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There's an app for that: Restaurant Food Waste

Each year, around 2.5 billion tons of food is wasted around the globe and the United States wastes more food than any other country. The U.S. throws out almost 60 million tons (120 billion pounds) of food each year which comprises almost 40% of its entire food supply. That translates to 325 pounds per person of thrown out food each year. Most of our discarded food ends up buried in U.S. landfills, and 22% of our country’s municipal solid waste is food valued at almost $218 billion and the equivalent of 130 billion meals. The food decomposes in landfills emitting poisonous gases like methane that contribute to global warming.

Too Good To Go is a Danish company that has spent eight years trying to reduce food waste with an “App” helping restaurants sell food cheaply by selling the end-of-day leftovers for a discount of 60%-80%. “By matching hungry, cost-conscious customers with surplus food, the app's creators say they minimize waste, one bag of saved food at a time.” The App has saved over 250 million meals which translates into ”one meal every three seconds,” “and taking about 135,000 cars off the road for a year.” Businesses producing baked goods are currently the company’s best customers, and there are participating stores in 17 countries and U.S. cities including Los Angeles which is the App’s most successful U.S. city.

References:

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/03/1202278468/climate-change-food-waste-too-good-to-go

https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/

https://www.toogoodtogo.com/en-us/business

Photo by naren l on Unsplash