Last night was great fun.
We were seven in the lounge: a Swedish flatmate Martina, an Irish soon-to-be flatmate Hugh, an American former flatmate Ben, a Canadian former flatmate Alex, two Canadian temporary flatmates Tristan and Ana (they surfed our couch while on a bike tour through New Zealand), and myself. After dinner, while waiting for Tess, Tegan and Jake to arrive (three more couchsurfers from the states due to stay at our place) we played a few verbal games (i.e. Never Have I Ever). This is an interesting way to quickly get to know other people, or at least find out a few things they have and have not done.
Around 10pm we finally got to the playing of Mafia; something that multiple of us have been excited about for days now. If you have played this game before you know things can get pretty exciting and people can get really creative. If you haven't played this game yet, you may want to look into it. After an hour we had played three rounds and it was time to go skipping.
A skip is also known as a rubbish bin, or a dumpster. Before I came to Wellington I was open to the idea of dumpster diving, I had even done it a few times, or at least, I had done something of the sort. In Santa Cruz, California there is a bakery that throws out SO much bread (heaps of bread, as they say here). When I found out about this place I never purchased bread again while I lived in Santa Cruz. At that place it was only bread, and it was neatly placed, easy for picking out what you wanted to take home. Many people knew about this spot, which was okay because there was copious amounts of bread virtually every night. For the remainder of the bread that wasn't adopted by starving students a fate of pig stomachs was in store. I also participated in a freegan trash tour in New York City. That evening a woman took a group of about a dozen along the streets of Manhattan to the "good spots." The businesses put their rubbish in bags on the sidewalk to be picked up by the garbage trucks. We would carefully untie the bag, sort through to find things that are still good enough, then retie the bag, being very careful to not make a mess. That night someone found a pair of shoes are a shoe store that were still perfectly fine. I walked away with something like: eleven free range organic eggs, a couple pieces of fruit and veggies and some yogurt. The extent to which I go skipping here in Wellington is very different.
The first night I accompanied a skip adventure I was amazed. A case of beer!? Heaps of yogurt cups! Vegetables! Fruit! Canned goods! Rice! And other things. So many times I have wondered by the store threw away something. A lot is obvious. The pears are overripe, the cans are dented, the bag of rice has a hole in it. But why is this unopened jug of orange juice that doesn't expire for another two weeks in the bin? I have no idea. Part of me thinks the wastefulness is a huge shame, the other part of me is excited I get to eat such great food for free. We are liberating these less than perfect food items from a fate of a landfill and placing them back in line for the fate of human consumption.
Back to last night. Six of us got ready for the adventure. Backpacks, check. Bags, check. Gloves, check. Headlamp, check. We were ready to go. It was about 11:10 when we left the house. The walk there was filled with talking and laughter, but as we got closer we quieted down. As I said, I haven't been skipping much, but our spot seems ideal for it. There is a little alleyway where all but two people wait, and pack when it is time. The other two go to the dumpster. It was my third time going in. I would have been revolted, completely against getting into a dumpster a few years ago. Not anymore. Now I can honestly say I enjoy it. I think it is fun, and exciting.
First we remove the bags of rubbish from the top. The treasure is always at the bottom, beneath the real trash. Once we take out enough to be able to sort through what's left, I hop in. I start from one corner and work my way around in a counterclockwise fashion, making sure to dig to the bottom all the way. At first I don't see much, and then--PEARS! A whole flat of them! Now we're talking. A couple bags of veggies, from which we take eggplant, bell pepper, leek, cabbage, cauliflower, pumpkin, potato, tomato, carrot, kale... Then more digging. Yogurt! The good stuff, and a lot of it! Plain unsweetened yogurt. "Mmm... I'm going to make a delicious fruit salad," I think to myself. I'm always doing this; thinking of what I will make with the these I am finding. I'm in the dumpster physically but in my head I'm already in the kitchen. What's that? A whole unopened case of bacon? Why? Not even expired, yet thrown out. I don't eat bacon. I don't like the taste of it and I don't even like the smell of bacon. I do know that other people love it though. I ask Andris how much we should take. At first he just says "Take!" Then he sees how big the box is and we decide that half is plenty. Tonight Andris is the one who is taking the goods from me over to the other people so they can pack them in the bags.
I continue to search. Milk. Of course I find milk. I have been living here for a month and we have yet to find milk. I even said to someone just a few hours prior that we don't find milk so we buy it. So it just figures that I would now find multiple jugs of milk. And now--Beer! Hurray! We are always happy to find beer. A case of beer gets dropped, or something, a couple bottles get broken and they throw out the lot. Lucky us. When Andris sees the beer his eyes light up.
"Be quiet!" says Andris and runs away. I freeze and listen to the sound of someone coming out the back of the store. I switch off my headlamp, and wait. A few moments late Andris comes back, letting me know we're clear and I continue searching. Canned tomatoes. Some sort of meaty-jerky product. Chocolate! Sweet! I love chocolate! Andris rapidly taps me again and runs away. I switch off my headlamp and hold still again, listening. More sounds of people coming out of the store, moving things around, talking. I am thinking of possible occurrences. " Are they going to throw something into the bin on top of me? I wouldn't mind a bag of light trash, oh but please don't throw in a bag of meat! A big bag of chicken, like the one I saw last week in here. They probably wouldn't even look before chucking it on and I'm on the closer side to them so it would land on me. Would I fall over? Would I make a sound? Would it matter? Would Andris stop them before they threw something in here or just hope that I'd be fine?" So many questions were going through my head. I wasn't scared of them catching us. Maras has been caught in the act before and he was just told to take what he needed and get out of there. So I figured they would just do the same with me. But I still didn't want things to be thrown in on top of me. The sounds stop. Andris comes back and I'm almost to the last corner. More beer! And more sounds. Andris taps me again and runs off to. This time I hear a forklift start up. Quickly I start to wonder how that could affect me. "Would they put anything in here that needed to be lifted by a forklift? No, nothing is ever that big or heavy in here. Would they move the dumpster?! No. No that's silly because it has been in the same place every time we have come, they wouldn't move it tonight, at 12:15am." A minutes of waiting and aching in my legs from holding still in not the most comfortable of positions and silence returns. Andris returns too and says we should hurry up and get out of here. I get the beer, another milk and hop out. We replace all the trash we took out, making sure that we didn't leave any kind of mess and leave. All six of us are carrying full loads on our backs and/or in our hands and smiles on our faces. An excellent catch. I am happy we have so many people to help carry.
The walk back always takes longer than the walk there because we have to stop a few times for rest breaks and trading of loads. When we got home it was party. Three people hung out in the lounge while we went skipping. One of them had never even heard of this lifestyle before, and he was amazed at the things we brought home. We drank the beer as we washed, dried and put away all this treasure: milk, beer, bacon, yogurt, pears, pumpkin, cauliflower, eggplant, kale, tomato, bell pepper, radish, apple, banana, potato, canned tomatoes, teeth whitening product, hummus, tortellini, ravioli, sausage, cream, creamy pasta sauce, chocolate, jerky, cheese.
Yeah, I like skipping :-)
