Ecochallenge: living off of a dumpster

[eridani]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/61507/

It would be tough, they were told -- an "eco challenge" in a secret location. They would need to pack their passports and update their jabs. Sasha Gardner, a Bournemouth-based glamour model, was expecting to visit a rainforest or pacific island. "But when we turned up, we weren't at an airport," she says, "we were in a rubbish dump in Croydon."

Gardner and 10 other contestants are set to be the latest stars of reality TV, but Dumped, a new series to be screened on Channel 4 early next month, is no Shipwrecked, with its bronzed twentysomethings "surviving" for months in paradise, and there will be none of the designer sofas of the Big Brother house. Their challenge will be to live, eat and sleep for three weeks on a south London landfill, completing a series of tasks designed to highlight the true scale of what we throw away.

Rob Holdway, director of Brighton-based environmental consultancy Giraffe Innovation, who presents Dumped and set the challenges, says it was telling that most participants in the show, which was filmed last June, had packed for a long-haul flight. "A lot of people think they have to go to the Arctic or the Amazon to highlight climate change," he says. "But the reality is our desire for all the stuff we use is increasing carbon emissions. The ecology starts in our kitchens and rubbish bins."

[sam sarrha]

1. when the NeoCons finally destroy the nation, you will have to have real firepower to strike protect

your dumper and turf.. the gang phenomena is just a prelude to survival in the "Fall". when i was homeless i had several Dumpers i lived off of.. they were secret and you didn't let anyone see you hauling off those boxes of avocados, tomatoes, fruit/vegies... or you'd get your ass kicked and lose your store. i had a bubble wrapped cardboard condo.. in a Niche.. i didn't wear a path to it..

i was in drought relief in NW Africa in '73, saw a lot of people die, children, little girls.. old women, old men dead in the street till the wagons picked them up in the morning. i suffered PTSD from that... then about 2 years ago i took Strattera.. i hallucinated a world of death every body dead. i can see why people, even 12 year old children kill themselves on it.. it was a Steven King world and i still see the "Fall" around the corner.. weather created by a demented delusional psychopathic wet brain alcoholic drug addicts in the White House or global warming.. i dont really know if i want to survive the "Fall".

no one knows how to survive anymore, our real family farmers are nearly all gone.. the food in the stores will be looted in a day, that will last maybe a month, chaos will destroy the infrastructure, water will be a problem moving about will be imposable, shit it will be like living next to Israel. i dont see turning out well... i come from a clairvoyant family, have always seen natural disasters in dreams 4 days to 2 weeks before they happen.. after the Strattera i am having trouble telling anymore.. but... the Utopians want to destroy civilisation so the Jesus will come and create heaven on earth.. and they own the White House and they aren't letting go of the power to destroy everything..

Iran is the Key to creating the end times and bring Jesus... China and Russia will rise against us, china can destroy us simply by turning the ships around.. 2 shoe factories in the USA.?? we cant feed ourselves anymore.. just so less than 2% of this country can keep on being Obsessive Compulsive about acquiring wealth and there lackey Gambling addicts in the stock market, banks and mortgage industry can practice their mental illness and addictions at the expense of otherss suffering..

did the Bu$h administration create so many psychopaths or just get them all together in one place..??

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. We call them freegans here

and sadly, our local variety need to be swept away along with the other disease-spreading vermin they mimic.

They are a militant bunch, and it is not enough if a business is already being careful to control its waste stream and offer all useable foodstuffs to local charities and missions. These militant freegans cut through fences, vandalize locks, and trash the place with every visit. Really, it's as if raccoons have been given opposable thumbs, cans of spray paint and tubes of superglue. Their graffiti suggests that they'd rather not participate in civilized society, just eat from it's rear.

It may be a lifestyle choice, but if it's endangering my staff, I'll slap the self-righteous sense of entitlement they have right off their sorry cakeholes.

[5446]

3. Well.

In my personal opinion (remember that, people, when your own clashes with mine in a minute) is that people who have a "freegan" lifestyle have a real disorder in their lives.

Its one thing to be frugal, and waste not.
Its another thing to be truly poor, and unable to get out of the hole.

Its an entirely different thing to have the capability to live like a human being and instead chose to subsidize yourself off of trash and offal. Its either a cry for help, or a cry for attention, and I don't mean in a "look at what we waste!" attention, either.

[eridani]

4. I dunno

Seems more like an extreme "challenge" sort of thing to me. It reminds me of Barbara Kingsolver and her family going almost entirely local for their food supplies. Setting a real stringent goal like that and sticking to it`seems worthy. Even if you subsequently decide not to be so rigid, you've probably acquired a bunch of useful new habits.

Kingsolver's book is "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." Each family member got two exceptions to the local rule, which were filled by fair trade products. (Coffee, spices, chocolate, etc.)