Love Food and Fight Waste

Ever made a meal that was too big or you prepared too much of? Sure; either save the leftovers or throw them in the trash. But often times when we simply throw food in the trash, we are unaware of the harm we are causing on our environment.

While this happens everyday in our homes, the same situation is taking place in restaurants all over the world to a much greater magnitude. Worldwide, we almost waste 40% of the food we make. In the U.K. alone, restaurants throw out 600,000 tonnes of edible food each year; that’s enough to make 82 Eiffel towers. In addition, food production, storage and distribution accounts for 20% of the U.K.’s greenhouse gas emissions. Considering that restaurants aren’t gaining any revenue from unsold meals, one could see this more as a monetary issue, but in actuality all this food waste has a much greater impact on our environment. When food rots in landfills it releases the greenhouse gas methane, which is 21 times more harmful to our environment than carbon dioxide. So, what can be done to prevent perfectly edible food from compiling in landfills and harming our environment? Let’s ask Too Good To Go.

Too Good To Go is an app originally founded in Denmark in 2015 and has now made its way into London as well as six other countries. Too Good To Go, also called TGTG, sets out to prevent food waste by partnering up with restaurants and helping them sell their leftover food during closing hours. The way the app works is that it allows you to order food from cafes, bakeries, or restaurants in your area right before their closing time. Not only does this help our environment, but it’s also very affordable and cost friendly. Meals can be bought for as little as £2 and as much as  £3.80, while still tasting fresh and flavorful.

At the moment, Too Good Too Go has saved 1,500 tonnes of CO₂ from being emitted into our atmosphere and has saved a grand total of 805,000 meals from entering landfills. For the short amount of time that TGTG has been around, it has made a tremendous impact on the environment and its community with its 2,300 active partners. They also provide their partners with their own eco-friendly take away boxes made of sugarcane, which helps reduce plastic waste as well. As a whole, Too Good To Go is killing multiple birds with one stone in the most sustainable way as possible. Who would have thought that a simple sounding app like this could help save food, money, and our planet?

As a sustainable company itself, Element is very supportive of Too Good To Go and could foresee collaborating with them to provide their 100% biodegradable tableware to their partners. With Element's quality chic products involved, customers would always be excited to get their food packaged up in vibrant colors that match TGTG’s partnering restaurants. In today’s age, it’s great to see companies like Element and Too Good To Go find unique and effective solutions to issues regarding our environment.