Exclusive | Dumpster diving NYers mine luxe supermarket trash to dine like kings for free: Its still fresh
One person’s trash is another’s treasure.It’s 9:30 pm on a Tuesday outside an undisclosed supermarket on the border of Sutton Place, where a group of 10-15 “Freegans” has gathered for a biweekly “trash tour” to dumpster dive for salvageable food and other goods.Clad in masks and gloves, these urban foragers — who encompass multiple boroughs, vocations and age ranges from 20s to 60s — scavenge the cans in hopes of getting their landfill.A far cry from the Matterhorns of putrid refuse depicted in movies, these trash bins harbor a treasure trove of items seemingly ripped from an NYC boutique supermarket aisle — because they were not too long ago.One dumpster diver salvages immaculate packages of organic guacamole.Another garbage gourmand rescues loaves of unblemished sliced bread.Others scour grocery-grade packets of salmon, a farmer’s market’s worth of produce, and several quarts of heavy cream that can retail for up to $10 a pop.
Expedition leader Janet Kalish, 63, even lamented, “I’m sure I missed a lot and eggs and mushrooms.”“I got a bunch of blood oranges here,” added Cindy Rosin, who advised garbage gatherers to sniff the perishables upon opening to ensure they’re safe to eat.Despite dumpster diving being somewhat of a normalized practice, the savvy scavengers refused to disclose details about their lives, including what they do for a living — or if they even work at all.These “canned good collectors” work fast, given the brief window between when the trash is put out from the fancy supermarkets and when it is picked up.
On the plus side, this increases the likelihood that their bin banquet is fresh.“Stores might put it out at 9:00 p.m.for the trucks to come at 11:00,” Kalish, who has memorized the pickup times at her various dumpster diving hotspots, told The Post.
“It’s not like it’s sitting there wafting odors.”She added that even between 9:30 and 10 p.m.on a “sweltering” summer night, people can g...