A Sydney man, who has been dumpster diving around the city’s inner west, has revealed the incredible amount of quality produce he has nabbed before it goes to landfill.
Amid the cost-of-living crisis, Michael* has been leaving boxes full of perfectly fine groceries, which he has found in nearby supermarket bins, out the front of his Enfield home.
He requests his neighbours only “take what they need”.
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But while Michael enjoys helping other locals, he has slammed supermarkets for the excessive waste he has come across.
“Two weeks ago I found 30 dozen eggs thrown out by the one supermarket, with one month still to go until best before date,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
“It’s been like that since I started diving.
“No markdown, nothing … just so much thrown out.”
Michael said he comes across a lot of produce which he believes could be “marked down, sold elsewhere or given to charity”.
“You can go to one of their bins and see for yourself what and how much they waste,” he said.
“Otherwise me and the other divers wouldn’t be doing this.”
A desperate and growing trend
A recent Senate probe into supermarket prices was told cost-of-living pressures had led to many people skipping meals altogether, or sourcing food that had been thrown out.
Amelia Cromb from the organisation Grassroots Action Network Tasmania said large amounts of food at supermarkets had been needlessly thrown away before the expiry or “best before” dates.
“It just seems like such a cruel mockery almost that people are going to supermarkets to buy food that is a human right … and at the end of the day the supermarket can just basically rip the tag off that high price, throw it in the bin as though it had no value at all,” she said.
“It’s criminal, there’s no other way to put it — it’s just unacceptable.”
Michael said the practice of dumpster diving has become more difficult, with shopping centres enforcing stricter regulations to combat the trend.
“At Ashfield mall … no one can dive there anymore,” he said.
“Security is very strict, they have facial recognition cameras installed all over the shopping centre.”
But Michael said he will continue diving when he sees excessive wastage, so long as the community he then offers it to only take what they need.
“The one thing I do not like is some people being greedy,” he said.
“But it’s only a minority of the people.”
OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn AO said dumpster diving is “a sad reflection that good food is still needlessly going to waste”.
“I actually experienced it firsthand when filming Food Fighter — it was shocking, even though that was a while ago, it is still something people do, especially now the cost of living is increasing food insecurity,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
“We would prefer people seek support from local charities, and we’re working directly with as many food businesses as possible to make sure that edible food is donated rather than wasted so we can deliver it directly and safely to people in need.”
Supermarkets respond
Major supermarkets in Australia, such as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, have told 7NEWS.com.au they all have policies in place to minimise waste.
Last financial year, Coles donated the equivalent of 40.1 million meals to SecondBite and Foodbank, while Woolworths donated the equivalent of 28 million meals to its hunger relief partners OzHarvest, FareShare and FoodBank.
Aldi has more than 300 food rescue partners across its national network, including Foodbank, OzHarvest and local charitable organisations.
* Name changed for privacy
– With AAP
