Freeganism - Relationship To Environmentalism

Relationship To Environmentalism

Although freeganism is a movement that has sprung from anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism, the movement also has much in common with environmentalism. One of the main aims of freeganism is to reduce waste and limit the amount of destruction that results from the production of goods. These objectives dovetail nicely with the eco-friendly goals of conservation, re-use, and preventing abuse of the environment. "The preservation and careful use of natural resources" that is rooted in environmentalism is an approach to dealing with issues such as famine, population growth, loss of forests, and pollution of water and air. Some of the practices established in freeganism serve the function of addressing many of these same concerns. Squatting, for example, makes use of empty buildings for the homeless, and dumpster diving practices recovering food that is being wasted (with the motivation in mind that there are billions of people starving who could survive on foraged food from dumpsters of industrialized countries). Adam Weissman, eco-activist and creator of www.freegan.info, states that "Freeganism is a reaction to waste, but also to injustices like sweatshops and the destruction of rainforests that go into producing goods in the first place".

Freeganism is about more than looking through trash, there is significance behind not participating in a consumerist society. It is an attempt to remove oneself from being a part of the exploitation that is perceived to be a result of consumerism. Many aspects within consumerism that freeganism is protesting are also what environmentalism is fighting. There is an obvious relationship between sustainability and consumption. Freeganism and environmentalism are trying to highlight this relationship, and assist in enabling the consumer to see how their actions impact the world. While freeganism symbolizes the contrast of consumerism, freegans are still consuming but it is a "specialized" consumerism. Like environmentalists, freegans have "standards by which they base their purchasing decisions from". By not participating in the labor force and using money, freegans are distinguishing themselves from the mainstream economy. It is these components of freeganism that coincide with the two categories that are used to describe environmentalism in Faith in Nature. These two entities are "Green consumerism that focuses on changing society from within and bioregionalism that focuses on finding a new life outside of the established economy and becoming in tune with the land".

Another comparison between environmentalism and freeganism is the perspective that they can be viewed as a religion. There is an idea of "religious obligation to nature in the form of political action". Freegans and environmentalists believe that consumerism leads to exploitation of people and the environment. This conviction that organizing around the environment and human issues is inevitably linked to our moral obligation to nature is what qualifies the Green movement and the freeganism movement as religious. Environmentalism has been described as a "binding philosophy, the start of environmentalism was a religious reformation; an epiphany; an awakening to desecreated surroundings". Freeganism is another form of this awakening, and also entails concepts of this religious reformation. The religious gratitude for nature that environmentalists and freegans possess may have stemmed from nature idealism that is the foundation of Transcendentalism.

Freegans and environmentalists both view the Earth as a living body that we must care for, and help sustain. They are very similar in their beliefs regarding the environment, conservation, consumerism, and a need for political action. Many of their objectives are based on solving the same problems. These problems revolve around a need for food, a need for shelter, and solution to stopping the destruction of the Earth. Freegans and environmentalists have a desire to make a change, and alter the ways of consumerism and waste. It is apparent in many ways that freegans are "hard core environmentalists".