Raiding bins for scraps fed my global waste crusade

A SCOTTISH academic who began raiding bins as a skint student has become a global recycling campaigner.

- BY DAN VEVERS Chief Reporter

Anthropologist Dr Patrick O'Hare went on to research the plight of waste pickers in South America who comb through multinational landfill sites to find materials to recycle.

He has called the impoverished workers "unsung heroes" and is now fighting to promote their battle against pollution.

The Glasgow-born researcher revealed his journey started by "dumpster diving" for food as an undergraduate at St Andrews.

He said: "The stereotype at St Andrews is that all the students are really affluent, but there's lots who aren't and lots who have a really hard time.

"The cost of accommodation was absolutely enormous so anything that would bring down your household spend on food, for instance, by doing dumpster-diving was more than welcome."