Night of the Freegans [Part 1]

My friend Karen has one eye on the curb at all times. She rescues abandoned furniture, peruses through bags of clothing, breaks in our conversation to quickly scout a heap; palpating a bulbous black bag, can feel new life. She knows the trash days, the recycling days, the apartment buildings that seem to be clueless to their treasures. She is skilled at the art of garbage-picking and those skills have served her well. But Karen has graduated to full-fledge freegan. She has begun to supplement her groceries with garbage. Hmm…

Freeganism has been the topic of local news reports, Times articles, buzz for years now. But always with some eccentric weirdo, for lack of a more concise term, as its spokesperson. But after I joined Karen and her beau on a their freegan run, I couldn’t believe what I saw discarded. The bagels were the best spokesperson yet: not all that is thrown away is trash.

The first hot-spot. This upscale Asian convenience store has the most fruitful garbage bags, says Karen. She has in her fridge at home 5 or 6 packages of expensive Italian sausages a month from their “Best By” date. She finds cut fruit and packaged salads with days of life left discarded to make room on the shelves. Tubs of hummus, sealed and fresh. And on this evening, she finds a huge bag of seemingly perfect salad greens.

That’s fine. I get it. I myself have thrown things out of my fridge to make room. This was just happening on a larger here. It’s a shame but I get it. Then I saw the bagels.

At the curb of the closing bagel shop in a beg too heavy to lift was the motherload of bagels. Every single kind of bagel imaginable. Huge, shiny bagels–at least 200 of them. It was quite shocking. Some were still warm and soft, all of them perfectly toastable and I’m sure delicious.  Karen and her boyfriend load their arm up with their favorites and Karen grabs a chocolate swirl and French toast bagel to try out. With the bag wide open she calls for the passing crowds of bar-goers to have a bagel. They all seem confused. I teeter back and forth: feeling embarrassment and being appalled at the waste. Certainly these bagels can serve mankind better being consumed. Carbohydrates. People need them; hungry, starving people with no money need food, right?