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This week:
- How food waste apps can help the climate and save you money
- The Big Picture: Pinecone-inspired shades
- Pay-what-you-can thrift store on campus rehomes students’ stuff
How food waste apps can help the climate and save you money
A third of all food produced is never eaten, and that food waste is behind up to 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. That’s because of all of the emissions of CO2 generated in the production, processing and transportation of that wasted food, along with the potent greenhouse gas methane that’s released when it decomposes in landfills.
The good news is food waste is something almost anyone can do something about to fight climate change, from students lunching in cafeterias to families who buy “ugly produce” online. And cutting food waste can save you money.
Food waste apps such as Flashfood, Too Good To Go and FoodHero aim to help you rescue food that would otherwise be thrown out and save money while grocery shopping.
CBC’s Nick Logan went grocery shopping with all three apps to see what kind of difference they make.
Flashfood: This Toronto-based company partners with Canadian grocery giant Loblaw. Using it, Nick managed to pick up a few containers of yogurt and a packaged salad for about half price, along with a $5 box of mixed fruits and a few vegetables, from a designated fridge in his local store.
Flashfood tracks the weight of the food that you’ve saved from the trash over time, but doesn’t track emissions savings.
Nicholas Bertram, the company’s CEO, said the app has saved about 73 million kilograms of food since it launched seven years ago.
FoodHero: This Montreal-based company has an app similar to Flashfood, but partners with a different grocery chain – Sobeys.
It focuses on saving meat, fish and dairy, “because those are the biggest emitters,” explained Jonathan Defoy, the company’s founder and CEO. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, meat alone generates 20 per cent of global emissions from food waste, even though it makes up less than five per cent of food waste by volume, because its production is so emissions intensive.
Defoy said products sold on FoodHero are frozen before their best before dates, and can be kept frozen for up to three more months before being cooked and eaten.
The app calculates emissions savings based on the weight of each food item and emissions generated from purchase to disposal (transportation and greenhouse gases produced when it’s landfilled or composted) in your province. It does not take into account emissions from producing the food and getting it to the store — Defoy said that’s too complicated and unlikely to be accurate.
Since the app launched six years ago, he estimates it has been saving about 25 tonnes of waste per store each year, and it now rescues food from about 1,100 stores across the country.
Unfortunately, Nick found it didn’t have much to offer a vegetarian like him on the day he went shopping.
Too Good To Go: This is a Danish app that has grown in popularity in Canada and other countries. Too Good To Go doesn’t let shoppers choose what to buy. Instead, it offers “surprise bags” of surplus items from grocery stores, bakeries and restaurants for 25 to 50 per cent of their original retail cost.
Nick used the app to pick up a full hot meal from an Indian restaurant for what he considers to be “pretty cheap.” He also got a bag of dry goods from a small, independent grocer.
Sarah Soteroff, spokesperson for Too Good To Go, said the company mainly calculates its impact by the number of meals saved from the trash — eight million in Canada since launching here in 2021.
The app also estimates the emissions that the food in your surprise bag would have generated over its entire life cycle, from harvesting to transportation to disposal, taking in account the type of food.
Tammara Soma, co-founder of Simon Fraser University’s Food Systems Lab, says apps like these that “gamify” food rescue by tracking its estimated climate impact can motivate environmentally sustainable habits.
But she warned they can also encourage people to impulse buy things that they won’t necessarily be able to eat in time and push the burden of food waste from businesses to consumers, who may have fewer environmentally friendly disposal options.
She said it may be better to keep the waste at the grocery store or restaurant “rather than push it downstream and then have people, you know, put it in a garbage bin rather than a composter.”
Nick wasn’t able to calculate what he saved in emissions by using the three apps on this single shopping trip, since each app calculated it differently. What he does know is that he walked nine kilometres on his shopping trip and spent $32, but saved more than $40 compared to the regular retail price of the items he bought.
— Emily Chung and Nick Logan
You can listen to the full segment on What on Earth this Sunday, Jan. 26, on CBC Radio One and streaming live on the CBC Listen app at 11 a.m (11:30 a.m. NT).
