Waste Cooking: A Reality TV Show about Cooking Food Found in Trash Cans

A lot of food in developed nations is simply wasted: cooked, but never eaten. Freeganism, a culinary lifestyle, has developed around it. Freegans dine on discarded food. Now television producers in Austria have developed a cooking show around that idea:

A typical episode of Waste Cooking begins with a group of divers congregating on their bikes. They then set off into the night, their bike lights flashing, in search of trash cans specifically designated for organic waste — Austria has had an ordinance requiring separate collection of organic waste since 1995.
Invariably, the divers gather an impressive haul of pristine fruits, vegetables, cheese and other foods, packaged or not. Then Vienna food blogger and cooking instructor Tobias Judmaier transforms it into vittles in a kitchen set up on a public pedestrian thoroughfare, where he and others try to lure passersby to taste their fare. Many are titillated by the gambit, but some wrinkle their noses when they learn the provenance of the food.

Have you ever tried freeganism? What was your experience like?

Link -via Inhabitat | Photo: Waste Cooking

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Few times but you need to know some divers first.. They know the best locations and store schedules.. Usually i just want the non-perishables like olive oil and the like that lasts for years but are thrown out anyway. Also it's semi-illegal here so you need to know what stores tolerate it and be on good terms with the security personnel.. It's just too bad vast majority of the security guards think that it is robbing and treat divers as such. But there are those who see who wasteful the stores really are and at least tolerate something that is really useful...

Knowing some divers first hand will definitely help you a lot, they have surplus of some items, cans and cans of stuff that they just want to give away... With good active group you can even barter with, you got fresh bread, they got corn flakes..

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In college, I used to go dumpster-diving at the end of each semester. Students have to leave the dorms and they throw out all kinds of stuff, including unopened non-perishables. Lots of unopened packs of Ramen, cans of soup, chili, etc. Girls throw out lots more than boys do. Rich college girls are really wasteful.

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I would absolutely do this but I can't get in/out of the dumpster.

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My family has been supplementing our food supply from a local grocery dumpster for nearly a year now. We have saved thousands of dollars and reduced our grocery budget to 200-300 for a 5 person family while eating better than we ever have before. Watch DIVE! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490637/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) for inspiration!

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One summer I lived and worked at an amusement park. The ice cream shop set out an entire crate of bananas that were just past the point of looking perfect for banana splits. So my roomies and I took them and made daiquiris. The shop owner saw us and told the whole village we were eating out of the trash.

They were good daiquiris.

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