Author; Rebecca Dart

The major actors involved this controversy are the freegans, scholars, the general public, people in the medical field, the legal system (politicians, police, judges) and the businesses (be they major corporations or local businesses). There are two sides to every story and, in this case, there are many contributors that each play quite a different role. 

On the pro dumpster diving side are the freegans. They say that what is discarded (be it left out on the curb, thrown in dumpsters) is not wanted, it no longer belongs to anyone and therefor should be free for the taking. Most tote the environmental concerns, anti-consumerism as a claim that being a freeganism as a way to help the environment. Below is a word cloud created from all freegan.info pages (with common english words removed, each page being a different color) with the use of Voyant tools. You can clearly see the most popular words and ones that are a concern for that particular community.

The freegan Philosophy (freegan.info,  2014):

"Freegans practice strategies for everyday living based on sharing resources, minimizing the detrimental impact of our consumption, and reducing and recovering waste and independence from the profit-driven economy. We are dismayed by the social and ecological costs of an economic model where profit is valued over the environment and human and animal rights."

The Dumpster Diving Naysayers:

On the doubting side are some businesses and medical professionals. These professionals toting the idea that it is dangerous and that eating food that is past the sell by day may be harmful to a persons health or that the actual act of diving in a dumpster could cause physical harm to the person. These outspoken people could also influence the opinions of the public, in that they are experts and have authority. Also the negative connotation of digging in trash, however clean it might be has bad image in the public eye. Many friends and coworkers I spoke to about such a topic their first impulse was disgust. When you explain that the food taken is in opened packaging and could have been on the shelf less that and hour ago had a slightly different opinion. Some say that the property is free for the taking and some oppose and say, especially in the case to curb-side collection, that the garbage is theirs until such time as the "proper authorities" collect it (Thomas, 2010). They say that it could be an infringement of their safety. Business people again have mixed reactions. Some argue that if these freegans bought the food it wouldn't have gone in the trash and therefor it doesn't warrant people searching is their dumpsters. Some businesses embrace it, such as bakeries; they even open their doors at the end of the day and let people have what remains that would be unsellable the next day.