The Plan...

I got a text message a few weeks ago, from a friend at uni, saying she had a "cunning plan...which involves not paying for stuff and le cookery".  This intrigued me.  All of my friends know me as someone who loves to cook - I do it to procrastinate when I could be doing other things - as well as someone who'll buy anything if it's a bargain, even better if it's free.

So I set about wondering what on earth she could be talking about, and thoughts of selling home-cooked dinners to other students floated through my head.  It was only when she came to visit a couple of days later that freeganism was first suggested, and so began the journey upon which we are about to embark...

What is Freeganism?

Freegan (ˈfriˌɡʌn)

1. Neologism, created by combining the words "free" and "vegan".
   
2. A person who subsists on the waste of others.
3. An anti-consumerist movement begun in America in the 1980s.

I am not going to lie.  I do not intend to embrace the movement in its fullest capacity.  True freegans denounce consumerism in its entirety, many refusing to have a job and squatting rather than buying or renting a property.  While the thought of not having to pay for my accommodation at university is tempting, I'm not quite that brave.

It would be more accurate to describe us "Dustbin Divers", or as I prefer to describe us, a Waste Reduction Team.  It sounds somewhat less disgusting, and more noble.

The principle is that Western society as a whole is wasteful.  Food is cheap, and as a result many people have no qualms about throwing an awful lot of it away.  This is bad for the environment, makes a mockery of those, both in this country and abroad, who cannot afford to eat or have experienced true hunger in their lives, and (sadly the closest thing to home for many of us in the West) it is bad for our pockets too.  Hundreds of tonnes of food every year is produced, and then thrown away because it is past its best before date.  This happens in our homes, in restaurants, in cafes, pubs, supermarkets, even in the warehouses where food is stored before it's made its way to the supermarkets.  According to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com, the food discarded at homes in the UK runs to 6.7 million tonnes every single year.  By my calculations, that's over 100kg per person living in the UK (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

And so, as a student with little money to waste, who has always seen the merit in boiling up the carcuss of a roast chicken to make tomorrow's soup, I am conducting a social experiment this term, Michaelmas 2009.  Can you live healthily off of Oxford's waste?

I'll keep a diary of what I can scavenge, and what I do with it.  And what I buy.  I don't expect to be able to get away with never buying food, and particularly teabags.  I can't do without a cup of tea!

Hopefully this will prove interesting for all of us...