Skip Watch with Branston Cowdell

Freeganism – The practice of minimising one’s impact on the environment by means of consuming food that has been or is about to be thrown away by someone else (e.g. supermarkets).
Last week I decided to become a Freegan for three straight days. I was on a mission to eat nothing but the food I found from the bins and skips of Manchester.
So on Day One I woke up and went hunting. I thought about where to head first and decided I’d be a fool not to target the bins kept behind the city centre food shops – so that was my first port of call.
Within an hour I was rummaging in the bins behind one well known supermarket and I found enough food to feed a family for a week. Some of it hadn’t even reached its ‘sell by date’ – I was on to a winner!
In a recent Sky News report on Freeganism, Catherine Jacob spent a day with one Freegan called Tristram Stewart. He took her to a bin near his home that contained piles of pastries, doughnuts, bagels and loaves. I’m not going to say I was that lucky but my first ever Freegan haul was fairly significant.
In my 8 minute rustle I found four floury baps (with slightly damaged packaging), a whole roasted chicken, 4 tins of beans, a tin of ravioli, a fray bentos pie (with a slight leak), some runner beans, a courgette, 2 squashed brown loaves, a bottle of chocolate milk, some paprika (although it could have been brick dust!) and a packet of parma ham. It seemed a good amount of stuff.
That first night I sat down to a feast in my Travelodge bedroom. I ate and ate till nearly all of my days findings were lodged deep down in my stomach.
The next morning I was sick as a dog. I spent the entire day in the toilet rueing my decision to become a Freegan and eat loads of bin food. It’s safe to say Days Two and Three never happened.
I’m all for saving the environment – composting, recycling, travelling on public transport and the like. I’m just going to steer clear of skip snacks from now on.