Two months ago we shared with you an article regarding greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector and figured that food waste is a huge problem, being responsible for around 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
This month we want to share with you an easy way to fight food waste on a personal level: The TooGoodToGo-App
How does Too Good To Go work?
With Too Good To Go you can save food from the restaurants, cafes and stores that are on the app. Instead of having to throw away food at the end of the day, these places offer what they have left in so-called “Magic Bags” for a reduced price. The actual contents will be a surprise since the shops cannot predict exactly what food will be left at the end of the day. But normally the vending businesses share some indication like “baked goods”, “groceries” or others.
When you find a meal in your area that you like, purchase it through the app and go to the store within the given collection time. There you simply need to show the staff your order in the app to receive your Magic Bag – by this, you have an easy and fast collection.
Win-Win-Win concept
TooGoodToGo works because there are only winners from their service:
- Customers get perfectly good and delicious food at a great price (normally around 1/3rd of the original value).
- Businesses can sell the food that would normally go to waste and by this reach new customers and recover sunk costs.
- The planet has less wasted food to deal with, which reduces unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and other negative impacts of food waste.
The TooGoodToGo-Movement
The idea for TooGoodToGo came from Denmark, where the company was founded in 2015, and was rapidly adopted by several entrepreneurial minds around Europe, who then joined forces and came up with a simple solution: connecting people at the right time, at the right place, to reduce food waste.
Besides the application, they have set out a new ambition – to contribute in every way they can to build a global food waste movement.
To follow their mission to inspire and empower everyone to take action against food waste, they identified four areas, where they want to create change.
- Households – more than half of the total food waste in the EU gets wasted in private households so they created a list of tips on how to avoid food waste at home.
- Businesses – To help businesses fighting food waste, they identified the different reasons why food goes to waste in different areas of the food sector and present possible solutions to address this systemic issue.
- Schools – Education plays a critical role in the reduction of food waste. So they work together with schools and universities, with the aim of teaching the next generation how to value our resources and to protect our planet. For this, they even have lots of free educational material available on their website.
- Public affairs – Reducing food waste across the supply chain will require policies and regulation both on the international and national level. TooGoodToGo wants to drive this change and help transform current practices that will move society closer to a sustainable food system.
To make information about food waste easily accessible they also created a food waste knowledge hub on their website.
With all this information you can start being a food waste warrior right now! Download the application and start saving food!
If you have a business and want to become part of TooGoodToGo, you can apply here.
All the information you need and more in your countries language you can find on the national TooGoodToGo websites. Just add your national domain (e.g. -.de -.it -.es) to https://toogoodtogo
By Till Stoltenow
PROTECT YOURSELF - cooperation mechanism to protect the environment 