ENVIRONMENT
Watch your waste
We meet the pioneers tackling the food waste crisis by sharing the 40% of produce we sling in the bin
by HELEN CARROLL
illustration TOM JAY
The removal men had almost finished loading up the lorries when Tessa Clarke realised she still had fresh food in her fridge that wouldn’t travel – and she couldn’t bear to throw it away. After trying, in vain, to give it away, Tessa grew frustrated that, in a world where millions go hungry, her leftover sweet potatoes, cabbage and yogurts would be heaped on top of the billions of tonnes of food that goes to waste each year – some 10 million tonnes of that from the UK alone, according to the Waste And Resources Action Programme.
It would have been understandable if, once settled in her new Wiltshire home, Tessa – then the mother of a baby and a toddler – had forgotten all about the perishables she’d had to bin. Instead, her frustration about this unnecessary waste spurred her on and together with a friend she created the food sharing app, Olio.
Olio connects neighbours with each other and local businesses so that surplus food can be shared, not binned. Food nearing its sell-by date in shops, unsold bread from nearby bakers, excess home-grown vegetables and the contents of fridges that would otherwise go off while people are on holiday, are all regularly shared through the app.
‘I grew up on my parents’ dairy farm in North Yorkshire,’ says Tessa. ‘As a result, I learned pretty much as soon as I could walk how much work goes into producing the food we eat. I also shared their firm belief that food is meant to be eaten, not thrown away.