Replate.org

San Francisco designers/authors Josh Kamler and Axel Albin came up with the term “replate” (“to place unwanted leftovers, typically in a doggie bag, on top of the nearest trash can so that they don’t go to waste”), after noticing that “people in West Coast cities and beyond were leaving their leftovers on top of (or next to) garbage cans when they couldn’t find someone to give them to.” Kamler and Albin created a Web site, www.replate.org, dedicated to promoting the idea that the homeless and hungry are better off eating a stranger’s leftover half-eaten burrito or pizza left on top of a trash can or newspaper stand than having to retrieve it from the depths of a dirty, mucky garbage can. In the “Frequently asked questions” section, Kamler and Albin argue that, while it may be a concern in smaller towns, rotting food or thieving rats simply aren’t an issue in big cities like San Francisco where there are always many people who are looking for something to eat. Send them an SASE for replate.org stickers (“You may already be an activist,” they read), and download free posters and “put them up all over town.”