From Trash to Treasure: Why's It So Hard to Save Restaurant Leftovers From the Dumpster?
Oct 1, 2024
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In this engaging discussion, Dana Gunders, President of ReFED and a champion against food waste, dives deep into the staggering issue of edible food wasted in restaurants. She shares eye-opening insights about transforming surplus food into delicious meals, and discusses innovative solutions like the app Too Good To Go that connects people with leftover food. The conversation also emphasizes the challenges of legislative measures and the importance of creativity in reducing waste, offering a fresh perspective on sustainability in dining.
A staggering 38% of food in the U.S. goes uneaten each year, leading to significant economic and environmental losses.
Restaurants contribute substantially to food waste, with approximately 70% originating from plate waste already served to customers.
Innovative solutions like apps and organizations are emerging to facilitate food recovery, transforming waste into meals for communities in need.
Deep dives
The Scale and Impact of Food Waste
A significant portion of food produced in the U.S. goes to waste, with about 38% of food never being eaten, resulting in a staggering loss of over $450 billion annually. This substantial waste contributes to environmental concerns, with food waste accounting for approximately 6% of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from methane released in landfills. In landfills, food constitutes nearly a quarter of the total waste, highlighting the inefficiencies in the food system. Understanding the scale of food waste, particularly in the restaurant sector, underscores the importance of addressing this pressing issue.
Addressing Plate Waste in Restaurants
Restaurants are responsible for a notable amount of food waste, with plate waste emerging as a significant contributor. Interestingly, around 70% of the waste generated in restaurants comes from food that has already been served, presenting a substantial opportunity for reduction efforts. Strategies such as offering smaller portion sizes and allowing customers to choose sides can mitigate this waste. Encouraging diners to take leftovers home can also significantly cut down on wasted food and enhance consumer awareness of portion sizes.
Innovative Solutions for Food Recovery
Emerging solutions are being implemented to tackle the food waste problem, one of which is the banning of food from landfills, leading to mandatory food recovery efforts in places like Vermont and California. While composting is one option, donating edible food remains a priority, supported by legislative measures that protect businesses from liability when donating food. Organizations like Feeding America have popularized food recovery efforts, yet only a small percentage—about 1%—of food waste from restaurants is currently donated. To maximize recovery efforts, logistical challenges, including maintaining appropriate storage and transportation of food donations, need to be addressed.
Exploring the Role of Technology in Food Recovery
Innovative apps like Too Good to Go facilitate the sale of restaurant surplus food, allowing consumers to purchase surprise bags of leftover items at a discount, thereby reducing waste. The app connects users with local restaurants and helps streamline the process of food recovery. This model not only benefits consumers but also assists restaurants by providing an additional revenue stream and enhancing employee morale. Data analytics tied to these platforms also give restaurants insights into their waste patterns, encouraging more efficient food preparation and procurement.
Rethink Food: A Pragmatic Approach to Food Recovery
Rethink Food operates on a model that captures unsold food from restaurants and uses it to create nutritious meals for communities in need. By collecting excess food and transforming it into ready-to-eat meals, Rethink Food addresses not only the waste problem but also food insecurity. The organization highlights the importance of collaboration between food donors and community organizations and emphasizes the need for a structured approach to ensure a steady flow of food. Despite the challenges faced in scaling this model, Rethink Food demonstrates a practical and effective strategy for turning potential waste into valuable community resources.
Every day, at the end of service, restaurants throw away tons of entirely edible food: heaps of pastries and whole loaves of bread, vegetables chopped but not cooked, noodle dough, fish off-cuts, and more. An estimated 20 billion meals's worth of still edible food overall is tossed every year here in the US, and more than 85 percent of it ends up in the landfill. Meanwhile, more than one in ten Americans are food insecure. So why is it so hard to keep all of that perfectly good food out of the trash and get it onto people’s plates instead? This week, we’re taking a deep dive into the dumpster (not literally!), to explore the most innovative and surprising new solutions to this toughest of food challenges, including the wizards transforming everything from stale bagels to gallons of banana cream concentrate into a delicious dinner. Did someone order meals, not methane? Oui chef!
