it’s not just food I start paying for I
start buying almost everything that you
can think of every physical thing if you
were to exclude what I paid for mortgage
and savings and insurance which I
haven’t figured out how to get for free
I spent those three thousand seven
hundred dollars for the entire year it
works out to be about three hundred a
month
I thought about reducing my expenses
further to zero but I do like my little
luxuries in life like water Internet
electricity on-demand good morning
everyone
my name is Daniel and and I’m a free
good frequence of people who spend very
little money because we get almost
everything for free we do this by
retrieving the things that other people
throw away we repair them reuse them or
repurpose them for our needs
my introduction to freeganism began with
three simple projects first for my first
project I went to my neighbors to ask
them to give me the leftover food this
could be food that they cooked too much
and could not finish this could be fresh
fruits and vegetables and meat in their
fridge which they bought too much off
and they cannot finish before boys or it
could be expired food that they have in
the shelves or cupboards that would they
were going to throw away I told my
neighbors don’t throw away this food if
you have any of this food please give it
to me because I have a use for it the
response I got from my neighbors was
pretty amazing I start to receive a lot
of food and what my neighbors reactions
were even more amazing they actually
started to thank me for giving me food
they thanked me for helping them to
reduce food waste to the sharing of food
we became closer before we started
sharing food I barely knew the names
I just knew roughly what they look like
after we started sharing food I got to
know the names the occupations
children’s names a children’s school I
got to know what the hobbies are what
made them happy what made them said what
made them worried we became friends we
became what neighbors are supposed to be
over time we can’t work out a simple
system whenever they had leftover food
they would just hang it on my kid and
when I wake up in the morning I opened
my door I see food hanging there you
know in Singapore we have this strange
concept where I I’m not familiar with it
but I’m told that some people use it
they take out their mobile phone they
use an app and they pay people to
deliver food to their house the strange
concept to me because I get food the
same way for free every single day when
I started out I was still eating out
quite a bit but it didn’t slow this is
this stop making sense because what was
I paying for food to eat where was I
paying to eat outside when I have so
much free food in my fridge for every
meal that I ate outside it meant one
more meal accumulator to my fridge and
if I did not plan my meals properly I
would soon run out of space in my fridge
so I gradually stopped eating out
because I was struggling struggling to
finish all the food I had at home I’m
still struggling that led me to my
second project my second project was to
go to the back of a supermarket or shop
or bakery and after they closed for the
night and to see what the true way
behind the shop I remember the first
time I went to a supermarket I had one
of those big blue EKU bags and I went to
the back of the shop you know what I
found I found apples pears oranges
bananas honeydew watermelon grapes
avocados whatever you can buy in a
supermarket I found it back there so I
just load a lot mark my bag and brought
it home I started to visit this
supermarket about two to three times a
week not disappoint the back of it
and I will just load up my bag work with
fruits and bring it home and struggle to
finish it very often I could not finish
it so I would give it to my neighbors
and my my family and they would struggle
to finish it but I stop this practice
after about three three or four weeks
because I didn’t have space in my fridge
and my neighbors didn’t have space in a
fridge either that led me to my third
project my third project was to walk
around my HDB neighborhood to see what
people put in plastic bags and leave at
a boy back I’m sure we all have seen
things like cupboards and tables and
chairs
laughs Knicks that have been on next to
lift I’m not talking about that talk
about what people put in plastic bags
and leave
and the Wojtek and before I started this
project I never noticed those plastic
bags but one has once I started I
suddenly noticed plastic bags on top of
letterbox on tables on chairs hanging
from pipes behind staircases and what
one would assume that the contents of
this these plastic bags were trash that
would be a false assumption to know
what’s inside those plastic bags do you
really have to open every single one by
far the most common items we found was
clothes bags and shoes and we’re not
talking about tattered and worn our
thoughts we’re not talking about shoes
with holes we’re talking about branded
stuff it’s all right G mm timberland
clucks not Martin’s I found watches or
