There is such a thing as a free lunch, it turns out, as long as you don't mind too much what it is. Tamara Wilson found hers a few streets away from her west London home -and as well as picking up some unwanted bread and fruit that would otherwise be thrown away, she made a new friend.
Wilson is one of 3.4 million people around the world using an app designed to encourage people to give away rather than throw away surplus (剩余的) food. "It's such a small thing but it makes me feel good and my neighbour feel good. And a lot of small acts can end up making a big difference," she said.
The last few years have seen an explosion in creative ways to tackle food waste by inking supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and individual households to local communities. Olio, the app used by Wilson, saw a fivefold increase in listings during 2022, and the signs are that this rapid growth is continuing into 2023, said Tessa Clarke, its CEO and co-founder.
About a third of all food produced globally is wasted, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture organisation (FAO) Almost 1.4 billion hectares of land t close to 30% of the world's agricultural land — is dedicated to producing food that is never eaten, and the carbon footprint of food wastage makes it the third contributor of CO2. Reducing food waste is one of the most effective ways of tackling the global climate crisis.
Olio, Clarke said, was an attempt to change this on a small, local scale. "The app connects people with others who have surplus food but don't have anyone to give it to because so many people are disconnected from their communities." Users of Olio post images of surplus food that others in the neighbourhood might want. Olio also has a network of 24,000 volunteers who collect surplus food from local supermarkets and stores for app users to claim.
Despite the success of the app, it was hard to make a difference to the huge scale of food waste, Clarke added. "Even though we're doing well, we've only scratched the surface (触及表面). But if everyone makes small changes in the world, we'd dramatically reduce the amount of food that ends up in bins (垃圾桶)."