There's No Such Thing As A Lunch...

Or is there? Dumpster divers and freegans have been proving that they can get something for nothing. So, should broke millennials consider trying it?

- Adora Wong

I’m 10 minutes into meeting Daniel Tay for the first time when he whips out a Burberry handbag and pushes it towards me.

“You want? You can have it!” he says. I politely decline. “Nobody wants it because it’s too heavy,” he sighs. “Maybe you can give it to your editor?”

The bag isn’t brand new. In fact, he found it in the trash.

Daniel is a dumpster diver. He scavenges bins for edible food and usable items. You may have heard of him before – The Straits Times interviewed him late last year when they shone the spotlight on dumpster diving.

But Daniel is also a proud freegan – a person who rejects consumerism and minimises waste to help the environment. The 38- year-old has his own candid definition, though.

“A freegan is someone who spends very little money. He tries to get everything for free,” he says.

Dumpster diving vs freeganism

While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, not every dumpster diver is a freegan, and not every freegan dumpster dives.

“Many karung guni men go through dumpsters, but they’re not freegans. Why? Because instead of using the stuff they find for their own purposes, they sell them to earn a living,” explains Daniel. “Then there are freegans who don’t dumpster dive. They forage for food or make their own things instead.”

“Freeganism is a lifestyle. A philosophy. Dumpster diving is an activity. It’s just a matter of [choosing] what makes sense for you,” he adds.

According to Daniel, it makes sense to dumpster dive in Singapore because a lot of the things found in trash bins here are in good condition. It would be harder to do in other countries because “the trash is really trash”.