so no you’re not just Casio but Cinco
and swatch and guess and a money
exchange I found bags Prada coach
Burberry Charles and Keith another mango
whatever you whatever you can buy a
shopping mall I found it
I know y’all want to go check out I’ve
found also food condiments cooking on
sesame oil oyster sauce soya sauce
vinegar rice wine mixed herbs ground
pepper cinnamon I found snacks and
beverages instant coffee and my low heel
cereal
I found electronics like laptops and
mobile phones and power banks and
hotness drives and earphones and after
that I started to look what was inside
general general waste bins and recycling
recycling bins general waste bins are
your green things recycling bins are
your blueprints and your recycling bins
you’re supposed to find four kinds of
things which are plastics metal clothes
cloth and paper but that’s not all you
find there for Christmas last year I
found work in PlayStation 3
yes I think I know fancies that they
know but a week over Christmas
that’s all in fine you find a lot of
household appliances that are in working
conditions and dryers hair colors hair
straighteners defined air fryers
microwave ovens toaster ovens convection
ovens you find pots and pans you find
everything that you have in your home
you can find it in a bin so I thought
I’ll bring these things home and I
started realized that the things that
people true we were actually in better
condition than what I had at home so I
did the natural thing I just upgraded
whatever I found that that I had at home
it was better condition I will taste it
and my old one I would just give it away
and I live in luxury luxury means I use
things like Ralph Lauren politicians to
clean my kitchen floor because it’s very
and I would you know where we bring
stuff home for shy sometimes they’re a
bit dirty they need bill they are seeing
so you some alcohol
I find that bought kind Bacardi in book
well I’m not joking so that’s how I live
for a while and what I did next was I
created a Facebook group called friggin
in Singapore I shed my fines with my
friends there and all the time more and
more people became curious Daniel how do
you find his name can you teach us so I
organized dumpster diving to us small
small groups and and I teach them the
skills the knowledge the Essex at the
loss and include them with the basic
equipment that you need to do this
activity they went with me for a couple
of times after that they could bring
that knowledge back home and dumpster
dive in their own neighborhood over time
I accidentally created a movement the
Facebook group currently now has about
3,000 members and we started about a
year ago the reason why we have so many
members it costs somehow the media got
wind of it is I do a few stories on me
and then our membership has exploded we
just added number three thousand last
night all the time I came to notice that
there were two kinds of frequents you
have the people who are interested in
merchandise and you have the people who
are interested in food for me food is
something very close to my heart and my
stuff
I became curious to know where was all
this food coming from while there’s so
much waste in Singapore and I learned
that food is first grown on farms is
imported to Singapore it’s distributed
through wholesalers so by retailers and
it’s bought by consumers every stage of
this food supply chain tons of perfectly
edible food is just thrown away it’s a
point the amount food that we raise as a
nation is insane in 2016
we wasted seven hundred ninety one
thousand tonnes of food you know what’s
even more insane what’s even more insane
is that on the one hand you have people
throwing away perfectly edible food
every single day and on the other hand
according to one Singapore you have one
in ten Singaporeans
who cannot afford food clothing shelter
and other basic essentials that is
insane the problem is how do you move
the food from the people who are
throwing it away to the people who can
use it first you got to go to the people
who are throwing away the food and
convince them to donate the food instead
of dumping it second you got to go to
the people who can use the food and
convince them to receive free food
instead of paying for it and so you need
manpower and transport to move the food
from the people are throwing it away to
the people who can use it this currently
hwarim
on a weekly basis my community moves
about two to three tons of food from the
people who are trying it away to the
people and use it the amount that they
pay for it is a fraction of the cost
they would you they would incur if they
had hid bought all that food and every
week we feed about a thousand people so
what does what does getting free stuff
have to do with happiness now I’m not a
religious person I’m not a spiritual
person either I just happen to die for a
couple of books by about Buddhist
teachings
so I started read it and when I was
quite an insightful person he 2005 years
2500 years ago he identified three
sources of unhappiness in our lives it
was that if you remove this unhappiness
