Dumpster-diving: Bin there, done that?

Photo: Wikicommons

Veritas gets down in the dumpster in the hunt for free food

With the country now ‘officially’ in recession, after the worst slump in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1980, unemployment is on the rise in all industries with predictions of two million jobless in 2009. Though quarterly student loans means that Scottish students are less affected, a high proportion of Napier’s international students relying on part-time jobs are less lucky.

But instead of focusing on the recession, and predictions that it’s only going to get worse, Veritas has hit the streets in its first instalment of ‘how to live for free…’ This month we look at food and the practise of ‘dumpster-diving’ – where people go through supermarket chain bins filling their fridges with food waste.

Starting back in the mid-‘90s in New York, the ‘freegan’ movement has gathered momentum in the past year in the UK, with research figures revealing a high proportion of the 6.7 million tonnes sent to landfill annually is  ‘avoidable’. The movement in Edinburgh has also grown in popularity, with numerous online forums organising meet-ups as well as positive media attention.

Top Ten Late Night Spots

 

Henry’s Cellar Bar

8 Morrison St

One of the city’s few low-hire-cost venues, Henry’s attracts ‘rough around the edges’ shit you wouldn’t see in more conventional haunts. The stage is a small square wedged into the back corner with two pillars dividing the floor. One pillar stands on the outside corner of the stage, obstructing the view of at least one person in any band with more than three members. Strangely, that’s what’s good about Henry’s. Not only does it have diverse gigs and clubs, a modest door charge and decent drink prices, it’s got that community vibe where you can talk to strangers without feeling creepy or getting your head kicked in.

Fight or be recycled

 

Photo: Box Wars

An old man brandishing a Zimmer frame, a Viking longboat, Tank Girl with her missile bra, a rooster and a pirate ship charge into battle, blood-curdling war-cries bouncing off concrete walls. Welcome to Box Wars.

“Box Wars is where people make armour and weapons out of cardboard and beat the shit out of each other to loud music” says Tamsyn Woollcombe, member of the Box Wars UK Council.

Brought over from Australia, Box Wars UK has been held on ten occasions, beginning at Forest Café, and moving to Studio 24 once it began to gain popularity. Participants construct cardboard costumes and take part in mock battles, usually during a concert.

Box Wars developed in Melbourne, and was introduced to Scotland during the travels of a friend of the members of the original Council, Demian Hobby.

“One of my best mates actually thought of the idea. He was like, ‘I have something to show you.’ We were in his backyard and he and some other mates dressed up in cardboard and beat each other up. We thought it was amazing and then they started doing it regularly,” says Hobby.