Hey everyone, Rob Greenfield here
and I just went dumpster diving.
So, just for a little experiment
I started with an empty pantry,
an empty fridge and basically
an empty kitchen and I wanted
to see what I could do with it
in a very little bit of time.
This pantry behind me
was empty when
I started this morning.
Here is the refrigerator.
This was also empty
when I started.
Nothing, nothing at all
and now it is filled to the brim.
What I couldn't fit in the
pantry or the fridge
is right here, sitting out,
overflow.
So, in 4.5 hours of
dumpster diving, we collected
$1,000 worth of food.
That's about $200 per hour.
Not a bad job for someone
who is making $10 per hour.
The beautiful thing about this,
is it's health food or junk food.
It's whatever you want.
I personally prefer to eat
really healthy food.
But, you can get
anything you want.
This top row is mostly all cereal.
We've got, "Life" for example.
And "Cheerios", "Pop Tarts".
We got oats, which is what
I would go with.
And then, we've got loads
of granola bars.
"Nature Valley- Nut Crisp" here.
We've got your coffee,
"Folgers Gourmet".
We've got these
"French Vanilla" pods.
More "Pop Tarts", down here
We've got 18 "Reeses Spreads".
This is like a
peanut butter, chocolate spread.
We've got cookies,
more peanut butter,
the "fun stripes" kind.
Over here we've got loads
and loads of crackers.
Down here we've got
tons of bread. This is
just a small fraction
of the bread we grabbed.
Even Gum, sealed Gum.
Salad dressing for months
and months and months.
Cookies, "Hostess Cupcakes".
And down here, the absurd
you've got, bottled water,
which never goes bad.
And then you've got just
about 4 dozen, 5 dozen
of these sparkling waters.
So that's the pantry.
Let me show you
what's in the fridge.
What you're seeing here
is not an exception.
I'm in Athens, Georgia right now.
But I've done this in 28 states
across the country.
And this is totally,
totally standard.
Last month I was in Orlando, FL
and we collected $250 an hour
worth of food and
its the same stuff.
All over the country.
Your typical grocery stores.
Whatever local grocery store
or big chain you have.
Aldi's is a great one,
Trader Joe's is a great one.
CVS and pharmacies are great.
So, here in the fridge,
we've got a little bit of everything.
We've got meats, like bologna.
There's turkey breast tendeloins
Chicken wings. You've got milk
and you've got your choice
of grass fed or factory farm.
You've got more bread.
You can go healthy and
do something like tofu, organic.
Or, you've got "Organic Valley
Low Fat Cottage Cheese".
And then you've got your
total junk, like your "Kraft
Singles American", which
isn't even really cheese.
But hey...it's in the dumpster
and if this is what you want,
There it is for you.
You've got peppers,
heads of cabbage and lettuce.
And you know, a lot of Americans
don't even get to chance to...
they don't even eat
1 fruit or vegetable per day.
If your dumpster diving,
you can fit in all of your
fruits and vegetables.
So here we've got corn,
tomatoes, this is just loaded
with apples and oranges.
And in the bottom, I stuffed
your potatoes and onions,
and squashs and green peppers.
We've even got avocado, mango
and peaches and plums up here.
We've got coconut water,
energy drinks, you've got
your salad dressing.
Organic bananas, we've got
grapes and even these
"ZipLock Bags" actually,
came from the dumpster as well.
So even the "ZipLock Bags"
that we're using came
from the dumpster.
And again, you're
utterly absurd bottled water.
Which obviously never goes bad.
The awesome thing is
that most of this is not even
past the suggested sell by date
or the best buy date.
But you should know that,
those dates, the food is
still good after that.
For example, this was
up this month.
But this could be good for
another couple of years.
Most of the stuff in the pantry
wasn't even past it's date
for about another month.
And then over here,
you've got watermelons.
Enough for a watermelon party.
And potatoes and onions for ages.
In the United States,
we throw away $165 Billion
worth of food per year.
That's with a "B", not an "M",
Billion, not Million.
Which is just an insane
amount of money.
As I've said, I've done
this all across the country.
This is happening everywhere.
Big towns, urban cities,
little residential areas.
This is happening in the
grocery store dumpsters.
Usually my message is
not to go dumpster diving.
It's all about making sure
we're not putting food in the
dumpsters in the first place.
Let's handle our food
in a much better way.
So that there's no food
in the dumpsters.
However, while the food
is in the dumpster...
If you don't have enough
money to afford food,
or you aren't getting enough
fruits and vegetables because
of your budget,
you're a college student
who's basically broke,
you're a mom who's trying
to feed 5 kids and they want
more and more and more
watermelons but you can't
afford it, or if you just want
to reduce your environmental
impact and not have to buy
virgin food.
All reasons why, at this point
in time, dumpster diving
makes a lot of sense.
It's also crazy the amount
you get to share with people.
If you want to be the person
that has thousands of
dollars worth of food
to give out to people,
that's another awesome
reason to dumpster dive.
My message usually is,
let's not dumpster dive.
Let's not put the food in the
dumpster in the first place.
I do this to raise awareness.
But, if the food is in the
dumpster, may as well eat it.
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