Binning for investigative dirt? Dumpster diving for fun, profit, stuff, food? The Supreme Court of Canada says okay!

Yup, searching through the trash doesn't violate privacy rights, because once you put out the garbage, you've abandoned those rights. A grey area has been clarified at last.
A Calgary man convicted of producing and trafficking ecstasy tried to appeal the verdict on the grounds that the police illegally picked through his trash, finding evidence on which they based a search warrant for his home.(Torn-up chemical recipes, packaging for a scale and invoices for chemicals used to make ecstasy.)

In a 7-0 ruling, The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal and wrote, "The bags were unprotected and within easy reach of anyone walking by in the public alleyway, including street people, bottle pickers, urban foragers, nosey neighbours and mischievous children, not to mention dogs and assorted wildlife, as well as the garbage collectors and the police."

The moral is: your trash & recycling is someone else's freebie, someone else's resource. There is no such thing as 'throwing it away'. There is no 'away,' if you want to keep it private, burn it/shred it/flush it.

Free samples, business give-a-ways like pens, calendars and pads of paper, promotional material to get the company's name out there, it's all marketing, trying to lure you close enough to spend money. There are also religious freebies from faith groups who want you to sign up to their way of worship; social marketing to encourage you to be nice, get more exercise and eat your vegetables. Free condoms, free needle exchange (okay, it's an exchange not an outright freebie), actually, there are lots of opportunities for free goods.
Free? What's that? Someone is paying, and environmental resources are being used to print, produce, transport, store.... But for the sake of argument I'll say Free when you have not paid $$ directly.

i would suggest that the ethics of taking freebies are worth some thought. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." In the study of ethics, the classic lifeboat dilemma is often mentioned- The lifeboat is overcrowded and everyone will drown unless someone is thrown off the boat. Whom do you choose? I figure if I'm ever in that unfortunate situation I'll deal with it on the spot. No amount of intellectual discussion beforehand will make it any easier in the pinch. But, something more common and everyday - like freebies- takes it out of the ivory tower and down to street-level.

Don't take more than your fair share, leave some for others, and don't take stuff just because it's free. Are you really interested in it? Do you really need it? Or is it greed? And where to draw the line before collecting freebies becomes compulsive hording?

For me, there's a song I sing when I spot the freebies :
“......Take what you need and leave the rest, But they should never have taken the very best “ from 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,' ~Robbie Robertson, The Band, 1970. A song about the US Civil War, (and I always thought a thinly veiled reference to another war waging at time of the song's creation, but that's another story)

The Internet is filled with free stuff just an email away. Major companies are happy to send you samples of shampoos, make up, and other products. There are coupons to be printed off. Entire websites are concerned with the latest freebies and the latest offers, what's a scam and what's legitimate. When you sign up for freebies, you are paying with your personal information in who-knows-what database.

Also on the Internet are communities of people who offer honest to goodness free for the taking resources, freely shared music, films, and brilliant computer programs like Open Office than can be used instead of the pricey Microsoft software. All you really need to do is pass the info along so others can benefit.

It should be pointed out however that not all graphics and writing on the Internet is free to reuse. If the author says clearly that the content is free to reprint, okay. Otherwise, the ethical approach is to respect copyright and ask permission.

Lately, I've been running across a number of free magazine subscriptions. On thetyee.ca I signed up for headline email alerts to get a subscription to Geist, a Canadian cultural mag based out of Vancouver. I like it, and it boasts eco-friendly paper with vegetable inks. When the first issue arrived it contained a card for two free issues of a literary journal I'd never heard of. (Sorry, I don't remember the name; I must've recycled the card) General Mills cereal boxes have a promo in which you can order a free subscription to one of several glossies, like Canadian Living, Hockey News, Elle, House and Home, Canadian Gardening and more. My thinking is that I don't need that much paper coming into the house, and besides, if I want to read them, I can go to the library or pick one up at a yard sale. That's my view, your mileage may vary.

Publishers will offer free subscriptions as a way to increase circulation, which helps in selling more ads. There have also been federal government cut backs since 2003 in magazine subsidies. Most recent are plans to cut funding to mags with an annual unit circulation of under 5,000, yeah like literary and art magazines. One might make an ethical argument that supporting the smaller journals either with free subscriptions, or payment, supports Canadian artists, writers and scholars.

No more free bag with every purchase!
The bag-tide is turning, for both environmental and financial reasons, bringing your own is finally being recognized both as cool and proper. It's going to be interesting to see how daily life changes minus unlimited freebie plastic bags.

One of my favourite freebies is taking food home from a conference; I often bring containers especially for this purpose. (Apparently, this causes me to run afoul of Food Safe rules, but I take responsibility for my own choices.) If the leftovers are to be dumped, I have no ethical problem. If I hear they are to be donated to a soup kitchen or shelter, then I won't take any.

The fun of ethics is that you get to think about little things that are totally grey-area and outside any ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada. For example, there's the free store run three times a week from a trailer behind Northgate Foursquare Church. It's a good place to donate clothes and shoes for the use of low-income people. Reselling those clothes wouldn't be ethical, but what if the person is really poor and instead of wearing the clothes, selling them brings in a few dollars for food? Ummm.....

Laundry blowing in the breeze like prayer flags? That solar clothes dryer called a clothesline is both free and environmentally benign. Is it the ethical choice then, to hang clothes out, as opposed to using the energy and $$ gas or electric dryer?

Another type of freebie: When the land that now houses the Anfield Centre was cleared for Wal-Mart and other chain stores, a number of people went out to rescue native and horticultural plants from the land before they were bulldozed away. Those freebies were shared for the good of all.

Harvesting wild food is ethical and healthy, just remember the song “take what you need and leave the rest....”