NEW YORK —  One person's trash is literally another person's treasure, if that person happens to be a freegan (search). They’re not vegans who refuse to eat meat or animal products; these people eat out of the garbage.

Freegans generally are activists. They believe we live in a capitalistic society gone mad where food, like so many other items, is needlessly tossed out.

Adam Weissman and some freegan friends, none of whom are homeless or destitute, dig through garbage for food in Manhattan's trendy Upper East Side (search). They refuse to economically support companies that make or sell the items, because they equate doing so with encouraging further exploitation of our natural resources.

"I'm saying we're too materialistic and it's ruining our lives,” Weissman said. "We're wasting enough food to literally feed every starving hungry person on the planet."

But one supermarket manager says the companies are not the ones being put out. "My first impression is personally I feel sorry for them because I don't think anyone would want to do that,” said store boss James Massari.

But the freegans aren't looking for pity, in fact they're sympathetic to the people who actually paid money for food they take home for free.

"It irks my sense of justice that things are getting thrown away that people can use," said Alexis Cole. Cole not only provides freegan food for her roommates, but has furnished most of her apartment through dumpster diving.

Do the freegans ever get sick? They say no, primarily because they take precautions like washing the fruits and vegetables and not eating anything that's spoiled.

Click on the video box near the top of this story to watch a report by FOX News' Todd Connor.