Dumpster diving?

[Mountain Sunshine]

Quote:
I did that and was told that it was against state law to give away produce or any other food "waste". It has to be thrown away. They can be held liable if someone gets sick form something they are getting rid of! (it's a state mandated law that they cannot do this)

 

[LarryPQ]

I don't dumpster dive, but I will occasionally pester a manager for the throw-aways. Some stores have a no-no policy, and even lock up their produce garbage to prevent it. I used to get all the veggie scraps from Sprouts for the garden (before I had chickens) and now they won't give them to me anymore. Lots of restuarants will give you stuff, especially if you are a patron. There is a fancy place near here that my boss makes us frequent. The resaurant serves bread at each tabloe, but tosses the heels. A good tip to the server can get you a long way!

But I do trash-can dive at work, after big lunch meetings. The office services people know I want the leftovers, so they call me when they are cleaning up. Then I can get it BEFORE it goes in the trash, and I don't have to "get the look" from a partner who catches me head-first in a trashcan.

 

[gwennym]

My grandfather used to raise pigeons and rabbits and FREQUENTLY would dumpster-dive for produce -- whole bags of apples, carrots, cabbage, lettuce ... you name it. He also, once, was inside a dumpster that took off down the ramp it was parked on. I guess the wheels weren't locked. I can only imagine grandpa zipping down the ramp with grandma in the car wondering what the heck he was doing.....

for myself, I work in a large high-rise in St. Louis that has a coffeeshop on the main floor. The gals save the last third of Romaine lettuce from making salads, some cabbage, etc. and whatever is leftover from sandwich/salad making on Friday. Also, the firm I work at serves us continental breakfast on Fridays, so I go home with the leftover pasteries, bagels, etc. I also raid the food left from meetings and some of the gals save what they don't finish at lunch. Makes for a great variety for my birds.

Gwen --- hereditary dumpster-diver

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
I did that and was told that it was against state law to give away produce or any other food "waste". It has to be thrown away. They can be held liable if someone gets sick form something they are getting rid of! (it's a state mandated law that they cannot do this)

Thats why dumpster diving is big in Georgia. State law says that any "out of date" or wast food must go in the trash. But as long as the vender puts it in the trash it becomes far game. Watch food venders at gas stations. Most box up the old stuff an sit the boxes on the dumpster for people to get. Just go make friends with the workers an ask when the venders throw out the "out of dates."
Got a lot of junk food that way over the years. Most is only a week old.

 

[Funky Feathers]

I used to, especially veggies & fruits, for my birds, until they started locking the dumpsters. So now that is not possible.

But guess what?? One day when I was half in & half out of the dumpster, a carload of teenage boys drove by laughing and snapped a pic of me!!

How embarrassing!

 

[bantamsrus]

Had to say this--we have a 4cu yard dumpster in our yard (how we get rid of all the horse poop, shavings/straw, etc) and when we used to free range the chickens.......the chickens themselves would actually go dumpster diving!!! They'd just jump right in, scratch around, find some "goodies".

 

[PrinceSandwich]

I go to the back of the grocery store and ask for the bad veggies sometimes. But I don't go as far as to jump into there dumsters!

 

[Dar]

Quote:
I did that and was told that it was against state law to give away produce or any other food "waste". It has to be thrown away. They can be held liable if someone gets sick form something they are getting rid of! (it's a state mandated law that they cannot do this)

For some time now there has been an "issue" with this... some stores say they cant give me the over ripe stuff, some stores used to have a "day old" section. Most of the larger stores have gotten rid of the day olds, and even stopped selling the reduced produce. My regular guy will give me stuff and mark no charge on the bag... or he will bring some goodies when he comes to get his eggs, but he has to be careful because this is technically "stealing" even the though the store was just going to throw it out

 

[tinyscrafts]

I'm currently reading the urban homestead. They refer to a book called the art and science of dumpster diving. by Hoffmann, John
they say some places throw out stuff just past the date, like milk, cream etc... and you can turn that into cheese. butter etc..
I guess if you can find clean food that is fresh thrown out it might be ok, I hesitate to say worth it:/ but maybe... But my kids would tell you i've stoped the car lots of times if there is some shelving, wood, chair or other good thing sticking out of the dumpster/trash/curb alley so who am I to talk...

 

[weirdmuse]

Yeah, the state here frowns on stores giving away out of date produce, however, I've found that when you tell the produce manager that it's for your chickens and not for you, it makes a big difference. I went from getting a somewhat stern "no" to getting a few cases of out of date bagged salad just by explaining it was for my livestock.