by Jennifer Buckett

Created on: December 29, 2010

Subcultures rejecting contemporary consumer culture have grown in popularity in the past few decades, as America has become increasingly obsessed with consuming. Freegans stand out from the crowd for being a bit more unconventional than the rest. They can frequently be seen digging through store dumpsters for still-edible food in order to make use of what America wastes so freely. While the freegans present a novel alternative to participating in capitalistic American society, their movement will not create significant and lasting change in society.

Freegans are a subculture of anti-consumptionists “who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste” (Hayasaki, 2007). The term combines “free” and “vegan” although there is much more emphasis on living without consuming than there is on eschewing animal products. Freegans reject the never ending cycle of consumption which requires us to work long hours in order to make money to purchase items that we don’t really need (Kurutz, 2007). The United States’ “consumer-driven economy” glorifies spending, sending Americans into an unsustainable “consumer binge” that has left us overworked and overspent (Schor, 2008). Living off of consumer waste by dumpster diving rejects this cycle because there is no need to purchase material goods. While some freegans maintain a job in order to pay for the bare necessities and rent, radical freegans will squat in abandoned houses while eating and using only items that they have acquired totally free in order to completely “liv[e] without the use of currency” (Halpern, 2010).

Freegans reject consumption “in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism” (Kurutz, 2007). In today’s society, there is no hesitation to throw away still usable goods due to “style obsolescence” and corporations encourage this wasteful consumption by continually releasing new colors, editions, and styles of products that force us to keep buying in order to stay in fashion (Kurutz, 2007). By continually consuming, we support corporations and increase wastefulness, both personally and industrially. Freegans acknowledge the reality that “our society wastes far too much” and use their personal lifestyle choices to resist this consumer ideology by “salvaging

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