Waste, Waste, Waste

To Dumpster Divers this comes as no surprise, but the New York Times reported yesterday in the Week In Review that Americans waste 27 percent of consumable food. That's an astounding number. Twenty-Seven percent!

The article goes further to explain that the large amount of wasted food is not scraps of food, but whole, consumable food that could easily be provided to those without access.

One quote from the article:

“We’re not talking about table scraps,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, explaining the types of wasted food that is edible. “We’re talking about a pan of lasagna that was never served.”

In a time when food shortages and riots are breaking out worldwide, is it really such a shocker that the United States consumes more food than anyone else and wastes more at the same time? It's the American way to have more of everything; to be bigger; to waste.

I've gone dumpster diving a few times, the first was by far the most exciting, probably because it was the first time. I was 17 I was playing a show in Connecticut with my old band The Buddy System. We were young and didn't have much money. The show ended late and it seemed that nothing in the town we played at was open. Except for a Dunkin Donuts. I had remembered there was a rumor that after midnight they take whatever doughnuts on the racks and throw them in the dumpster. Luckily it was 1:00 A.M.

We pulled up behind the Dunkin Donuts, found the dumpsters, jumped out of the van, quickly browsed through the bags of garbage before returning to the van with a bag full of doughnuts. They were not fresh and mixed in the bag was other assorted waste. I was the only one to eat a doughnut. It wasn't great, but it was edible. It tasted like day old doughnut.

If that's what it's like at Dunkin Donuts imagine what happens at super markets. The amount of food that is thrown away is unfathomable. Wasted food could be used for so much more, but in the uncontrolled world of American consumerism it rots while others starve.