Last week I stopped in Tel Aviv to find open community gardens (and along with the plants, a community of my own). Some friendly faces were hanging out on couches in a small dirt patch, inviting me to drink coffee & their produce, and within twenty minutes I was added to group chats and upcoming events. Community!
I was invited to come âdumpster divingâ with one of the garden leads. Iâve never dumpster dived, which I imagined required us to jump head-in into large dump receptacles. I had a mixture of being scared (was it safe â both lawfully & biologically â to dive?) and apprehensive (am I someone who dumpster dives?).
But I wanted to learn â food waste accounts for 6% of all greenhouse gas emissions. If we want to reduce our emissions, weâll need to reduce the amount of carbon we send to landfills â through reducing (producing less food, or not throwing away good produce), reusing (making broths!), and recycling (compost!).
On Sunday the 16th I spent my morning with Garden in the Kerem to find & save food waste. A rotating 6-person group (as people decided to come or go) walked around with a cart filled with bags & yellow crates, stopping by trash cans behind grocery stores and searching for healthy produce.
We stopped by eight shops, hiding in their trash enclosures (due to liability laws & trespassing, dumpster diving is considered illegal if landowners choose to sue) and filtering between food that was rightfully thrown out and food that was still healthy. Although it was a âweak dayâ (according to veteran divers), we filled the cart within an hour. Some shops had nothing and others had bags full of edible produce (one place had hundreds of dark-yellow bananas and many potatoes, another had bagged herbs still bright green, and another had fully salvaged peppers).
After filling the cart and walking back to the garden, we sorted & washed the produce. This photo was taken after many people (both divers & community members) had come to collect their own share and bring it home). Divers estimated we collected 200kg of food!
We made guac & salads, composted our food scraps, and spent time sitting & talking together about our lives. Community!
Some of the long-term divers said they purchase very few items in Israel. Diving offers them tasty & healthy produce (with Israelâs high cost of groceries, this is a huge cost-save). Benches in Israel often house peopleâs old clothing to take for free. Furniture is placed in the street or is advertised online for free pickup.
An hour of work finding food for free brought us enough food to feed many households â a pretty good ROI! I wanted to share some tips I learned from my experience. Although it might not be for everyone, this is a great skill for reducing food waste within a neighborhood & reducing your grocery costs. Without much expertise!
How to Dumpster Dive
There are many guides out there, so make sure to read around before taking my (amateur) advice.
Go with friends. Going with friends lets you collect more, always have someone with your grocery cart, and makes the experience all the more interesting. Ask people you know, make a community group chat, or find eco-communities in your area.
Know when the trash is picked up. Going at the right time is vital. Come too early and youâll miss when they throw their produce. Go too late and trash bins will be empty. You can slowly learn the schedule of the area by hanging out around the neighborhood.
Make connections with shop workers. Some workers are happy to help you divert food from landfills, may give you helpful information about increasing your collection, or will sort their trash before throwing it out. Youâre less likely to get into trouble if the people on-premise are your friends!
Be careful collecting in public. When a shop doesnât know you or doesnât like you, you may have a tough time collecting food from their shop. Some people might disagree, but please prioritize your safety while there. If you have previous bad experiences with a shop, consider spending your time elsewhere. When collecting, try to be discreet (move into the trash enclosure area) so consumers arenât dissuaded from entering.
Be honest. If someone asks you what youâre doing, be honest. Your cause (rescuing good food to share with the public) is a better alibi than other reasons you might be digging through a businessâ trash. Youâll be surprised by who is willing to let you continue if youâre courteous and harmless.
Make sure to leave the trash as you found it. After sorting, the trash area should be exactly as clean as you found it, if not cleaner. Put trash back into the bins (and into any bags they started in) so shops have no reason to bar you from coming in.
Always wash your rescued produce. Dumpsters are rarely cleaned. Itâs best to collect food thrown away in trash bags, but you never know what was in the dumpster. Washing your produce is a requirement. Donât risk illness by skipping out on washing food.
Wear protective gear. When diving you should feel comfortable with grabbing food out of the trash. Produce might have gone bad, hazardous material might be inside, and so on. Consider bringing gloves, closed-toed shoes, long sleeves & pants. Better to be prepared than to feel uncomfortable here.
Bring water. Youâll be digging through trash bags and finding some produce that is no longer good (or exploded all over). Use water to wash off your hands as you need!
What else Iâve done recently
Spent the end of Pesach on Moshav Moledet with Natan.
Movie nights, mini golf & bowling with friends.
Climbing at the gym, sitting in parks, and wandering Tel Aviv / Ramat Gan areas.
Teaching friends how to play the ukelele & slow ukelele mornings or myself.
Finished reading Great Gatsby.