The freegan thread

Angelika Maier wrote:Our soil is such a terrible fill that I am doing raised beds now.
First I lay a generous layer of cardboard. I searched this at the bottle shop, later at the local coop but now I go exclusively to the plumbers supply, these cardboards are huge. Unfortunately I have to buy woodchips, soil and mushroom compost but I pick up a lot of horse poo on a paddock. It is faster than you would think.
The cardboard could be used for mushrooms too.
I pick up these waxy cardboards, because they make the most efficient fire starters ever.

Since you you have such poor soil,
How about burying spent veggies in a hole? It will help the soil and produce more nutrients than cardboard alone.
I buried all my compost and veggies in my garden this fall, while the garden has its winter rest.

I'm not philosophically a freegan... However, in practice, I am very nearly one.  I HATE to see waste.  
My lifestyle allows me to be able to utilize lots of materials that otherwise I could not.
*waste meat and bone from local butcher - cat, dog, chicken food, bones burned, ashes added to the garden and for the hens to dustbathe in.
*past-prime produce - recieved for free to compost and for the livestock, but we fish the best off the top for the family as well.
*food scraps from local school lunchroom - free chicken feed
*wooden packing materials - firewood to heat the house, as well as fuel to cook meat scraps to make more approachable for chickens
*Scrap metals... for scrap (cash) as well as "good" stuff pulled out for reuse
*unopened packaged food (many people have NO IDEA how much of this goes into dumpsters) - sorted, researched (for recalls) and used as human or livestock food
I recommend that permie-freegans consider visiting the website "falling fruit" and look at local maps... consider adding to them as well.

Free piles on the side of the street make my heart go pitter-patter, I flip what I can and sell it in my vintage mall booth, use what I can for me, or even for gifts for others if relevent, I want to get better and better at repurposing and reusing in ways that work for us and others we know.  I've got a lot more learning to do to be as good at it as many of you.