The weekly food dive
Dumpster divers from Wellington and Auckland say they have saved thousands of dollars on scavenged food.
But the food waste from supermarkets is a ‘‘broken system’’ as some families can’t afford to shop, they say.
Wellington resident James Harris said he would dumpster dive with flatmates in Auckland every Monday night, and they called it ‘‘shopping night’’.
Once they found thousands of salami sticks, another night hundreds of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, and another time some 150 bottles of beer. ‘‘One [bottle] would be broken, and they would dump the whole thing.’’
Organisation Love Food Hate Waste has claimed that every year Kiwis send 122,547 tonnes of edible food to landfill but dumpster diving is considered theft in New Zealand.
Some supermarkets are locking their bins to stop divers taking the food.
In 2013, six men in their 20s were arrested after being caught taking expired food from a supermarket skip in Blenheim.
But Harris said the group was never confronted; they were simply asked to move on.
‘‘We didn’t believe there’d be that much waste but when we did it [dumpster diving] we couldn’t believe how much we found. We realised how much the system is broken. There’s so many people hungry.’’
They would end up with $100 to $200 worth of food a night.
The flatmates would avoid shopping entirely because they could eat for free.
A former Wellington resident said she would dumpster dive with friends when she was at university to save money but also to give to friends and families who needed it.
‘‘There is perfectly good food going to waste . . . a hungry belly is going to sleep empty.’’
They would end up with $200 to $400 worth of food each time.
Everyone they gave to knew where the food came from and they felt positive to be helping the community, she said.