Are you hungry? There is an App that can feed you while tackling one of the world’s biggest problems: food waste.
Too Good To Go has already saved 90 million meals since it was created in 2015. How? This social enterprise born in Denmark has launched a virtual marketplace where users can find surplus food from local businesses at a great price.
Restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, hotels… they are all committed to reducing food waste by not putting in the bin perfectly good croissants or fresh vegetables.
Everyone wins in this sustainable game, which is why this App against food waste already has 44 million users.
Every year 1/3 of the food produced in the world is wasted and is responsible for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions. There is a consensus around the fact that this is an enormous problem, but there is also a solution. Fortunately, growing awareness of the issue has placed it on the political agenda of an increasing number of countries around the world.
The mission of @Too Good To Go is to be a source of inspiration and enable everyone to take action against food waste. And to bring about positive change in society, the App against food waste focuses on four main fields: households, businesses, schools and public affairs.
In fact, it is mostly households that throw away food, discarding 11% of it. In contrast, services and retail shops are losing 5% and 2% respectively. Globally, 121 kg of food is thrown away per person per year, with 74 kg at household level.
Even at your own home, you can certainly appreciate just how real these figures are. Practical tips for avoiding waste are shared daily on @Too Good To Go‘s Instagram profile. Any examples?
The egg test allows you to see if it is still edible, simply by putting it in a bowl of water: if it sinks, it is still good, if it floats, you better throw it away.
Another key point is the expiration date: we often forget about it, allowing food to go bad. Smart shopping that meets our needs without excess can do a lot for the planet.
And what about clean-out-the-fridge recipes? There’s something for everyone, from soup to pizza, and as if that weren’t enough, the App gives suggestions for using scraps. Leftover coffee from the coffee maker becomes a nice topping, what remains at the bottom of the honey jar can be made into a cocktail, and avocado peels (wait for it!) can be used to tie dye on that old T-shirt you no longer use.
In short, we can all become ‘waste-warriors’, as To Good To Go calls its users. Commitment to the planet, however, is not about eating delicious food at cheap prices, but about assessing our daily impact.
Reducing food waste is one of the most important things we can do to reverse global warming.
Chad Frischmann, Climate Change Expert
