Meals waste is a mounting downside globally. About a 3rd of the world’s meals is wasted or misplaced, in keeping with the WWF, with big impacts for folks, the planet and the economic system.
Greater than 800 million folks go to mattress hungry each evening, in keeping with the United Nations World Meals Program.
And the 931 million tonnes of meals that’s wasted yearly creates between 8 p.c and 10 p.c of worldwide carbon emissions, the U.N. Surroundings Program estimates.
So what may be carried out to sort out this subject? Know-how is one resolution. Around the globe, smartphone apps are encouraging folks to shift their method to meals waste. Listed here are three of them.
1. Half-price meals at a click on
In Egypt, an app known as Tekeya lets bakeries, eating places, grocery shops and dessert retailers promote their contemporary unsold meals at half value. It means cut price meals for buyers, who use Tekeya’s free app to browse and purchase discounted meals close to them.
It additionally means extra revenue for the retailers and eating places, by rising their gross sales and lowering waste processing prices. Tekeya customers may use the app to donate free meals to charities.
In 2021, Tekeya says it managed to avoid wasting round 40,000 meals, which is equal to 85 tonnes of CO2.
2. Surplus meals scooped up
In the UK, an identical app known as Too Good To Go lets buyers purchase and accumulate surplus meals at discounted costs from native eating places, bakeries, grocery shops and meals producers.
Meals is offered in blended luggage. “You received’t know precisely what’s in your order till you choose it up — it’s all a part of the shock,” the corporate says.
Greater than 20,000 meals shops are utilizing the app to chop their meals waste and virtually 9 million buyers are utilizing the app to purchase discounted meals, with 12 million luggage of meals saved from going to waste thus far, Too Good To Go says.
Run by Mette Lykke, a World Financial Discussion board Younger World Chief, the corporate can be making an attempt to teach folks on the distinction between “finest earlier than” and “use by” labels on meals, to forestall pointless wastage.
3. Neighborhood meals sharing
Olio is a free app that permits you to share meals along with your neighbors, as a substitute of losing it. This is perhaps meals that must be eaten earlier than a vacation or leftover catering provides, for instance. Edible meals that’s inside its “use by” date may be shared.
App customers put up a photograph and particulars of meals they don’t want, and may browse different listings. Olio says virtually 6 million folks in additional than 60 international locations have thus far used its app to share greater than 52 million parts of meals.
The world produces 931 million tonnes of meals waste a yr, in keeping with the UN. Picture: Statista
What else can we do about meals waste?
Not shopping for an excessive amount of meals is a method we will all scale back meals waste, suggests BBC Good Meals. Solely purchase what you may eat earlier than the use-by expiry date, it suggests.
The BBC additionally advises that leftover meals can be utilized to make new dishes. For instance, utilizing outdated bread to make a breadcrumb topping.
With meals waste globally costing $1 trillion a yr, governments are beginning to take motion, in keeping with Winnow Options, a know-how firm that helps business kitchens reduce meals waste.
For instance, in 2018, Australia pledged to halve its meals waste by 2030. Funding meals rescue charities was a key a part of its coverage.
In France, new legal guidelines have been launched to scale back meals waste. These embrace obligatory recycling for any enterprise producing greater than 10 tonnes of natural waste a yr.
And in South Korea, meals waste within the capital Seoul fell 10 p.c — 300 tonnes of meals a day — over 4 years after a brand new coverage was launched to cost houses for recycling primarily based on how a lot meals they throw out.