Freeganism is an ideology of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like food. The word "freegan" is a portmanteau of "free" and "vegan". While vegans avoid buying, consuming, using, and wearing animal products as an act of protest against animal exploitation, freegans—at least in theory—avoid buying anything as an act of protest against the food system in general.
A box of vegetables and fruits recovered from the dumpsters of a hypermarket
Urban foraged food in Stockholm, Sweden
Freegan while dumpster diving
Food collected from a dumpster in Linköping, Sweden
Dumpster diving is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is not confined to dumpsters and skips specifically and may cover standard household waste containers, curb sides, landfills or small dumps.
A person dumpster diving
A man rummaging through a skip at the back of an office building in Central London
Food obtained by dumpster diving in Linköping, Sweden
Unsold books from a bookstore near the University of Washington are piled into a dumpster.
