Why these U of O students ditched the grocery store for the dumpster

On a regular Tuesday night in a shared residence kitchen at the University of Ottawa, four friends got together to cook. 

While the others chopped vegetables, boiled pasta and roasted garlic, social work student Jade Hongerlood outlined the "Italian lemon herby garlic meal" they were putting together.

It wasn't a meal they planned in advance, but rather was based on what they had on hand — ingredients from their most recent dumpster diving excursion. 

Since the fall, the group of university students and recent graduates have been regularly visiting dumpsters outside grocery stores to retrieve items.

They're doing it in part to combat rising food costs, a problem that's only expected to get worse. 

"I would dumpster dive first and then grocery shop as the supplement to make up for whatever I [couldn't get from the dumpster], just to make sure I was getting enough food," said Hongerlood, who went dumpster diving weekly until recently breaking her ankle while rock climbing.

Hongerlood estimates she cuts roughly $50 a week out of her grocery budget by diving for things like pre-packaged microgreens, cheeses and other items she can't normally afford. 

Fighting food waste

Saving money on grocery bills isn't the only incentive for members of the group. 

For fourth-year student Elizabeth Shevchenko, dumpster diving is a form of protest.

"Although I can afford, for example, $6 cucumbers from Loblaws … I just don't think that that's a fair price to be paying for your fruits and vegetables," said Shevchenko, who works several jobs in addition to studying full time.

"I feel like [dumpster diving is] a quiet way of just not subscribing to that," she said. 

Jasmin Cartier, a computer science student at the University of Ottawa, said seeing the "enormous" amount of food being tossed in dumpsters made him want to act.

According to food rescue organization Second Harvest, nearly 60 per cent of food produced in Canada is wasted annually.

Though he recognizes that dumpster diving isn't for everyone — and not a solution to the larger issue of food waste — Cartier said he feels it makes a difference on a personal level.

"It's quite clear for me that it's not [economical] doing dumpster diving. It's time-consuming. But you learn how to use those veggies that are on the edge and it's really cool to improve your [cooking skills]," Cartier said. 

'Like Christmas morning'

For recent graduate and health-care worker Grace Poland, it's become something of a hobby. 

Poland goes dumpster diving about once a month with the goal of finding freezable foods that will lend themselves well to longer-term meal planning. 

"It's really fun," Poland said. "I always say, it's like Christmas morning [in] that you go and you never know what you're going to find in there." 

Equipped with gloves, headlights and bags to transport their goods, Poland and friends visit a number of different dumpsters across the city at night.

They say most items they find come in sealed packages that are close to or slightly past the best-before date, while fruits and vegetables are usually stored in boxes in the dumpster.

"It's really not as gross as people think it is," Poland said. "Just sometimes [fruits and vegetables are] a little bit uglier than what they'd like to keep in the stores."

Poland takes precautions like washing those fruits and vegetables with vinegar before consuming them and is careful about what they decide to take home. 

"I've only ever really rescued meat, like, one time and the stuff was still cold," Poland said. "If stuff has heated up, or the packaging is punctured or it's really expired or just kind of looks off, I'll usually just leave it." 

How safe is it really?

So is diving into dumpsters for food a safe endeavour?

According to David Miller, a professor at Carleton University's department of chemistry who specializes in food safety, the short answer is that it depends. 

"Everything is a case-by-case judgment," he explained. "There's no rule [stating something is safe to eat] because we don't know what it was like before the store decided to throw it out." 

Miller said he'd personally stay away from meats and other products that need to be refrigerated, but he cautions that even dry goods could carry mould if they happen to get wet.

While the goal of fighting food waste is "admirable," Miller said there are safer ways to go about it, warning that unknown food comes with risks of food poisoning and other bad health outcomes.

It's also important to note that under certain circumstances, dumpster diving could be considered trespassing.

Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest, admits there are safety reasons grocery stores may throw out food and suggests alternatives like browsing supermarket half-off shelves.

She also argues there's value in rethinking our approach to food, by taking chances on bruised fruits, for example, or re-evaluating our attitudes toward best-before dates.

"We've been fed a lie about best-before dates, and it's really hard to snap out of that" she said. 

Cartier agrees there are other ways to reduce food waste that don't involve dumpsters and also encourages people to take stock what's already in their fridge.

"I think the easiest thing to do before doing dumpster diving is watching what we're wasting at home and how we can use it," he said.