Across Europe 100m tonnes of
food ends up in landfill every year, producing large amounts of greenhouse
gases as it decomposes. But Denmark is leading the way in reversing this
problem – having managed to cut the amount of food it throws away by a quarter.
On a chilly summer’s night in
the centre of Copenhagen, a crowd gathers around the entrance of a restaurant
called Dalle Valle. It’s 22:30, the buffet is winding up and the kitchens are
about to close but these people, mainly in their 20s and 30s, are here for the
food that the diners inside don't want.
Dalle Valle is one of
hundreds of restaurants and cafes listed in an app called Too Good To Go, which
lets you order takeaway food that would otherwise be thrown away, for
knock-down prices. It’s an example of many social initiatives set up in the
last few years to address the growing problem of food waste. And Denmark is
leading the world.
In 2014 a government survey
carried out in Denmark estimated that every household in the country each year throws
away105kg of food worth around 3,000 kroner (£350) Shops will also discard food
with minor cosmetic flaws, for example, bakery staff throw away mis-shapen rolls
or loaves of bread.
And it’s not just a problem
in rich countries. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization
estimates that roughly the same amount of food goes to waste in developing
nations as industrialised ones: around 630 and 670m tonnes respectively. In
all, a third of the food produced for human consumption each year – a trillion
dollar’s worth – goes in the bin.
Now Denmark is showing other
countries what can be done. It has reduced its food waste by 25% in the last
five years, according to a study by the Danish Agriculture and Food Council.
Its success is largely down to changing shoppers’ habits. Last year two
branches of a supermarket called WeFood opened in Copenhagen. The shops only
sell food that has passed its sell-by date.
The UK comes in second.
Between 2008 and 2013, it reduced its waste by 21%. And the Real Junk Food
Project opened the UK’s first surplus-food store in Leeds in September.
Yet Denmark now has more
initiatives tackling food waste than any other country in the world. And most
of this activity can be traced back to Selina Juul, a Russian graphic designer
turned food activist, who started a movement called Stop Spild Af Mad (“Stop
Wasting Food”) eight years ago.
When Juul moved to Denmark in
the 1990s to study, she was delighted to see an abundance of food. "I came
from Moscow where communism had just collapsed and supermarket shelves were
constantly empty,” she says. “Food was an often unmet necessity." But
working part-time in a supermarket bakery, she was also shocked to see bread
being discarded every day simply because it did not look right.
In 2008 Juul started a
Facebook page urging Danes to stop wasting food. The page became so popular
that she found herself discussing the issue on national television less than
two weeks later. Juul was then contacted by REMA 1000, Denmark’s major discount
supermarket chain, which wanted her to help find ways to curb food waste in
their stores.
Around 29,000 tonnes of bread
and cakes are discarded every year in Denmark, mainly because it is sold in portions
larger than people need. To address the problem, the company reduced the size
of its own-brand bread by 40-50%, dropping the price accordingly. As well as
giving people less food to throw away at home, Rosenlowe says that the change
has reduced food waste by stores and suppliers, which now discard fewer items
for being too small.
To cut down on wasted food,
one Danish supermarket halved the size of its bread and more businesses
followed. Retailers such as Lidl and Coop Danmark joined in the drive to cut
food waste. Lidl stopped offering discounts that encouraged people to buy more
than they needed. Unilever sponsored free doggy bags in restaurants across
Denmark to encourage people to take home their leftovers. And restaurants
started selling leftover food via apps like Too Good To Go. Businesses that
adopt practices to cut down waste are certified by an organisation called
ReFood.
Non-profits also signed up.
Ida Merethe Jorgensen, chairman of Danske Handicaporganisationer, a charity
based in Kolding, works with a group of volunteers to collect unsold food and
distribute it to low-income families, for example.
In most countries, including
Denmark, there are no laws against selling or distributing food past its
expiration date. But sell-by and use-by dates have conditioned people to think
all food becomes inedible as soon as those dates pass. Thankfully this is now
changing.
Others are now following
Denmark’s lead. France and Italy recently introduced laws that make it easier
for businesses – including farmers – to donate leftover food to charities, for
example. And smartphone apps that direct hungry people to surplus food have
been set up in several countries. “An increasing number of social enterprises
are popping up all over Europe,” says Tania Burnham at Too Good To Go. “With
the average mobile phone user checking their phone every six seconds, it's
never been easier to interact with their target market.”
A postgraduate student at New
York University, Holtzman thinks it is just a matter of raising awareness so
that people can make their own choices. She is working to import Toast Ale – a
craft beer made from surplus bread – from the UK. This spring she also plans to
spend a month dumpster diving – living off food she finds in bins outside shops
and restaurants – with a colleague from Toast Ale, documenting the
experience.
