Freeganism

As adults in America, we’ve learned that if we don’t like lima beans, we don’t have to eat lima beans. If we don’t like snow, we aren’t required to live somewhere with wintry weather. And if we don’t like Game of Thrones (it’s true—these people exist), we don’t have to watch it.

But what happens if we don’t like capitalism? What happens if consumerism is what really grinds our gears? How do we just bow out of participating in the guiding economic forces of our country? Well, there’s a way, and it’s called freeganism.

The word “freegan” is a combination of “free” and “vegan,” except instead of avoiding animal products, freegans avoid consuming goods and services that support commercialism and everything it entails.

For some freegans, this means living in caves and eating food out of dumpsters. And yes, we’re serious. For others, this means going off the grid and living in a tiny house with solar panels and rainwater collectors. For others still, this means bartering for goods and services (as opposed to paying for them with cash money) and planting community gardens.

As with any ideology, the people who follow it are motivated by different things. Generally speaking, the most popular motivators behind freeganism are environmental stewardship, concerns about work-life balance, general anti-consumerist sentiment, and (of course) money. The whole point is to slave away less and save more, whether we’re saving money, time, and/or the planet.