but surely I’d charm my way out of it.” Surely. Meanwhile, Jemima is more worried because she is not a New Zealand citizen, though the thought of her being deported for dumpster diving sounded “ridiculous”. Still, most try to play it reasonably safe and avoid getting caught which is why most divers go under the cover of dark to get a taste of the thrill of the forbidden. Even with the precautions, local divers have had a few close calls. “We’ve been filmed, threatened to be called on by the police and trapped behind a dumpster due to an unexpected delivery truck,” said Johnny. Yikes.
Perhaps the biggest concern for dumpster divers is not even getting caught but being prevented from making the dive in the first place. “I am far more concerned about businesses locking away their dumpsters or souping (pouring gross liquids) over the food so we can’t rescue it,” said Johnny.
Ultimately, for the more adventurous, dumpster diving is a fun activity that is equal parts thrilling and cheap. And best of all, you might even find something that'll make you feel like a king, or at least a better-fed peasant.
*Names changed for privacy.