My flat-mate Hannibal is an avid ‘skralder’. That’s Danish for dumpster diver. So much so that a group of media students made a short film about Hannibal and his friends who go dumpster diving late at night. Though I didn’t partake in the hunting and gathering depicting in the film, I did help cooking the meal which resulted from it, since it took place in our commune. There’s even a glimpse of me near the very end of the film. The food was delicious, by the way.
One of the reasons for dumpster diving is to raise awareness about the surplus of food in our society. To do that, Hannibal and his friends have put up a web site offering tips on how to gather your own food for free. Similar information is available in English, as well.
Though these Danes don’t draw much ideology into their actions, they do sympathize with American dumpster divers who have termed their lifestyle as “Freegan.” As one anonymous freegan puts it in the freegan manifesto Why Freegan, “when you “vote with your dollars”, consumerism always wins, capitalism always wins”, so the best way to make a stand against consumerism and capitalism is to stop consuming. And if that means eating the garbage, so be it.
