How one man’s trash can be another man’s … lunch!

Today, on the topic of dumpster diving, we’ll be discussing the German man from the Vipassana meditation center that we met. We are going to endeavor into this conversation about our meeting with Max Maximus and the noticeable garbage and waste we see in the world. Max was a young, 20 something-year-old, that joined us in the meditation course and Will had the privilege of meeting on the first day. He was quite interesting with a small frame, long dreadlocks and baggy flower-patterned pants. As we started to peel away the layers of the onion, you could see Max was at war with what we call garbage. He believes in not wasting food and has taken a stand by making the example of living off less then $10 a day, and some days nothing at all, for the last three years. He wants to prove that it can be done and this world is so plentiful that you have everything you need right here and now.

We would have never guessed from how Max carried himself that he was a homeless drifter. If we knew about Max’s story prior, we would have expected him to smell bad which we were surprised to notice he didn’t. He was self-educated and held high values for the global environment plus cared for hungry people deeply.

When the meditation course was all said and done, we had a more in-depth discussion with Max. He opened up about his passion for psychedelics and some comical stories of him trying to get his parents onboard with it. For the last couple years he has been emailing his mom long letters detailing specifics of his “trips” … oddly she has never once responded.  On the other side, Max’s father was invited by Max and his siblings to join on a family bonding trip in the Australian desert … where Max and his brothers tried to convince him to try some psychadelics.  Their father denied and was paranoid the entire trip that his sons were trying to drug him which ruined their family bonding time.

Max also mentioned that while on his mission he met a German girl in Australia who shared the same mindset as himself. This enlightened us that either there are many people out there who truly realize garbage as a problem, or the Germans are weird.  But no, Max is justifiable. He is actually a pioneer in the garbage warrior arena and how he plans to reach the fight of this arena is to dig deep and understand where are all the places uneaten food lay to rest. So Max accomplishes this by penetrating into the steel containers we call dumpsters to retrieve his treats for the day.

Check out this quick four minute Canadian video:  Dumpster Diving 101

We piled into the back of a truck with Max and some others to get transported to our next destinations. The conversations started to flow and spiraled into very entertaining topics … See, having more heads than one to ask Max questions about his life was perfect. We found out Max does busking and juggling in major city centers to support his low budget lifestyle.  That he met his girlfriend dumpster diving for food as well and it’s a game they like to play. We learned about his circle tattoos and that they are a representation of all matter around us.  And we learned that Max has his life set up in a way that is slower paced then the ones we know for ourselves.

One awe-inspiring topic that came up (at least to us) was about how Max hunts in the urban jungle food court. Like a stalking predator he lingers and watches people from afar as they order their food, how they go about eating and the general health/hygenic conditions of the person.

It’s something I think we’ve all had come across our minds when we are in food courts, “Are they going to finish eating that? Because I totally will!” Unfortunately, most of us are too embarrassed and don’t want to raise any social radars of being gross so we stay quiet. But we didn’t stay quiet, we started telling people we met about our dumpster diving friend, Max.  We were inspired by him to be less wasteful and decided that this was one mission we had to test on our trip.

A few weeks passed by, we found ourselves in the expensive city of Singapore at the Zoo with empty stomachs. But there was a shiny golden halo hovering over a box of half eaten KFC left for dust and our minds shifted into hunter mode. We noticed that people around us would be in the general area for about 6-8 minutes then a new batch of observers would come to check out the monkeys habitats. So we perched ourselves beside the “could have been wasted garbage” KFC and as soon as we notice there was new crowd of people around we grabbed the treat as if it always belonged to us.  We were so excited to be eating soggy fries and a crispy skin drum sick. We can honestly say that this scavenging gave us a rush. It’s not something you’d normally do and it really is like your trying to be a food ninja making the least amount of moves until you are in a checkmate scenario with your prey.

We had our thrill and felt like we would now try for bigger game in our travels when the time was right. The second and most exciting experience was in Phuket in a shopping center. We just happened to see two of the most gorgeous, half eaten gourmet sandwiches just laying there with no owner! We had to move fast because there were table cleaning demons who were moving at a ferocious rate. So we huddled up and game planned it to be a solo suicide mission. Will was the hunter for the tray prey while Paulina took watch … We really wish we videoed but maybe next time! Now sitting in front of us were these two amazing, rich, thick, fresh slabs of rye bread, we knew we hit the jackpot of garbage wars. Our hunt was different this time, the first time was about the flow of people but this time we didn’t have fast moving traffic, we had people that tend to be focused on their own worlds while they eat and don’t necessarily pay much attention to what’s happening around them. (Quick two minute video test to check your sense of attention: Attention Test.)  So Will swooped in to linger for a moment, with full confidence that this had been our sandwich all along, and departed quickly with two fists full of greatness and another thrilling meal.

So although on man’s trash is another man’s treasure, it has been our lunch.  Our foodcourt scavenging experiences have fit the budget and been entertaining, it has also made us open our eyes to notice when we’re walking around how much food does go to waste.  It’s funny, it’s who happens to you in your life that will inspire you to experiment with how you’re living your life.  Whether its a significant or small influence, it all counts toward you being curious, open-minded and further educating yourself.  That’s why sharing these experiences with everyone is great because it also allows you, the reader, some time for reflection and gives examples that you may choose to emulate in your life. I bet there is something inside of you who would totally do the same and grab those fries off someone’s table or finish up the tasty pasta dish that is barely eaten. We will report with more experimental learnings along the way and we want to impress upon you that you can always have a thirst for firsts … so save on waste and try it out! Until next time our fellow friends of the world.

Stay tuned for Germany in August … maybe you’ll find us feasting out of supermarket dumpsters. There’s no better way to learn than experiencing first-hand some of the things we hear about which will also help to maintain an authentic, organic, fun life ahead of us.