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Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: There are always a few comments on Instagram telling Corb Lund to ‘stick to music.’ But he finds himself, reluctantly, donning his activist cap. The reason? Water quality near his home in Southwest Alberta, which he says is threatened by coal development.
What On Earth27:32Country star Corb Lund won’t just ‘shut up and sing’ anymore
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Reader feedback
In response to last week’s story about a prototype off-grid tiny home that anyone can copy, Karel Ley asked whether the home would be wheeled, but transferred to a permanent, stationary site. She also offered a suggestion: “May I suggest it be fitted with handicapped persons in mind? (Power outlets easily reached by a wheel chair user? Enough space under sinks for wheel chair to allow user closer proximity to taps, etc.)”
That’s a great suggestion that we’ll share with the Sustaingineering team. Regarding the question, the current prototype has wheels so that the resident can quickly escape climate disasters if necessary (although the prototype itself, being a prototype, has no plans to leave UBC).
Two readers expressed concerns about where and whether such homes would be allowed. Ion Barnes wrote: “Does it satisfy the regulations of the area in which they are intended to be used? Building codes! I can have an RV on my two-acre lot, but it is not for 100 per cent occupancy.” Doug Hough wrote: “My son-in-law (who is a house builder) tried to build one [a tiny home] for sale in B.C. but there was so much red tape involved, including the Ministry of Transport, [that] he gave up. Now it sits in the backyard as an extra bedroom for his son.”
Regulations about tiny homes vary from province to province and even municipality to municipality. Some communities ban them. Others allow them, but require them to conform to building codes and other regulations, which may be designed for larger homes. Some require them to be hooked up to local utilities. The rules may also differ depending on whether the tiny home is mobile or stationary. The website TinyLife.ca, which offers advice about tiny homes, summarizes the status of tiny homes in different provinces. Builders who copy the students’ prototype will need to ensure the home is allowed in their community.
Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And feel free to send photos too!)
The Big Picture: Pinecone-inspired shades
Plants can respond to slight changes in their environment easily, growing toward the sun or even curling up their leaves to block out too much light. What if a building could shade itself in response to the weather, without the need for specialized machines? That’s the idea behind the “Solar Gate.” Researchers in Germany created a synthetic version of cellulose fibres, the building blocks of plants, and 3D printed them into a structure inspired by the opening and closing scales of a pine cone. In high humidity, which happens during cold, wet winters in Southwest Germany, the shade will unfurl as it absorbs moisture, letting in sunlight and the sun’s warmth. In low humidity, during the region’s hot, dry summers, it will shrink and close, shading the building. The bio-inspired shading is powered solely by weather cycles, reducing the energy needed for cooling a building and cutting down on the building’s carbon footprint. “The bio material itself is the machine,” said Professor Achim Menges, head of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The shading system has already been installed on the south-facing skylight at a research building for the University of Freiburg, and researchers are hoping it inspires more sustainable architecture.
— Alexandra Mae Jones
Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web
Pay-what-you-can thrift store on campus rehomes students’ stuff
The founder of a student-led thrift shop at Memorial University in Newfoundland says the student community is leading a push for better sustainability efforts on campus.
Margarita Conway, the founder of Student First — located in MUN’s former science building on the St. John’s campus — created the initiative alongside a student sustainability committee to try and cut down on the waste students leave behind each semester.
“This is a great solution for being able to reallocate clothing, to be able to reuse, or give a second life to a lot of these clothing items,” Conway told CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show.
The money raised also goes back into the student body. A similar initiative happens each April with a student yard sale on campus, which raised $3,000 last year.
“That’s the goal of this group, to make sure that any funds raised are put right back into the student community, and to Memorial University and St. John’s surrounding community,” Conway said.
And it isn’t just clothing up for grabs. Conway says bedding, kitchenware and other items are in stock.
The shop works on a pay-what-you-can model to cut down on waste, Conway says, noting student participation — and funds raised — almost doubled when the group made the switch from priced items.
“It just shows that if you give the opportunity to community members to be able to give back, then they will. And even with students, I was so surprised, because they’re the ones that are facing these financial difficulties,” Conway said.
“They know that the funds are going directly back into the students that need them and the community that needs them.”
— Alex Kennedy
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@cbc.ca.
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
#food #waste #apps #climate #save #money
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