in your life then become happy
so the first cause of unhappiness is
that you want something but you don’t
get it and this this tension between
what your ideal is and where you are
today is what causes unhappiness as a
freegan
I collect literally tons of stuff and if
I were to store it all at home it would
be very flat that I would not be able to
collect anymore so I have to give it
away and I give away about 95% of water
: I found that the more I gave away the
less I wanted so as I kept giving away
things my once decrease and eventually
today I have everything I want any
there’s nothing I want that I cannot get
therefore I am not unhappy because of
that the second cause of suffering is
you don’t want something but you get it
in the course of giving away stuff I
have inadvertently given things to
people that they don’t want and I have
also received things that I don’t want s
to reduce this from happening I spoke
more to the people that I was giving to
understood their needs and once I tried
to match what I had with their needs and
once loosely speaking this is called
compassion this is called loving
kindness where you help people to
achieve what they need and one so that
they can be happier and for me whenever
I receive something that I don’t want
I always knew somebody I could generate
– so in that sense I helped to reduce
both mine and the other person’s tension
between what they don’t want and what
again the third cause of unhappiness is
when you have certain set of beliefs and
you have reality and that’s the
discrepancy when believes or idealism
meets reality reality with every single
time and because of that a lot of people
aren’t happy because the ideal is absurd
they don’t they’re the ideals and their
beliefs if they don’t conform to reality
and that’s why they are happy
let me share with you just three things
I used to believe in they are not
reality the first thing that I used to
believe in is that if you have more
money you can get more things that’s not
true false this bread this is for 100
buns I collect about a hundred months
every day in the past 30 days I’ve
collected and given out about three
so the purpose of money is not simply
not to get you more things actually the
purpose of money is to lessen oh oh less
than the number of things you can’t get
because if you have money you I don’t
think you would buy two thousand buns
but if you don’t use money you can get
three thousand bucks and I’m not the one
who does this in Singapore they’re like
three or four as soon as they set up
bakery set up a brick collection points
near their house and distribute it to
community
the second belief that I had was that as
a financial planner
I believed that in to retire Singapore
you need at least a thousand five
hundred a month to be to survive to be
reasonably happy again caught in my
freaking journey I’ve met people in
Singapore who are retired in their 40s
spending just $100 a month and they are
completely happy
you never met happier people before the
third the leaves that I used to have is
that money buys happiness again false
money doesn’t buy happiness money buys
convenience money allows you to buy what
you want at the point of time the unit
in the quantity you want if you don’t
use money you can still get what you
want maybe not at the right time and
definitely not an important quantity
that you want you don’t get one you get
one hundred you don’t get one and 500
grams of to comers get support in
kilograms a compass so yeah and you know
you don’t get one one one place to ship
off the boat you get in five I’m gonna
go two hands so you have to give it away
I’m not a generous person because I give
up i buy things to give away no no no if
you buy things to give away generosities
very expensive but if you get things for
free then it becomes very because we’re
using my generous and you have to be
because then if not then you can’t get
any more stuff your house will be too
hot so how to be happy first thing is to
understand the true principles I shared
with you and you have to realize that
their surprise to convenience in using
money the price is that we spend that
case of our life working hard in a job
to earn money to feed our addiction to
convenience just think about it if we
didn’t have to spend money what you need
to have a job if you didn’t have a job
so to wrap up today I’d just like to
share with you all right rather than
challenge you to try this out freeganism
isn’t for everybody but if you if what
I’ve said today makes sense to you then
I invite you to take on 3 simple
projects number one go and talk to your
neighbors ask them for their leftover
food number 2 go to the back of
supermarkets shops or bakeries and after
there they closed for the night let’s
see what they throw away you don’t take
number three you take a take a walk
around your HTP neighborhood and you see
what people pay plastic bags and you bet
about that just open them up and have a
look I guarantee you it’s gonna be fun
and it’s gonna be life-changing thank you