I have just finished reading The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman, for free. Someone had kindly scanned it and I was able to read the whole thing online! I won't give it a glowing recommendation, but it was certainly engaging and informative.
For us, the most common area in our lives for us to waste money and compromise on our environmental values is food. Waste, non-local produce and stuff accumulating that we won't use for years!
Considering our strengths, we definitely know how to forage for wild food, grow our own herbs and cook from scratch... doing pretty well on these fronts.
So I took the dive (metaphorically) and went hunting for some chicken food - and found an amazing amount of fresh baked goods. I was conflicted as I don't feel that this is ideal food for our laying hens nutritionally, but satisfied myself that they would eat as many pellets, weeds and insects as they liked. I was a little freaked out by the idea of people telling me off, but the book had instilled in me a sense of hero-ism - rescuing waste gave me the moral high ground. I feel bemused in retrospect.
John's observation that people won't throw good things in bins as they want people to forage them was borne out by the 3 cartons of diet Coke I saw but did not collect (we don't use artificial sweeteners/ chemicals in our food).
On balance, I will continue to get vegie scraps from the organic shop when I go there, occasionally scavenging bakery, restaurant or grocery discards for the chickens. I will aim for a healthy diet for the chickens, avoiding sugary icing and preferring an avocado or lentils to a loaf of bread.
And... if I see something that is excellent quality, I'll feel free to eat it myself!
