Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - Millions of tons of food end up in the garbage every year. For the year 2020, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture put the amount of waste at around eleven million tons. In order to save products that are still edible and to distribute them, associations and initiatives in many cities, including the organization Foodsharing, are involved. The members pick up leftover and discarded goods from supermarkets or bakeries. The distribution runs via groups in social networks or open refrigerators, which you can use without registering.
Such an open fridge can be found, for example, in the Church of St. Apostles in the south of Frankfurt. The chairwoman of the local food sharing association, Lisa Villioth, criticizes the way food is handled. "The whole system is crazy," says the 35-year-old. She refers, for example, to the huge amount that regularly ends up in the garbage after closing time in retail stores - because a large selection of perishable goods is also offered until the end. The number of people involved in food sharing in Frankfurt is increasing from week to week. There are currently around 840.
The Too Good To Go (TGTG) platform brings bakeries, supermarkets and restaurants together with consumers. During the day, companies estimate how much is left later. Customers reserve a so-called Magic Bag via the app and pay a third of the original price. 17,000 partner companies and around 9.4 million users are registered on the platform.
There are also people who get groceries out of supermarket dumpsters. According to the will of the federal government, this container should now be exempted from punishment, and the federal states should implement it. Ricarda Heymann from Central Hesse, who fishes goods out of supermarket garbage once a week, thinks this initiative makes sense. But it would make even more sense to ban supermarkets from throwing away food, she says. In France, major retailers and supermarkets have been banned from throwing away groceries since 2016 - they must be donated.
