Is “scavenging” just a synonym for Dumpster diving?
No, it most certainly isn’t! In fact, we wrote this book to counter the preconceptions that jump into most people’s minds as soon they hear the words “scavenging”: they envision Dumpster-divers and rats and vultures and other unsavory things. But to us, scavenging means any activity by which one can legally acquire things for free or cheap, either outdoors or in a standard retail environment. This encompasses a very wide spectrum of activities, running all the way from thrift shopping to coupon clipping and recycling to more adventurous enterprises such as freecycling, beachcombing, and urban foraging. (That’s where you harvest fruit from trees that grow on, or overhang, public property.) And then of course there is simply finding stuff on the ground, which we somehow manage to do every time we step outside. We want to redeem the words “scavenger” and “scavenging” so that they become respectable and admirable or at worst neutral – but certainly not distasteful anymore. What are some of
