Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Introduction CHAPTER 1 - FREEYOUR MIND The Philosophy ofScavenging CHAPTER 2 - IN THEBEGINNING The Evolution ofScavenging CHAPTER 3 - THE OLDESTPROFESSION The Rise and Fallof a Prejudice CHAPTER 4 - SCAVENOMICS Nothing IsGarbage Anymore CHAPTER 5 - FOUNDSTYLE The Aesthetics ofScavenging CHAPTER 6 - FINDINGYOURSELF What Kind of ScavengerAre You? CHAPTER 7 - LAND OFTHE FREE Living Thriftily CHAPTER 8 - THE ACCIDENTALTAOIST The Spirituality ofScavenging CHAPTER 9 - THE SCAVENGERCODE OF ETHICS The Twelve Commandmentsof Scavenging EPILOGUE NOTES INDEX JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) - Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England - Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen''s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) - Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia - (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India - Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Copyright © 2009 by Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors'' rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada Most Tarcher/Penguin books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs.

Special books or book excerpts also can be created to fit specific needs. For details, write Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Special Markets, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. LIBRARY Of CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Rufus, Anneli S. The scavengers'' manifesto / Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-02476-8 1. Ragpickers-United States. 2. Salvage (Waste, etc.)-United States. I. Lawson, Kristan. II.

Title. HD9975.U52R 640-dc22 This book is printed on recycled paper. While the authors have made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the authors assume any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. INTRODUCTION After this I went every Day on Board, and brought away what I could get. I had been now thirteen Days on Shore, and had been eleven Times on Board the Ship; in which Time I had brought away all that one Pair of Hands could well be suppos''d capable to bring, tho'' I believe verily, had the calm Weather held, I should have brought away the whole Ship Piece by Piece: But preparing the 12th Time to go on Board, I found the Wind begin to rise; however at low Water I went on Board, and tho'' I thought I had rumag''d the Cabbin so effectually, as that nothing more could be found, yet I discover''d a Locker with Drawers in it, in one of which I found two or three Razors, and one Pair of large Sizzers, with some ten or a Dozen of good Knives and Forks; in another I found about Thirty six Pounds value in Money, some European Coin, some Brazil, some Pieces of Eight, some Gold, some Silver. I smil ''d to my self at the Sight.

-- DANIEL DEFOE, Robinson Crusoe ALL AROUND THE WORLD, A CHANGE IS NOW AFOOT. The way in which human beings acquire stuff is shifting. Expanding. Forever. All around the world, millions are salvaging stuff, trading stuff, recycling stuff. This is the end of the shopping monopoly. All around the world, we are scavenging. Today that doesn''t mean only the squalid ragpicking it used to mean.

So many pursuits count as scavenging today that they can no longer be tucked into any easy little category. We, the authors of this book, redefine scavenging as any way of legally acquiring stuff that does not involve paying full price. Just think how many ways you do this on a daily basis. You scavenge just by tracking down a good bargain. It used to be that when anyone wanted anything, she automatically rushed out to the store and bought it new, full price. Mission accomplished. Back then-not so long ago-it was assumed that buying things new, retail, was the only way in which respectable civilized human beings could get them. Getting goods by any other means besides store-bought, new, and full price was considered suspicious: fit only for bottom-feeders, moochers, cheapskates, bums.

Four thousand years of prejudice dies hard. Not long ago, just a few years ago , in our corporate consumer culture, the very idea of getting stuff by any means outside the standard retail channel at any speed but warp speed was anathema. A sacrilege. A sin. Not long ago, all of American society pledged loyalty to new-and-improved products. Not-shopping was treason. An abomination. In that unquestioning, unevolved age, not so long ago, not-shopping-at least, not shopping new, full price-would have made friends and neighbors call you radical.

Antiestablishment. Heck, un-American. And/or those friends and neighbors would have assumed you were poor. They might have pitied you. She must be destitute. Why else wouldn''t she like the mall? BUT TIMES have changed. A confluence of factors-style, politics, technology, ecology, and the economy-have made more and more of us seek more and more alternate means of acquiring stuff. Modern-day scavengers are bold, committed, and resourceful.

Goods and services now circle and recircle the world, connecting strangers, not a penny spent. The more accepted scavenging becomes, the more of us there are. And the lesser the prejudices. Well, that took long enough. Damned in the Book of Genesis, declared untouchable in the Book of Leviticus, shunned by cultures around the world, we''re scavengers. We''re trash-pickers. We''re treasure-hunters. Bargain shoppers.

Beachcombers. Recyclers. Freecyclers. Sample-sifters. Coupon shoppers. Swappers. Wherever we are, wherever we go, we find ways to not shop. We don''t steal.

We don''t scam. But we don''t pay full price. We don''t pay at all if we can help it. In which case, to be true to our ethics, the authors feel like saying: Pssst. Scavenge this book. Find it in the street. Buy it for spare change at a yard sale or a flea market or a thrift shop. Snatch it from a FREE box.

Fish it from a Dumpster-although we hope it would never end up there. Borrow it from the library. Whoops, there goes our future income. We seldom know what we will acquire, or where or when or how or even if. But admit it: you love a mystery. AN E-MAIL that circulated around New York City in May 2008 exhorted: "Come attend the first planning meeting for the Freegan Fashion Show fundraiser coming up on June 6. The Freegan Fashion Show kicks off with a week of freegan clothing making work-shops using scrap material we redeem from the fabric district. Fashion week ends with our models walking the runway and showing how creativity is beautiful and sexy.

Create your own style instead of buying a corporate version of your self-identity. This is a big event and all help is appreciated." TWO THOUSAND years ago, half the world''s population still survived by hunting and gathering. Over the last four hundred years, traditional hunting and gathering has, in the strictest sense, become nearly extinct. But all modern-day scavengers-whether at thrift shops or in Dumpsters or in CurbCycle groups or at yard sales-are in some sense hunter-gatherers. Define hunting-gathering as foraging, taking what comes. Define it as sublimating choice to the bigger thrill of chance . It translates to saving money and potentially working less.

It translates to dodging whatever market sector some genius thinks you belong to. Modern scavenging means wearing discards cast off by a throng of strangers, thus you can''t be deciphered. You are the mystery. Hunting and gathering downtown, eyes to the ground in an urban landscape, the authors of this book found, in one week: a pearl-and-amber earring, four free-sample cans of pomegranate soda, two empty wire-handled five-gallon plastic vats, three bus transfers worth twenty-five cents apiece, a mysterious doohickey that turned out to be a.