kit is a freegan. he maintains that our society wastes far too much. freeganism is a bubbling stew of various ideologies, drawing on elements of communism, radical environmentalism, a zealous do-it-yourself work ethic and an old-fashioned frugality of the sock-darning sort. freegans are not revolutionaries. rather, they aim to challenge the status quo by their lifestyle choices. above all, freegans are dedicated to salvaging what others waste and â” when possible â” living without the use of currency. i really dislike spending money,â kit told me. it doesnt feel natural.â

eventually, one of the citys board-up crews,â which seal off abandoned homes, discovered the squatters and reported them to judge henry nowak at the citys housing court. at first, nowak didnt know what to make of the situation. then, one evening, while the judge was attending his sons little league baseball game, he was approached by a group of neighbors who lived near the mansion. they said they wanted to discuss the squatters. to the judges astonishment, the neighbors praised the young people, saying that they had kept the thieves, drug dealers and arsonists away. whats more, they attested, the squatters were fixing up the place, making it less of an eyesore. their presence, and the fact that the mansion was now occupied, had made it easier for people on the block to get homeowners insurance. odd as it seemed, the freegan kids helped stabilize the neighborhood, and the concerned neighbors wanted them to stay. they said, dont you dare kick those kids out of the house! â judge nowak told me.

as far as i could tell, the two driving philosophical forces at the buffalo mansion were freeganism and hedonism. the freegans were making a statement and having a hell of a good time doing it. it was a social experiment worthy of henry david thoreau, a place buzzing with industry, self-reliance and eco-consciousness; but, at times, it was also a rollicking frat house. mornings could be dead quiet when the freegans were sleeping off their hangovers.

"freegans are not revolutionaries. rather, they aim to challenge the status quo by their lifestyle choices."

conflicting thoughts. for one thing, i find the focus on this sort of marginal existence irritating - this lifestyle reallly represents the choices of a very few dropouts, and by conflating the hardcore "freegans" with a larger movement toward simplicity and frugality, those ideals are done a disservice.

disgusting? i don't know, perhaps you looked at different pictures than i did. the only disgusting photograph is the "bedroom of a long-term resident" where a table is piled with containers and stuff that look like they might be food-related. the kitchen looks reasonably orderly for a kitchen shared by that many people, though it's certainly not fancy, and it's time for someone to scrub the fridge (though the fridge looks way less cluttered than i would have expected.) everywhere else, there's just a little clutter - clothes in the free-clothes area, bike supplies in the bike room, etc. - but nothing beyond what i've seen in a lot of spaces occupied by a lot of people. the walls are all covered in murals, and you can see a lot of half-finished projects everywhere, but again, those aren't disgusting, either. basically, it looks like a lot of co-ops and warehouses and other collective living spaces - whether occupied by squatters or freegans or artists or musicians or whoever - and it looks like it suffers from some of the usual organization issues you get when you've got that many people sharing collective space. plus, of course, there're the extra problems you get with being an open squatting house - guests and temporary squatters who don't care about the space and screw stuff up are huge, perennial problems for squats and collectives.

our current lifestyles must change. the "freegan" lifestyle (defined as living off the waste of others) may not be sustainable either, but at least it functions as a counterbalance to the wasters. it's like how the vegetarian who doesn't eat any meat ever helps balance out the guy who eats a big mac every day. it may not be sustainable, but at least it's better than not trying anything.

can i be glad that the freegans exist and yet mock them at the same time?

behind the seams: melissa attempts freegan fitness, week 1 | shoestring

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conventional wisdom states that dumpster-diving is for the homeless. freegans, however, are a small anticonsumerist group who won't allow anything useful to go to waste--to

drjohnnyskeptic: i saw the freegan cooking show coming when i read

this is when my standards and my sweetie collide and where the curse part of him eating an.y.thing comes in.â  see, my husband is a freegan.â â  not to be confused with vegan, which he definitely isn’t.â  or a vegetarian.â  or a rastafarian.â  he is none of those things.

instead, i do my best to keep my family eating healthy while we enjoy free food fixin’ and free food.â â  guess that means we are all pseud0-freegans.