Copenhagen is already pretty good at being sustainable. It’s trying to become the first carbon-neutral capital city. It’s great for cycling. Now it is turning its attention to food waste.
The amount of food wasted in the world is pretty shocking – by some estimates almost half of the world’s food is thrown away uneaten – a staggering statistic even in a world where we are bombarded with incredible information all the time.
To bring this topic to wider attention, Copenhagen hosted ‘United Against Food Waste,‘ last Friday, October 4th. Organised by a Danish consumer movement called ‘Stop Wasting Food’ (Stop Spild Af Mad in Danish,) it ended up feeding 6,000 people, as supermarket and non-profit organisations came together to give away delicious surplus food that forms just small part of the 540,000 tons of food that is wasted in Denmark alone.
It was heartening to see such a range of organisations and companies working together to solve a problem that maybe isn’t the most glamorous, but is arguably one of the most important. It was also encouraging to see a wide range of people at the event, which made use of its central location right by the Town Hall to attract a diverse crowd eager both to learn, and to try some free food.
One of the organisations present, which I hadn’t heard of before was Rub & Stub, which is a new restaurant that works with local supermarkets to source and then cook food that would otherwise be discarded.
It is a new concept, and one that people might take a bit of getting used to – the idea of eating ‘rubbish’ might dissuade some, but once they realise how edible most discarded food is they’re sure to embrace the concept, and hopefully waste less food in their own everyday life too.
In fact the whole day appeared to be a big success, and is sure to put the important issue of food waste on the map. Once again Copenhagen appears to be leading the way on sustainable issues.
This article was originally published on Urban Times.
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