six months of diving
I'm sitting here, delighted by the documentary I just finished watching. In it, two friends do a 6-month experiment of moving to a new town and an empty apartment ... and then living in it without buying anything during that time. How? Dumpster diving!
It sounds much more horrible than it actually is. They don't even get in the dumpsters most of the time. So much stuff just sits on the top ... and there's so much stuff out there! Seriously, they can afford to be just as picky as they want to be. Nobody's eating moldy food or decaying meat. In fact, each and every dumpster diver interviewed for the film says that they've been healthy and well and never gotten sick from dumpster food.
The filmmaker estimates that 20 percent of the average American's income ends up as waste ... food waste or other. For me, that's like $6000 down the tube each year. Tragic!
There's a artsy new-agey feel to the film, and some of the folks interviewed look like they're stoned ... but really, I espouse most of the ideology presented: Avoiding waste, using what's out there, sharing, reduce-reuse-recycle, trusting God for daily provision, living more simply.
At the end of the 6-month, they have a free sale to get rid of everything!
If you watch nothing else, at least scroll forward to about the 50:00 mark and watch until about 52:30. One guy is describing how dumpster diving feels like an ancient tribal scavenging, hunting, and foraging activity ... complete with torches, a coconut bra, a bone through his beard, and a massive unibrow!
Hippies. Gotta love 'em... :-)
And speaking of trash and sharing and all that jazz, Gerry and I have a truly serendipitous story to tell from today! Stay tuned.
It sounds much more horrible than it actually is. They don't even get in the dumpsters most of the time. So much stuff just sits on the top ... and there's so much stuff out there! Seriously, they can afford to be just as picky as they want to be. Nobody's eating moldy food or decaying meat. In fact, each and every dumpster diver interviewed for the film says that they've been healthy and well and never gotten sick from dumpster food.
The filmmaker estimates that 20 percent of the average American's income ends up as waste ... food waste or other. For me, that's like $6000 down the tube each year. Tragic!
Click to viewThere's a artsy new-agey feel to the film, and some of the folks interviewed look like they're stoned ... but really, I espouse most of the ideology presented: Avoiding waste, using what's out there, sharing, reduce-reuse-recycle, trusting God for daily provision, living more simply.
At the end of the 6-month, they have a free sale to get rid of everything!
If you watch nothing else, at least scroll forward to about the 50:00 mark and watch until about 52:30. One guy is describing how dumpster diving feels like an ancient tribal scavenging, hunting, and foraging activity ... complete with torches, a coconut bra, a bone through his beard, and a massive unibrow!
Hippies. Gotta love 'em... :-)
And speaking of trash and sharing and all that jazz, Gerry and I have a truly serendipitous story to tell from today! Stay tuned.