September 3, 2019

OLIO

The App that wants us to share more and waste less.

Established in 2015, OLIO is a food sharing app whose mission it is to stop food wastage. While food sharing apps like ‘Too Good to Go’ have a similar aim, OLIO is different in its focus. As opposed to collecting food from companies, OLIO wants to promote the sharing of food between individuals inside of communities.

The app couldn’t be simpler to use. Just browse through listings of spare food and message others when they see food they would like to collect. After arranging a pickup time and location, the users meet and share their food.

May 19, 2019

The Game

How a Facebook group is using the Wetherspoons app to feed homeless people.

One night in Salisbury, £260 of food and (non-alcoholic) drinks were bought by strangers from all over the UK and internationally.

Wetherspoons has an app that allows customers to skip queuing at the bar to order food and drink. It also means you can play pranks, sending orders of peas or Fruit Shoots to any table of your choice at one of around 900 ’Spoons across the UK.

Chris Illman from Fareham formulated Wetherspoons The Game! and founded a page for it on Facebook. The idea is simple: people post a picture of themselves and their table number and wait for fellow group members to send them stuff – anything at all. Last week’s players included Tiffany turning 21 at The Swan in Weymouth, a hen party at The Panniers in Barnstaple and someone celebrating the loss of their virginity, allegedly, at The Manor House in Royston.

But among the rowdy revellers was a post from The Standing Ordr in Southampton which asked people to donate food that would be distributed to people rough sleeping nearby.

February 12, 2019

The Refillery

The Refillery joins Edinburgh’s zero-waste revolution.

Revolutionising the everyday shop, The Refillery, one of Scotland’s first dedicated plastic-free grocery stores opened its doors on Wednesday 16th January.

Witnessing the problem of plastic and spurred on by the slow pace of change from UK retailers, founder Kelly Wright has made a huge leap from her successful career in the food industry to launch the new business single-handedly.

Driven by her passion for reducing plastic consumption, Kelly was inspired to change her whole lifestyle, establishing The Refillery as a positive solution for all.

Part of the new eco-friendly shopping movement in Edinburgh, The Refillery offers an alternative by removing disposable packaging from the household goods on offer.

January 16, 2019

Restaurant sustainability

Fish skin and plastic bans: Tasting the future of restaurant sustainability.

Meet the chefs leading the charge for change and making the restaurant industry more sustainable as waste produced each year by the food service and hospitality sector hits three million tonnes.

A calm oasis off a busy main road, Native, a restaurant near London Bridge, is beautiful. Its bright dining room with exposed brick walls is made warm and welcoming with green foliage scattered about and shaggy blankets thrown over window seats. It’s the kind of place with trendy ceramics and a daily-changing menu with refined, elegant dishes like a pearl barley cracker with pickled corn or venison bao.

But Native co-owners Ivan Tisdall-Downes and Imogen Davis don’t run the restaurant like most. The tables are made out of recycled materials from the theatre industry; the coffee cups are made from waste coffee beans and other biomaterials like seaweed; that pearl barley cracker dish came about after a chef burnt the grains; and old menus printed on recycled paper can be spotted on tables, repurposed as taco holders.

December 2, 2018

Rubies in the Rubble

Condiments with a conscience: Delicious Ketchup, Mayo and Relishes from Fruit and Veg headed to landfill.

When Jenny saw the amount of discarded produce at fruit & veg markets across London she started reading up about the food waste problem.

Over 1/3 of produce never reaches our plates. This is equivalent to 1.3billion tonnes of food worldwide every year. Delicious mangoes, tomatoes and more are discarded and head to landfill, often because they don’t look right. An estimated 20-40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected before they reach the shops.

September 30, 2018

Food waste plan

The UK food industry has adopted a revolutionary new food waste plan.

All major supermarkets, alongside Nandos and Coca-Cola, are on a list of 90 firms which have pledged to halve the amount of food binned by 2030.

Every year, the UK chucks away £20 billion-worth of perfectly good food – now 90 businesses are leading the fight to bring that number down with the world’s first Food Waste Reduction Roadmap.

Developed by grocery research charity IGD and waste reduction body the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the roadmap aims to show large business how they can reduce food waste in their own operation and suppliers from field to fork.

August 21, 2018

Community Fridge Network

Community fridges are helping tackle Britain’s growing food waste crisis.

Could a scheme that allows residents to donate their surplus produce help tackle Britain’s £13bn food waste problem?

Towns across the UK are battling food waste by setting up community fridges that give everyone access, regardless of their financial situation.

With the average UK family wasting £470 worth of food a year, the initiative, launched by environmental charity Hubbub, allows locals to donate their surplus fruit, vegetables and perishables to the referral-free food bank.

The Hubbub network currently supports 32 fridge projects across England, Scotland and Ireland with creative partner Tessa Tricks taking inspiration from across Europe.

July 31, 2018

Northern Soul Kitchen

Don’t let it go to waste.

Regeneration and healthy eating in Berwick.

“At the end of the day I wanted the town to have the ownership of it. I didn’t want it to be something I had done, I wanted it to be something ‘we’ had done”, says 25 year old Millie Stanford, “I wanted to build up some sort of momentum for change in the town”.

Millie is the co-founder of Northern Soul Kitchen, a food waste initiative and pay-as-you feel cafe in the heart of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The project, which recently opened its doors on is based in a previously abandoned shop.

Using unsold food from the local Tesco’s and other small local shops in Berwick they aim to create healthy food in a welcoming environment. Customers pay whatever they think the food is worth, making it accessible for those who might otherwise not be able to afford it. You can even volunteer your time and skills to pay for a meal.

Tag: food waste