by Patricia Grannum

Created on: April 04, 2008

Gerard Daechsel, 74, says he's often mistaken for a homeless person. That's because he salvages everything he owns from garbage bins. People, he says, even offer him money as charity. To this he replies: "no thanks, I'm doing this for the environment."

With his gravelly voice and scraggly grey hair and beard, Daechsel describes himself as an activist, environmentalist and a freegan. The word freegan combines the words free and vegan. It's used to describe a person who, as the saying goes, hunts through one man's trash to find "treasures" that can be reused It's an anti-consumerist movement and a lifestyle which Daechsel says he's been a part of for over fifty years.

Born in Saskatchewan, Daechsel went to school in Ottawa and earned a Bachelor of Journalism at Carleton University, then called Carleton College. He worked as a journalist in Canada for a short time and eventually moved to Europe where he became a teacher. While in Europe, he became a full time campaigner: first for anti-war movements and then for environmental issues.

He says he gets most of his food from salvaging and people are often happy to give him leftover food. He says he recently stocked up on groceries with the leftover goods from a convenience store that was going out of business. The owner let him come in and take goods right off the shelves, he says.

He does not pay for anything except for his senior bus pass and rent for his apartment in downtown Ottawa. He even gets his newspapers from the garbage.

"That's where I get all my news," he says.

The last thing he bought, other than his bus pass was a pair of boots in 1961.

His main motivation for living like this, he says, is the survival of the planet through the reduction of waste.

"Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this."

He says that his background also helped him to appreciate the value of commodities. Daechsel grew up in the Depression era. This explains his disconnect with today's consumerist culture, he says.

"People have got to stop buying so many things." he says.

Daechsel not only salvages for his food, but also goes through bins and ensures that recyclables are not mixed up with garbage or vice versa. He says when the two are mixed the recycling trucks do not pick up the blue bins designated for recycling. He says that small businesses are especially irresponsible when it comes to sorting their waste.

"They are just not taking their responsibilities seriously.'

Despite his good intentions, he says, people can be hostile to his endeavours.

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