100 signatures reached
To: Crown Prosecution Service
Stop prosecuting people for "stealing" food from bins
It is not in the best interest of the public to prosecute those involved in bin raiding, skip diving or freeganism. Its not illegal, immoral, unethical or dishonest so stop wasting tax payers money prosecuting people those involved.
Why is this important?
The UK throws away over 5.3 million tonnes (£12 billion worth) of edible food each year. In a time of economic hardship its grotesque that such a huge quantity of food is wasted whilst more and more people are becoming reliant on food banks.
Supermarkets are one of the worst contributors to food waste but rather than donate their excess food to charity, many supermarkets send it to landfill or to be incinerated. This is partly due to fear of prosecution should someone become ill and partly out of a desire to maintain their profit margins - if people are getting food for free then they don't need to buy it from you.
At the most basic level people take food from bins out of desperation, because they need to eat to survive. However, many others rescue food because they wish to reduce their environmental impact or because of an anti-consumerist ideology. Many of these freegans donate rescued food to charity or share it with their friends, family and neighbours.
Technically something which has been thrown away still belongs to the person who threw it out and taking it can be seen as theft. People who rescue food from bins are charged with "theft by finding" or similar offences. But how can someone "steal" food which has been thrown away and is destined to rot on a landfill site?
Below are some links containing more information and details of some of the arrests and prosecutions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13037808
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6933744.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/three-charged-vagrancy-act-food-skip-iceland
