The Bin Scavengers.

Under the cover of night, I lift the lid of the dustbin and shine in my torch. It’s below zero and my hands are shaking as I rummage inside. I’m on the hunt for food. But I’m not homeless and I could certainly afford to go to the shops if I wanted to. So, why am I doing this? Quite simply, I’m living as a freegan.

Freeganism - a combination of the words ‘free’ and ‘vegan’ - is a movement whose devotees take responsibility for the impact of their consumer choices and find alternative ways of meeting their everyday needs. Around 17 million tons of food are buried in British landfill sites every year, four million of which are edible. Sometimes, disposal is the cheapest option available to the food industry.

Searching in bins for food sounds disgusting, not to mention embarrassing. There's also the possibility of food poisoning. So, just how easy is it to live on discarded food? I met up with two London freegans, Ash Falkingham, 21, and Ross Parry, 46, for a crash course. It was 5 pm and dark enough for no one to see us. Ash and Ross went to a supermarket wheelie bin in South London, lifted the lid and started sorting through the contents. Clear plastic bags contained frozen ready meals. The packaging was still intact and the sell-by date was that day. Underneath were 10 tubs of luxury ice cream.

Ash and Ross live entirely from ‘urban foraging’. They visit markets after closing time and the bins of supermarkets and high-street stores. A trip to India inspired Ross to adopt the freegan lifestyle. "In India, they don’t waste anything. People go through the rubbish and recycle everything. That’s how they live. In the West, everything goes to landfill sites."

Back in their van, I tucked into some chocolate-mocha slices while Ross and Ash told me about the time a group of freegans found a bin full of 200 frozen chickens and another with a flat-screen TV. Armed with Ross and Ash's freegan tips, my challenge was to live as a freegan for three days in my home town of Brighton. Too embarrassed to go on my own, I roped in my friend Dave!

As Dave and I set off on the first day, it was freezing cold. Eventually, we found a supermarket rubbish bin that hadn’t been locked away and ... bingo! There was a plastic bag full of vegetables so, while Dave held the lid open, I climbed up, balanced on the side and reached in. A couple of passers-by threw us pitying looks. But the sealed bag was full of potatoes, apples and carrots, and there was nothing wrong with them. As we got our free food, we discussed possible menus and decided on soup. Dessert was baked freegan apples with cinnamon and almonds - delicious.

On the second morning, I didn’t feel ill - a good start - so we tucked into our freegan breakfast of avocados and bread. We decided to visit a different supermarket bin and again found lots of vegetables and fruit. On the menu that night was a spicy noodle soup with green peppers, carrots from the previous day and some steamed cabbage on the side.

On the final day, I got my first freegan lamp and again, we found enough food to dine like kings: sausages, greens and roasted onion. Although three days is a short time to live as a freegan, I've already got a much better sense of how much food is unnecessarily condemned to landfill. I'm tempted to continue with my freegan lifestyle.