Saved thousands: a woman has been eating from trash cans for 4 years and treating her friends to delicacies (6 photos)

Australian Sahar Khalili eats "like a king" and has saved a considerable amount of money in her family budget. However, to do this, she has to "dive" into garbage containers in search of food.





A resident of Melbourne, Australia, 37-year-old Sahar Khalili, has not gone to the supermarket for shopping in the last four years, finding food in containers with food waste installed outside stores, so she has managed to save a lot.

Before she started bin raking, the woman was spending around £75 a week on food. So, she calculated, having not bought any food for four years, she should have £16,000 left over



In February 2019, while working in the bakery department of her local supermarket, Sahar realized how much food was being thrown away. Every morning, around 200 stale breads would end up in the bin.

She did some research and was shocked to learn that Australians throw away 7.6 million tonnes of food every year, 70 per cent of which is perfectly edible. While searching for ways to reduce waste, Sahar came across a Facebook group of people who collect food products thrown away by companies in their bins. Sahar was initially skeptical of the idea, but the group assured her that they had "never eaten better."

"They told me they ate like kings," she said.





The bin "cleaning" experts warned her that access to the bins must comply with trespassing laws and that she must carefully check expiration dates and the integrity of vacuum-sealed packages.



Her first attempt was unsuccessful and there was nothing but cardboard packaging in the bins near the supermarket. However, a few days later, the "diver" stumbled upon a "gold mine". It was, in her words, like going to the grocery store - only everything was free.



She found jars of yogurt, ice cream, salmon steaks and brie cheese that were still edible. She also got a bag of fresh zucchini and a box of green pears. In total, she had enough ingredients to last three weeks. She also found pots, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, and plastic wrap. When she brought her haul home, she sorted it and washed it thoroughly.



She subsequently rummaged through four different trash cans every two days, but living alone, she quickly realized she couldn’t do it all on her own.

“I didn’t want to throw everything back in the trash, so I decided I just needed to get more people around my table,” she said.

She invited her friends over, set out sauces, chips, cheese and salami, cooked lamb shanks, roasted vegetables and pasta - all of which Sahar had found in the trash. But before everyone sat down, she came clean about where the ingredients came from. Some were worried about food poisoning, but she convinced them it was safe. She also convinced her mother to try the "junk food."

Looking for a way to share her surplus food with the community, Sahar started her own Facebook group and within a year, it had grown to over a thousand members.