Note: this page is obsolete and the map no longer current. I’m leaving it accessible because it’s a halfway decent idea, and other people may have the time and vision to make it work better than I did.
I found all this bread in the garbage bins behind a nearby organic store. It was all “expired” but it was perfectly fine. I took it home and threw it in the freezer. My roommates and I have been de-thawing it and eating it ever since.
This is just a small sample of the good food thrown out because of mostly arbitrary “best before” or “expiry” dates. I find this food to be one of the most frustrating (if personally beneficial) things to find. So many resources (land, fertilizers, pesticides, cost of shipping, labor hours) are completely wasted as a result, and in the meantime the food just rots in a landfill while people in the real world go hungry. Needless to say it’s an incredibly inefficient system. I think “dumpster diving” is great as it helps to counteract the inefficiencies of the current food distribution system. Also – free food!
The world is constantly evolving and hopefully one day dumpster diving won’t be a thing anymore. I think as awareness grows the situation will improve. In the meantime, however, there is a lot of food going to waste in dumpsters. I’ve create a map that indicates the location of dumpsters that consistently produce good food (and other things too – second hand store dumpsters are often good for housewares).
I think a lot of people are interested in dumpster diving but don’t know where to go, how to do it, or are afraid to try. My hope is that this map will encourage dumpster diving and help to normalize the act itself. If you have any locations in Montreal to share though feel free to send me an email at thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com.
I also encourage others to create dumpster diving maps for their cities. I’ve used Mapbox.com (which I like a lot) but you can use Google Maps as well.
Anyways, check it out if you want some dumpster diving locations in Montreal (though the vast majority are in the Plateau), or if you just like maps and you want to see how I did it.