Riga at night. Photo by Jon Andrasz.

Dumpster Diving: The act of throwing the body into a dumpster in hopes of finding edible food; picking usable goods out of the trash; a good travel strategy.

I concurrently came upon the art of dumpster diving with the first steps I took off the family farm when I was 18. Before leaving on my first journey, my grandfather took me aside and bestowed some fine words of advice up me:

“If you ever don’t have enough money to get food, find a donut shop, go in back of it, and there you will find more free food than you can eat.”

I then set off with a pack upon my back to see what the USA had in store for me. I found it behind bagel and donut shops, surplus grocery stores, in the rear of pizza restaurants — I found my keep in dumpsters.

I then set off with a pack upon my back to see what the USA had in store for me. I found it behind bagel and donut shops, surplus grocery stores, in the rear of pizza restaurants — I found my keep in dumpsters.

This was a little over ten years ago, but the words of my grandfather I still carry with me: when leery about dropping money on food, I look for dumpsters. This may sound a little gross, a touch disgusting perhaps, but any traveler who has caught a glimpse of his food being prepared in the various restaurants of this planet knows that there is no such thing as a sterile meal.

10 Tips to Get You Started as a Dumpster Diver

The food that goes out the backdoor of a restaurant is often not much dirtier than the food that goes out the front — if you know what to look for.

Though there is a standard operating procedure that I abide by when eating out of the trash.

1. Choose your location wisely. Chinese restaurants are not usually the best places to go eating out of the trash. The same goes for many other restaurants that do not make and discard single varieties of food in bulk — eating half eaten table scraps is not the best occupation for the traveler who wants to travel another day. The best places to dumpster dive at are those that make food in bulk at certain times of the day. Bakeries are good, donut and bagel shops often better. Pizza restaurants can often provide a traveler with a feast, and grocery stores with dumpsters, rather than compactors, provide the rudiments for a full three course meal.

2. Look for food that is boxed, packaged, or in garbage bags that only contain food. Bagel and donut shops often discard their food that did not sell in plastic bags that only contain edible materials — the day old bagels go in one bag, the real trash in another. Pizza restaurants often dispose of their uneaten slices and unclaimed pizzas in regular pizza boxes or in plastic bags that mostly only contain food. Grocery stores tend to distribute good, free food in mass at their back doors. Discarded boxed goods that are beyond their expiration date or whose packaging had been damaged, over ripe – though still edible – fruits and vegetables, and an entire host of snacks and treats often find their way into grocery store dumpsters in enormous quantities. It is interesting what a traveler can find to do with 200 twinkies.

3. Once you have found a suitable location, be as discrete as possible when digging through the trash. I have been arrested for dumpster diving before. In court, the judge just sort of laughed at me and told me to get out. “Why were you in the dumpster?” he asked. “I was looking for food,” could be my only reply. Though that fiasco did begin with me getting the shit kicked out of me by the police and hauled off to a jail cell for the night. So my advice is: get in, fill up, get out.

4. Approach potential dumpster diving locations after working hours or at night. Dumpster divers tend to be a nocturnal breed by nature. Usually, you do not want the business to know that you are taking their discarded food, and the dumpsters are generally filled up with “fresh trash” only after the closed sign is hung on the front door.

5. Put a red filter on your flashlight. A flashlight is often necessary equipment for dumpster diving, but an unfiltered light may attract unwanted attention. Use a red filter lens or cut out a translucent piece of red plastic (like the kind in 3-D glasses) and pop it over the glass on the torch end of your flashlight.

6. Be neat, don’t make a mess, or it will spoil the graft for future travelers. It is not uncommon for donut shops to pour bleach or another harsh solvent over their discard food if they fear that “bums” are going to make a mess out of it.

7. Food to look for when dumpster diving: Bagels, donuts, pizzas, boxed goods, over ripe vegetables that can be washed, canned goods, food in packages.

8. Food to avoid: Table scraps, anything that smells bad, food that is mixed with too much true garbage, food that is not in a container.

9. Good locations for dumpster diving:

1. Bagel or donut shops
2. Pizza shops
3. Supermarkets
4. Factories that either make or package boxed or wrapped food
5. Bottling plants

10. Not good locations for dumpster diving for food:

1. Restaurants – It is oftentimes just not worth it. Believe me.
2. Trash cans – In most circumstances, I try to avoid trashcans full of table scraps.
3. In home garages – Stay away from table scraps. Well, unless an old half eaten chicken wing sounds appetizing to you.

Dumpster diving around the world

I have found the industrialized countries more game for dumpster diving. The obvious reason being is that more edible food is discard in these countries. The USA is the best country I have found for pigging out in dumpsters, followed by the “suburbanized” areas of European cities. But dumpster diving can be done readily in some form in nearly every country within the first world fringe: Japan is good if you know where to look, Eastern Europe is decent as well. But dumpster diving in poorer countries is often too much of a competitive sport to recommend indulging in, and the fact that you can get an entire meal for under $2 in most countries in the world often makes digging food from the trash a mute point of sorts.

More than anything else, dumpster diving can be fun. It simply feels good to have to do a little work for your daily bread when on the road, and always being on the lookout for a potential free meal keeps your wits toned and your senses sharp. Dumpster diving is also a prime occupation for those calculating their carbon footprints:

By not consuming the excess, you are contributing to the waste.

Dumpster dive as a travel strategy for free food.