Part 4 of Dumpsterize My Diet!- Dumpster Virgin No More

By Seth Columbia

How did I get started?

The same way I start most things, along side some great people.

I have some friends in Montreal who I went to visit early in the summer of 2014 and I was very excited to learn of their alternative lifestyles. These two open minded ladies opened their fridge and pointed to the bread, the cheese, the yogurt, the fruits, the vegetable, and told me they got it from the trash. I became quite excited as my regular cheap diet of rice beans and vegetable was becoming quite boring.

Anyway it was not just their action but their style that inspired me so. The duo had enough money to buy food, however they are eco-groovey and couldn’t stomach the waste of perfectly good food. The two of them have rather classy jobs, one a secretary for a school, the other a waitress at a quaint local restaurant.

Surprisingly, their preferred times to dive not only included under the cover of night, but also on their way to work in broad day light.

They were dressed to impress, and strivin’ for a divin’.

I found it hilarious and impressive watching  as one of the girls fished through a dumpster with her high heels and floral prints on!

They weren’t diving because they had to… not exactly. They dive because they feel a need to effect change on this little pebble floating through space.

Its not just about getting food, I mean that is a goal, but the idea on a larger scale is about raising awareness about waste and neccesity. I will be exclusively dumpster diving in broad daylight in a tuxedo from now on.

Part 1 of Dumpsterize My Diet! – We’re Wasting Away

By Seth Columbia

Lets talk about waste.

If there is one good thing that  we do efficiently it is, to waste. As a college student it sometimes feels as though every object I find crammed into a dorm living space is labeled as “single use”. Beds, lamps, posters, last seasons clothing, electronics, and textbooks with much more all tend to fill out the massive profiles of industrial dumpsters moved into the city early in September and midway through May. Unfortunately not much of this lightly-used material waste is given a second home by those who really need it and in some cases is taken by small business and returned to the local economic cycle. But what happens to everything else?