Surely you’ve heard the saying “the best things in life are free.”
(ABC News)

Some people are using that principal to reduce waste on the planet by getting their basic necessities from supermarket dumpsters and online bartering sites. Known as freegans, as in “free” and “vegan,” they don’t eat meat and they refuse to pay for their food.

“It’s basically about boycotting consumerism,” said Newsweek correspondent Raina Kelley, who is in the midst of a monthlong stint as a freegan. “In the truest sense of freeganism, the ultimate aim is to opt out of capitalism altogether. Because, they say, capitalism creates injustice.”

Click here to read Kelley’s blog about her experience.

Freegans aren’t cheapskates. They’re simply making a statement by taking a stand against consumerism, which they see as “the exploitation of land, resources and animals wrought by commercial production.”

Freegans search the trash, also known as “dumpster diving,” in an attempt to curtail a cycle of waste by salvaging otherwise healthy food out of the supermarket’s trash.

The average American creates an average of four and a half pounds of waste each day, and disposes of 15,334 plastic water bottles and 18,306 plastic bags in a lifetime, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

We also burn through 26,408 aluminum cans and enough wire hangers — 900 for each of us — to wrap the Empire State building twice.

While freeganism embodies just one main rule — to consider your impact on the planet and reduce it — Kelley set out to make a list of her own goals.

As she began her experiment, Kelley outlined a list of “rules” for herself and her new lifestyle:

- I will spend as little as possible on food.

- I will not throw away what I already have and I will buy “green” items. I will use what I have until it’s gone.