Companies turn their attention to food waste as a way to tackle climate change

With the recent release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change, the need to address climate change is at the forefront of global conversations. Wasteless, an Israeli firm seeking to reduce food waste, is doing their part to slow climate change and reduce global hunger by reducing the amount of food that goes to waste in the world.

Ben Biron, one of the founders of Wasteless, said in a statement:

"We inspire customers to be better citizens of the world and to take part in the war against food waste, while at the same time enjoying better prices.”

A 2013 FAO report, which was the first study to analyse the impacts of global food wastage on the environment, says that nearly one-third of all food produced in the world for human consumption does not find its way to our tables. And when this food is not consumed, it ends up in a landfill where it produces a large amount of methane – a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

As FAO director Jose Graziano da Silva says, in addition to the environmental imperative to tackle food waste, there is also a moral one. According to FAO, 1.3 billion tonnes of food goes to waste every year, yet there are 815 million people in the world that are undernourished and hungry.

Wasteless is not the only company that has turned their attention to the negative effects of food waste. Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, decided to remove the “best before” dates on their fruits and vegetables. Mark Little, Tesco’s head of food waste reduction, explained:

“Removing best before dates is our way of making it easier for customers to reduce food waste at home and save money in the process. It’s simply not right that food goes to waste and we’re going to do everything we can to help.”

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Photo Credit: US Environmental Protection Agency