MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

I remember I stared at the bread (it was still inside a big plastic bag) for a couple of minutes while thinking: “Why should I pay for something I could have for free?” (My reasoning had nothing to do with waste ethics). At that point, the bread was already in my hands but I suddenly decided to put it down. I left the place with shame. This was the first time I seriously considered to take something out of the trash for personal consumption. I must confess that I had an inspiration for doing what I did that day. Periodically, since I moved to New York, I encounter people diving in the trash of this particular grocery store. It took me almost a year to discover that my local supermarket is an obligated stop for the Freegans: “scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet” (Kurutz 2006). Through diverse strategies freegans seek to transform waste into resources to help them meet their needs. Freeganism can also be described as an alternative way of living or a political statement against an economic system that ironically, makes their existence possible. Approximately 4 times per month, Freegans organize a series of Trash Tours that attract diverse people and media. On October 1st, I participated in one of them. I thought this would be a good opportunity not only to encounter and experience waste in a different way, but also to be part of an activity considered by many, ethic and correct.
The setting
Around 9:30 pm. I was at my local grocery store (D´Agostinos) on 38th St. and 3rd Ave. I realized there were already some people waiting for the freegans. Once I saw these “participants” talking to a woman who was by then diving into the trash bags, I decided to join them and introduce myself. They thought I was a freegan and I was welcome to participate in the “discussion”. “For how long have you been doing it? Why do you do it? Are you in college?”. These were the kind of questions they suddenly begun to ask me. I soon realized I was being interviewed. I was not the only one interested in “experiencing” freeganism. The CBS was working on a clip about this “green way of life”. Benno Schmidt, an Early Show correspondent, was in charge of collecting as much information, images and sounds as possible. He seemed to be very disappointed when the women we first met, told him she did not want to be filmed. He was also very dissatisfied when he realized I was not a “real freegan”. Soon, the rest of the CBS team arrived and they came with an idea. They agreed to record only the women’s voice, but in order to illustrate her argument; they would need to film me performing a trash dive. I accepted, and once everyone was ready the filming begun. I pretended I knew what I was doing. The true is that I did not, and nothing came out from those bags.
The official tour
The official tour did not start till 10:00 PM when a group of 10 freegans showed up. Janet, a member of the group, gave out plastic bags and offered gloves to perform the diving. She gave me several plastic bags “You will need more than one”, she said. I was told that the food collected, is first piled together and later re-distributed among participants. Before starting the actual diving, the CBS team talked to several freegans and asked them for later interviews.

CBS filming and conducting interviews

Participants who were worry about getting caught on camera were asked to move to a specific area. In the next few minutes, everybody was looking for usable goods. Diary products, bread, meat, fruits and vegetables were found in the more than 20 bags that we opened in our first stop. But not everything found was in good condition. It was not that easy, at least for me, to find stuff that I would like to take home. I did not like the smell that emanated form the bags and I did not like the appearance of most of the things I was finding. At the end, I only contributed with two oranges, two bananas, a bag of lettuce, and several yogurts. Soon I realized I was not the only one trying hard to find usable waste. Next to me, was a guy, originally from Texas, who did not consider himself a freegan but attended the tours regularly because he thought it “was the right thing to do”. He was collecting, among other things, tomatoes. When Janet saw the pieces he had collected, she told him to put the tomatoes back into the trash bag. The guy seemed really confused but Janet had a point: CBS was considered a “big camera” and they did not want to show “anything nasty”. Once everything was gathered, Adam, another member of the freegan group, gave a closing speech. “In a society of massive over consumption, enormous quantities of usable resources go to waste”. Although he also talked about exploitation, pollution, capitalism, social inequalities, and freedom; waste played a key role in the constructed moral conscience that sustained much of his argument. Once the speech ended, we started filling our bags again.

Adam giving a speech

Food collected

Food collected

This time the stuff selected, was the stuff we were taking home. The food anybody took went back into the trash bags. When we left, it was difficult to tell we had actually been there.But the tour was not over and the next stop was “Daniel’s Bagels”, a well known bakery just across the street. Janet was the first one to open a bag full of bagels, croissants and pastries. But before she opened it, she called Benno and told him to film this particular bag. We found plenty of bagels and they were perfectly clean. Benno decided to become an active participant and ate a bagel in front of the camera.

Bag of bagels

Because the tour took more time than expected (due to the filming and the interviews that were taking place), I had time to observe and interact with the people that walked by the street while the diving was occurring . Some looked really shocked, some looked really mad, but many others stopped and asked questions. When this happened, I explained freeganism the best way I could, but I also mentioned that I was there in order to experience a way of living that was not mine. The people who took the time to listen showed some kind of support. By the end of the night, I felt I had participated in a kind of cultural performance or show. Nevertheless, the freegan experience helped me understand how the ideas, perceptions, assumptions, and even the relations that we construct around waste are always dynamic because they are socially, culturally and even historically mediated. That night I came back home not only with a loaf of bread, but also with bananas, oranges and diary products. I did not feel shame, contrary, I felt morally satisfied. Yet, the next morning, I not only went grocery shopping but also stopped at Daniel’s Bagels to buy a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese.

The stuff I took back home

http://search.cbsnews.com/?source=cbs&q=freegans&x=0&y=0

This is the link for "Freegan way of life" , which is the clip that was presented in the morning CBS show.

Kurutz, S.,
2006 Not Buying it. Electronic document.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/garden/21freegan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin, accessed October 2, 2007.
New York Times