8/14/2019 Freegan

1/1

/11/08 www.ey.com/uk/careers

ived in apartments; people haveedtheirhouses up to me.Ive evenfor two months in the woods.

Many freegans consider residencya right, not a privilege. Free livingprotest against homelessness,

itation and inequality. Squatterse a stand against councils andords who would rather keep prop-

boarded up if they cannot turn aient profit on them.

Simon also follows theprinciple of

ntary joblessness, one of the rareran ideals. I guess one thing thats me quite different from a lot ofe is that I dont work for money.

r the past five years I havent hadcheque or a salary. Its just trying

t motivation for doing things oute for others and not in expectan-

getting things in return.For Simon it isnt enough to revertrtering and non-monetary formsde: I try to really ensure that the

vation is just there to help people,use if youre doing it in the

ctancy of even getting food inn it just becomes almost like thent economic system, where youo something in return for gettingthing. He has not worked formoney or shelter in five years,

gh his community does sometimest donations so he has used moneyccasion:Its nice not to (usey), but it depends on what is the

use of resources. For example youwant to spend lots on food that

an liberate from the bins, but youdont want to spend half a day

g that or spend a lot of fuel drivingnd places when you could justd a few pounds and get some food.pends on whats the wisest use ofrces.

Simon and Alice seem to repre-he divide between freeganism astical protest and freeganism as a

sophy in its own right. Alice talks

y about the flaws and limits ofanism - for her it is a correctiveedure of redistribution and acal protest. Simon, on the other, is totally convinced by the end

point of freegan philosophy and isunfazed by the accusation of relianceon the system they mistrust: We makeuse of waste but that doesnt mean

were dependent on the waste to live.Think about revolution for example.

When revolutions take place withincountries, they still use the same roads,they still walk the same pavements andthey still make use of whatever thatsystem theyre revolting against hasmade. In the end I think the freegan

hopeis thatwe get rid ofit (waste) alto-gether, and change societys motiva-tion.

To many all this talk of love andrevolution smacks of unproductivehippy-talk. Your average middle-classliberal, though environmentally awareand desperately open-minded,

becomes distinctly uncomfortable inthe face of love-wielding radicals.Simon, however, talks with genuine

warmth and his belief and experiencein the capability of humankind tocohabit so peacefully is uplifting.

When I questioned the realism of hisapproach as a long-term lifestyle he

was full of nothing but success stories:I do know families involved in thefreegan movement. Does it work? YeahI think it does. It works for everybody,its just about doing things out of loveand sharing, which I think you can dothat just as easily as a family unit. Mostfreegan families Ive met do homeschool their kids, but I know freeganfamilies whose kids go to normalschool too.

Simons freegan lifestyle involvesreal dedication to his community and,he argues, it provides equality ofopportunity giving people the time andsupport they need to develop their ownskills: A good thing about the freeganlifestyle is that, because youre notspending your day making money

youve got a lot of time to learn. Sotheres nothing stopping people learn-

ing these skills and because we shareand we live together its easier to learn.Theres more time when youre notpressed to meet deadlines.

On the whole, freegans like Simon

are hard to count. Their limited socie-tal presence, non-rent or taxpaying,home schooled and self-sufficient,means they are somewhat elusive, soits difficult to quantify the success ofsuch communities. Simons non-tradeprinciple, for example, seems very diffi-cult to commit to on a large scale inlight of humans very natural tenden-cies towards property and exchange.

Notradeand no money arediffer-ent things, says Alice, You can stillhave trade without money. I guess ide-ally it would be great if there was nomoney but I think its ok to trade stuff.

Alice does see space for non-monetarysystems in current society though. Ona local level, some cities have schemes

where they swap vegetables for otherthings. So you can earn local currency

by doing a job for someone.E ven with ambitions of being a

lawyer Alice sees no problem with con-tinuing with waste reclamation; she tooeven knows families who have contin-ued skipping and other freegan pur-suits. She is, however, slightly hesitantabout living in a freegan community: I

would possibly consider it,I dont knowif it would be compatible with being alawyer though. Im not sure really. The

work that I want to do is more aboutbecause I want to help people. Id loveit if I could do it for free because I wantto do legal aid and work that thereshardly any funding for. If I was able todo that for free by living an entirelyfreegan lifestyle I guess that would beideal. I mean doing work for free in thehope that other people will do the sameis nice butslightly not realistic. The

real problem (with freeganism) is itsnot an ideal solution because not every-one can live in this way. Its based on a

wasteful society and thats not an ideal. Alice continues to use freeganism

to protest against waste, and her careerambitions set her apart from self-con-tained freegan communities. A currentproject she is working on is organisedr ed is tr ib ut io n w it h h er l oc alSainsburys: Ive been trying to setsomething up because Sainsburys haveagreed to give food waste to homelesspeople. The difficulty has been findinga venue (for distribution) but I think

were going to manage to set it up. Thebenefit of redistribution of commercial waste is a particularly salient pointwhen you consider that household rub-

bish makes up only 10% of thwaste.

The philosophys associatefreeganism attract both criticispraise. Speaking to York studentsand James, both 20, I got a serespect for the underlying princicynicism with regards to its lonsuccess. Both Sarah and Jame

been skipping a few times as stuand are friends with several sefessed anarchists: Its like thetwo different kinds of freegans

James, The selfish kind and thetable kind. James and Sarah agrthe statement against waste mskipping but are doubtful abougenuinely charitable or politicaskippers are.

Freeganism has only been peral to Sarah and James lives. Mtheir skipping companions have ated now, and due to a combinaincreased real-life commitmen

jobs and partners and increasedmarket security, by and large theleft their freegan ways behindquite depressing really, says Jamdont think any of them are squanymore. They leave, they get a jcall centre muses Sarah, But it seems a lot easier when youre

student with a loan and financiport.Sarah and James do consid

impact of their waste on the enment, but they are very awareimplications of a freegan lifestythem a humans natural desire forerty is disrupted by the more exfreegan philosophies and the ouis confusing: Its like, you lisome cake from the bins, says But you still want it to be

because if you get back and one ofreegan friends stealsyour cake ylike thats my cake! And osweet note, according to a 2008 86,000 tonnes of cakes and puare thrown away every year in th

Despite any doubts surro

freeganism the problem of wundeniable. The statistics are

wh ere and the y are gro According to a 2007 article National Environment ONetwork, the UK alone disposmillion more tonnes of waste pthan any other European coPockets of hope are provided bydedicated freegan individuals, s

Alice, whose efforts have the poto prompt real change. There is something worth considering,environmentalist or otherwise.

The term freegan is more timage says Simon, There are hifreegans but there are also a lot ogans I know that look straigabout self-discipline. M

I do know families involved in

the freegan movement. Does itwork? I think it does. Its aboutdoing things out of love.

M1