I’ve recently fallen into a deep rabbit hole about food waste. Wasted food isn’t only a humanitarian or social concern, but also an environmental one. With the food that is thrown away, the energy, water, and other resources required to grow it is tossed with it.
My interest in this issue started when I worked at a grocery store. We over-ordered bananas and had to throw away 7 boxes of perfectly fine bananas purely because they were “too ripe” (see picture). Seeing this volume of food going to waste really opened up my eyes to the scale of which we throw away food.
Luckily, stores and restaurants are increasingly adopting tactics to reduce their waste. While many of them have in-house strategies, it is great to see new innovations help automate and digitalise this process. One interesting example that I recently came across is Whywaste, which have landed big deals with Ica, Coop, and Asda. Other great mentions are also apps such as Karma, Rscued, and Too Good To Go, which enable the consumer to make better choices both for the planet and their wallet.
The increasing efforts from the grocery retail industry are promising, however, according to Naturvårdsverket (the Swedish Environmental Protection Industry), the majority of food waste actually comes from private households, so it really is time for us as consumers to step up.
Any thoughts on how you can reduce waste personally? Here
//Mathilda Jurewicz
