My date with Freegan-ism

So I met Daniel from https://freeganinsingapore.wordpress.com/
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​You can find out more about him from the YouTubes below. 

A quick summary. 
He is/was a financial planner/adviser. Sometime back he had some form of depression due to "money no enough" thoughts. He went for some talks and met a mentor who thought him about Freegan living. Basically, living for FREE. 

So I'd be sharing about what I feel about this. What I learnt during our meet up and what I'd probably want to do or try out. 
Firstly, I'd like to say I was really excited about meeting him and how he does what he does. I take this whole discussion very positively and open mindedly. Some stuff, I may not do, but I don't look down on it. Different people do different things and have different tolerance levels. So to each his own. 
As I always say, keep the best, throw the rest. So if you or I can learn something from this, then learn it, else, forget it. 
For me, I know that there's likely some stuff which I would try to incorporate. 

So one of the things I asked him is... when he lives as a freegan, is it a statement? Meaning... does he make it a point to live for free. Not spend any money. So I asked him. What if I asked him to go to a coffeeshop for a cup of coffee. It's just a dollar. What does he feel about this? It's not that he can't afford it. It's only a dollar. 
His answer went something like... spending is a habit. You can have a cup of coffee for a dollar. And everything else is built up from there. The idea is, as a freegan, you try to live for free. He brought his own drinks which he obtained for free. I reckon he always brings stuff around. 
Personally, I liken this to being a vegetarian. Think about it. If one day, I decide to be a vegetarian. I could  easily just eat meat. Since for my past 35 years I have been eating meat. But on a whim, I think, I'd like to try being a vegetarian. IF so, I'd need to change my eating habits. I can't just for the convenience of it, decide to eat a burger. Then that just defeats the point of trying to be a vegetarian. 
The point is, it takes effort to be a vegetarian. Similarly, it takes effort to be a total freegan. It's just how dedicated you are to it. 

So like vegetarians, there's different levels of it. Some folks are vegetarian only on 1st and 15th of the lunar calendar, some folks do it once a week, some do it once a year, others can eat egg, some can't eat egg. Some are ok to cook with "contaminated cookery". Some vegetarians have a whole new set of cookery just for vegetarian food. 

Same as freegans. There's different levels of it. 
The idea of freegans is living for free. Or getting as much stuff for free that you might require.
This might mean the person might end up hoarding but that's a different issue. 
For Daniel, what he gets for free, he also gives for free, to him, collecting stuff is fun, it has become a hobby. He gets loads of stuff but he also knows he needs to find a way to "out process" the stuff. I used the term "out pro" (like army days, after going into camp, you get to out pro to check out of camp.) Cos if you can't out pro the stuff, the house clogs up and all the stuff becomes old and it becomes cluttered and messy. 

Anyway moving on.
Getting stuff for free... Now, everyone who's seen Daniel's videos mentally loiter around the idea of dumpster diving. People think its gross, unsightly... whatever. The thing is, I don't think that freeganism is about dumpster diving. It IS a method to live for free, but that's not the whole idea of it. 

For example...
Getting food from your neighbours. Many people cook too much and have left overs which they throw away. It is very common. I used to be called up to my neighbours places to help finish up food. This in itself is considered living for free. Helping people clear their food cos some people don't like to throw food away. So if you have enough neighbours as friends who cook regularly you could go everywhere to eat. This happened for awhile once to us, where after dinner, neighbours would call us up to their place to help them with food. Once they know you are always on call to help them with left overs, they will call you regularly over. Some days it is family ABC, other days it will be XYZ... etc etc. 

Similarly, you could ask your neighbours for their expired food which are open or sealed. If you're concerned with their storage conditions, then just get only those which are sealed. There's absolutely nothing wrong with consuming expired food. Just use some common sense. If it smells weird, or tastes weird just dump it. 

Or how about a friend who is moving house and asks you to go to their place to take whatever you want. That's also freegan living. Helping them clear up their stuff so that they don't have to throw it away. When I throw things away, I feel it's such a waste. I would rather find another owner for it. 

Then there are organizations which can't finish selling their stuff before expiry, or near expiry. If you have the right connections, you could ask them for their excess food. Canned food, biscuits, UHT milk, etc etc. The question is... do you have the lobang for these?

Or maybe you could ask the bakery downstairs or the fruit/vegetable seller, that at the end of the day, don't throw away their excess. Just put in a bag and you'll take them. That's also freeganism. Does it sound gross? No right? 

The whole problem with this is that most people think about freeganism as just about dumpster diving. Cos that's what makes it sound strange, weird, extreme, etc. The story sounds nicer when it's more extreme. 
But freeganism is so much more than that. It's about sharing and finding free stuff that people don't want and you are willing to take, and vice versa. 

But let's go down to the more extreme stuff.
Dumpster diving, I was talking to Daniel about how he does it. He says people have actually been doing this all the time. The karang guni guy is always hunting for stuff, the cardboard aunties, drink can aunties, etc etc.
(Does anyone look down on the cardboard auntie? For me, I don't. So if I see someone ransack the dumpster, as long as he doesn't leave it in a mess, I'm not bothered.)
Whatever... the best time to go on these expeditions is during weekends. That's when people find time to clean up their junk at home. So Saturday or Sunday nights are the best around 11pm onwards. 

