Freegans

Somehow, the thought of living entirely off food salvaged from dumpsters seems a bit risky. But apparently there are some number of people - nobody knows how many, I gather - who do exactly that.

"Everything I eat comes from dumpsters," Ash says. "For me it's a logical lifestyle choice. It's such a natural thing to use up that waste."

Some call them "dumpster divers", others brand them "skip lickers", but Ross Parry and Ash Falkingham like to count themselves among the Freegans — a growing band of foragers who seek to live entirely from the waste of others.

In this brief trip to a small supermarket skip in southeast London, they have recovered enough food to provide themselves — and several others — with an impressive evening meal, as well as bread, muffins and teabags for the next morning's breakfast.

Freeganism, derived from the words "free" and "vegan", is spreading to Britain from the United States, where one of its founding fathers, Adam Weissman, has set up a Freegan information Web site to persuade others to join him.

Apparently, Weissman sees this as a way to protest the entire economic system.

Falkingham, a 21-year-old Australian, sees Freeganism as a way of forcing the world to wake up to what it is wasting.

"Nine million people die every year of starvation … and while that's happening, we are literally destroying food," he says.

There are no exact figures for how many people are choosing to live a Freegan lifestyle in Britain. Despite the name, not all those who opt to live this way are strictly vegan.

Falkingham and Parry, who is 46, have been roaming Britain since last October, pursuing their Freegan lifestyle in cities from Manchester and Leeds in the north, to Plymouth in the south.

They eat, sleep and live in a beaten-up old van which is equipped with mattresses, a stove, a sink, carpets and even a heater all taken from skips or wreckers' yards.

Falkingham wears a watch recovered from a bin behind a charity shop, his boots were taken from a retailer's skip and the pair say they have found computer parts, furniture and even an MP3 player in dumpsters.

They have no jobs and no money but see very little need for either.

Does this mean what used to be called bums are actually progressives?