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Freecycling the freelance way: freegans

People who dumpster dive for their makings and living tools.

Thinking about getting green? Really green? Well, today The New York Times profiles some folks who are removing themselves from the American market whenever they can. Dumpster diving. Using wasted food and free stuff thrown off by the rapid spin of our consumer culture. They call themselves "freegans."

"After years of trying to boycott products from egregious corporations responsible for human rights violations, environmental destruction and animal abuse, many of us found that no matter what we bought we ended up supporting something deplorable. We came to realize that the problem isn't just a few bad corporations, but the entire system itself." That's part of the front-page manifesto on the Web site that seems to exemplify freegan living. Another popular Web site for free stuff is Freecycle, which advises you to recycle to other people who live nearby.

How does a freegan get Web access? Could you be lucky enough to find a working laptop in a dumpster and then tap into Wi-Fi?