He finds stuff left at void decks.
Ovens, microwaves, sofas, chairs, etc. Once again, these are the easy stuff. When people thing dumpster diving they think "gross stuff" so ... yes, Daniel and other dumpster divers open the bins, the big ones, the small ones, and they go through the plastic bags. Once again... the gross stuff are usually the plastic bags with the half eaten food, food waste, etc... So Daniel just doesn't find it necessary to open those. Cos there are so many other plastic bags to choose from. 
When you pack your room, you usually open a new plastic bag, and dump your clothes, and other stuff into it.... well everyone does that too. So there are plastic bags that are relatively clean without all the decomposing junk. Just open those, if you're squeamish.
There's so much stuff find in the trash that they can afford to be choosy. Of course if they want they could also open those with the food stuffs as well... 

Also, people leave fruits at void decks. Tied nicely in a plastic bag. Usually, I think they are used as offerings during prayers. Some folks are ok with eating it, others aren't. Are they gross? It's just a plastic bag of fruits left on the floor. What's so wrong with that? 

Then on the extreme end... I would think most people wouldn't want to be eating left over food at hawker centers, uneaten food left by strangers. But, think about it this way... do you have any issues sharing a pack of fries with your friend? How about some left over nuggets? Or chicken wings? Sounds edible? Is the 2 left over nuggets any worse just cos someone else left it there around 30 seconds ago? 
Then let's look at a half eaten burger... Daniel's advice is... you can just eat the side where the burger isn't bitten. Eat until close to the bite marks then just dump it. Sounds somewhat reasonable. 
Daniel has taken it further and eaten left overs at hawker centers... and yet, if you think about it another way, is this any different from sharing "zi char" with your friends and colleagues? 

Now, would I do this? Probably not. Like I said earlier. There's a whole lot of middle ground. And I'll try to incorporate stuff that I feel is reasonable enough for my wife and I to accept. 

I further asked Daniel. Why does he do this? Is it about getting free stuff? Or helping others? Cos he gets involved in many other organizations and people to help the less fortunate. Like foreign workers where he just gives away some of his stuff freely to them, for them to ship back to their home towns. Or at places where they give out free food. 
His response was that he was interested in helping people. 
But upon further querying, it was rather that... He started out cos he wanted free stuff so as to sustain his lifestyle. It was only AFTER he realized that there was so much to go around, and he had already taken care of his own needs, he found that he would like to share and help others. Cos there's just so much free stuff to go around. 
And I think this is a very important point to take home. If you realize everything is relatively free, or could be shared and passed around, 2nd hand, hand it to the next user who would like it... actually, there's so much MORE. The only problem is that usually, we don't know WHO will accept that chair/table that we want to throw away. Else, if we could... wouldn't we want to just pass it on to someone else who could make better use of it?
Once you find out that you can get almost anything for free, the thought becomes... why would I want to pay for it? The idea of... if you're at home, would you buy bottled water to drink? NO RIGHT? Why? Cos you can find water relatively free from the tap. So yes, tap water might have a different taste, but generally, it's ok, or you might choose to boil it. 

So if you think about it the freegan way, if you know that someday, eventually , you can find a handphone, a table, chairs, shoes, in the trash, or left at the void deck... would you want to buy unnecessary things? 
The word is unnecessary. So maybe there's these Gundam models I've always wanted... HEY I could likely find those in the trash. When I moved house last time, I threw away whole sets of old Lego. Vintage discontinued ones. I never knew there was a secondary market for these. And if I think about it, IF I throw these away, then similarly, other people also would throw all these away as well. So someday, a dumpster diver could find such stuff as well. Things that one wouldn't logically buy cos it's unnecessary. 

As we talked more, I asked him... for someone like me, who wants nothing. Why would I be dumpster diving? There's little material wants. I already have whatever I need at home. Any extra stuff is just clutter. And I liked his response... "You can upgrade." Upgrade your shoes, clothes, watch, etc... Hey that's a brilliant idea. Basically, it's like "buying" stuff that I never thought I needed. 

So it was really cool. Anyway, our discussion ended really quickly. The one and a half hours flew by really quickly. But I felt I learnt more about freegan living... it's about living for free, to look for free lobangs, it's not entirely about dumpster diving. That's just one aspect to it. A freegan can be a freegan without dumpster diving. 

Next is what I will be doing about it...
I'm keeping an open mind. I'd like to try some stuff out, dumpster diving, saving food and vegetables from being thrown out, etc. 
Of course I won't know how I'd take it (mentally). But to me, I give it a try, if it works out, fine, if it doesn't work out, then I could always go along with the other less extreme methods of freeganism. 

I'd likely not be eating leftover food from strangers. That's something I'd prefer not to be doing. 
But I'm pretty stoked about trying out the other stuff. Hey free stuff, why not right?
So like I say, keep the best, dump the rest. I'm trying to see how I can incorporate freegan mentality into my life. Where can I find the lobangs to get free stuff. The stuff I can't accept, I can just choose not to do. The stuff that I think I can accept or try, I can try to see if it works out, or if it's worth the effort, everything is up for grabs. Just try and see how it goes. 

As usual, I'll be updating on my freegan stuff at this blog so I guess it's going to be cool as I find new lobangs and get free stuff.
Stay tuned.



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