Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle centered on reducing waste while maintaining a healthy and enjoyable lifestyle. A huge portion of today’s consumer driven society is focused on purchasing goods and services to fill our needs, but for most of us, these goods are not necessary to live a fulfilling and enjoyable life. Freegans simply attempt to remove, or at least limit their dependence on store bought goods and services. This article will outline a few easy freegan tips and tricks to reduce your consumption, save some money and still enjoy a very healthy standard of living.
Economists have a lovely word to describe the happiness that one achieves through the purchase of goods and services, utility. In economic theory utility is a powerful and influential force that shapes the economic universe that we live in. The theory basically says that a consumer’s utility (or happiness) is dependent on the products that they purchase. As a person buys more goods he or she will become happier until a peak utility is reached, at which point the happiness plateaus and the consumer stops making purchases. Corporations have become very good at measuring consumer utility, and in turn have become experts at heightening the levels to which people will pay for the perceived benefits of the goods that they buy. Are I-Phones really worth $800, or has Apple done an excellent job of heightening the perceived utility that consumers expect to receive from the product? the first freegan tips, number one, dont believe everything advertisment tell you, number 2 you probably dont need to buy waht they are selling.
Freeganism is a backlash to the over simplified spend to be happy society that gets pushed into our homes everyday through our TVs, computers, Magazines and Radios. Companies spend billions of dollars every year to deconstruct consumer spending habits and in turn design marketing campaigns to make sure that we think we can only be happy by purchasing their goods. But there is a significant amount of waste that gets produced under this model and the freegan movement has pounced on this opportunity. Every one of us has thrown an old but still useful object out this at some point in our lives. We buy a new TV and throw out the old one, we buy new clothes and trash our old ones, we get a new pair of shoes and throw the old pair in the trash. Companies do the same thing, but sometimes they will pre-emptively throw out products before anyone purchases them. There are many reasons why a company may do this, but usually the bottom line is it will cost the company more to store, transport and sell the product rather than to just throw it out. Freegans strive to use the excess that companies and consumers no longer deem useful.
If you are looking to have a life less dependent on consumer products, conserve waste, and even save a little money, here are some freegan tips and tricks.
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