Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 21 June 2019
Tasty deals: Apps help find unsold food and reduce waste

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER dreds of cities in the United
Associated Press States.
BERLIN (AP) — After a long To make a profit, "Too
day at work, Annekath- Good To Go" keeps 1.09
rin Fiesinger is too tired to euros ($1.22) per meal sold
consider making dinner at through the app. The food
home. So the 34-year-old is usually about 50% less
uses her smart phone to expensive than its original
check nearby restaurants, price.
hotels or bakeries in Berlin Like Fiesinger, most of the
for food being sold for a app's users are university
discount at the end of the students and young, tech-
day. savvy professionals.
The part-time coffee shop While a growing number
worker, who is also studying of businesses are partici-
for a degree in the science pating in such app-based
of ecosystems, is part of a schemes, many others still
growing movement of en- give their unsold food for
vironmentally-aware peo- free to charities that dis-
ple in Germany and be- tribute it to the homeless or
yond who are using apps other people in need.
to reduce food waste and Whereas unsold food in
try to cut down on climate- Germany usually ends up in
wrecking carbon emissions. the garbage, France and
While it's unclear how big the Czech Republic have in
an impact such efforts recent years implemented
have in ultimately reducing laws banning supermarkets
emissions, they reflect how from throwing away food
environmental concerns and instead ordered them
are growing and shaping to donate it to charities
the behavior of consumers and food banks.
and businesses. In Berlin, Fiesinger checks
"For me this is all about the her phone for food offered
environment," says Fiesing- in her neighborhood.
er. "We cannot go on with She decides on a lunch
all this wastefulness." special at Aennchen von
Fiesinger uses "Too Good To In this Tuesday, May 21, 2019 photo, Franziska Lienert spokeswoman of the company which runs Thorgau restaurant on the
Go," Europe's most popu- the food sharing app 'Too Good To Go', poses for a photo at her working desk during an interview banks of the Spree river.
lar app to find discounted with the Associated Press in Berlin. She clicks on one of four
unsold food. It uses her Associated Press unsold pasta dishes, order-
phone's GPS to tell her ing and paying automati-
which registered businesses left-over groceries that of- coming decades. Doing so pany says. It's also avail- cally.
nearby have extra food for ten get discarded. means ending the use of able in ten other European "In Berlin, it's really easy to
sale, and what they're of- On average, every German fossil fuels and cutting back countries including Den- find something — there's
fering. throws away more than 55 on other sources of emis- mark, France, Britain and something waiting for you
"It's super easy: just down- kilograms (120 pounds) of sions, such as intensive land Poland. on every corner," says
load the app and, on food a year, the govern- use for agriculture. "So far, we have rescued 14 Fiesinger on her way to pick
your way home, pick up ment says. That's about 11 The German government million meals in Europe from up her meal.
what you like best," she ex- million tons of food annu- has said it wants to reduce being thrown away — that Restaurant owner Armin
plained, scrolling through a ally, which creates six mil- food waste by half until equals 35,000 tons of CO2 Doetsch says he partici-
long list of photos advertis- lion tons of carbon dioxide 2030 and Chancellor An- that have been saved," pates in the app's program
ing veggie meals, baked emissions that contribute to gela Merkel called on all spokeswoman Franziska mainly for environmental
goods and unsold lunch global warming. Globally, citizens to support initiatives Lienert said. reasons.
specials. about one third of all food that help avoid food waste. Evaluating the actual im- "We often have left-overs
The app is part of a grow- ends up in the garbage. "I think that every single pact of those saved meals from our lunch specials,"
ing number of services us- Emissions come from burn- person can contribute to can be tricky, as the con- Doetsch said. "Rather than
ing technology to help re- ing the wasted food but this big goal," Merkel said sumers would have likely tossing it, we prefer to give
duce food waste. also from producing the during her weekly podcast bought food from another it away, even if it's only for
Activists have built on- food in the first place. For in February. "Digitization retailer instead. But food little money."
line communities to share example, cattle raised for can help with intelligent sharing programs and apps He piles a dish of Spaetzle
food with neighbors before beef and milk are the ani- packaging and (online) can help better match de- pasta with mushrooms —
throwing it away. Startups mal species responsible for platforms via which one mand for meals to their sup- marked down to 3.80 eu-
have teamed up with su- the most emissions, repre- can then share food." ply, increasing the industry's ros from 6.50 euros — into
permarkets to create ap- senting about 65% of the The "Too Good To Go" app, overall efficiency. a container Fiesinger had
plications that alert con- livestock sector's emissions, which was created by a Ten million people use "Too brought along and hands it
sumers when groceries that according the U.N. couple of Danish entre- Good To Go" and some over with a smile.
are about to expire are Scientists say the only possi- preneurs in 2015, has seen 23,300 food businesses par- "We also want to avoid
marked down. Even the ble way to slow down glob- its number of users grow ticipate, Lienert said. It's the extra packaging waste,"
German government has al warming is by drastically rapidly. More than 5,000 most popular, but other says Doetsch. "Everybody
launched a phone app of- reducing the emissions of people download the app food sharing apps include who brings along their own
fering recipes by celebrity greenhouse gases such in Germany every day, a FoodCloud, Karma or Olio Tupperware box gets free
chefs made specifically for as carbon dioxide in the spokeswoman for the com- which is available in hun- ice-cream as a reward."q