Dive!: Living Off America’s Waste Review

On days when I am feeling incredibly unmotivated to do homework, I watch a documentary. Although this is technically procrastinating, I am still learning something new and often the documentaries I watch will spark new ideas or rekindle my passion for the things I am learning in class. 


Today was one of those days, and in an attempt to “waste” as little time as possible, I chose my documentary based on one thing, the total running time. But for only being 52 minutes long, “Dive!: Living Off America’s Waste” packed quite a punch.

“Dive!” exposes a few key flaws in our food production system that lead us to waste 1/2 of the food we produce. The numbers are staggering. “Wasting 96 billion pounds of food costs roughly $136 billion annually” according to “Dive!”. The movie itself is based around the concept of eating out of grocery store dumpsters (also known as being a “freegan”), a practice that is not only controversial, but also growing in popularity.

I think in the U.S. most people are aware of the enormous amounts of food waste from our country alone, but it is a whole other thing to see the food tossed in dumpsters at a micro level spliced together with quotes and mathematical information on not only the true amount and cost of what we waste, but also with people who are struggling to get enough food to survive. 


The movie itself was informative and interesting, but be prepared for it to look more like something out of a film school than a professional documentary. This is by no means a downside, as it is still well crafted and creatively edited, the project just lacks the money of the typical Hollywood production most people are used to seeing (it reminded me of the documentary “No Impact Man” in this aspect). It’s one film I would definitely recommend. If you have time to watch your favorite TV show, you definitely have time to “Dive!”.


“Food is life, and it should never be wasted.” Dr. Timothy Jones, “Dive!”