Too Good To Go |

What is the problem you found?

How might we reduce food waste at school?

Customer / Problem

Food that is not consumed is referred to as food loss and waste. Food waste and loss can occur at any point in the food supply chain, including during production, processing, distribution, retail, and consumption. Approximately one-third of the world's food gets discarded. Food waste occurs when edible food is intentionally discarded by consumers after they fail to plan their meals properly and store food until it spoils or goes past the expiration date. Food loss occurs primarily at the production stage due to insufficient skills, natural calamities, lack of proper infrastructure, and poor practices. Food waste can occur as a result of market surplus. According to a 2013 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) research, roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption does not make it to our tables, making it the first study to examine the environmental implications of global food waste.

When food rots in a landfill, it produces huge amounts of methane which is a greenhouse gas at least 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide. But in compost bins, microbes convert that organic matter into nutrient-rich soil, keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere and producing valuable fertilizer.

Currently, there is a great amount of food being wasted in schools, there are lunches, snacks and much more being thrown out on a daily basis. 6% of school bins are filled with uneaten food. An estimated 530,000 tons of food is wasted each year at school. According to Recycling now the average secondary school student wastes approximately 22kg of waste each academic year. Currently, many Australian schools have tried to reduce waste by raising awareness for how it is impacting the earth, eliminating plastic water bottles and straws, promoting reusable products, and much more. Although these methods have had a positive impact there is still much more left to do to reduce waste and that is why we have come up with Too good to go.

What Is Your Solution?

Our solution to reduce the amount of food waste is an app we designed to direct students in school to the correct bin, this is done by scanning/ typing in the food on the screens next to bins around the school as well as the packaging (this can include plastic paper, etc.) and will tell you which assigned bin for the waste to be disposed of. To further influence the decreased intake of food waste at school, we will have a prize system done within the app which records what you have recycled and to the people who have recycled the most can receive a prize of some sort eg. lollies.  All scraps from recycling bins will then be transferred to a compost station where there are perfect conditions for food to decay and allow for scraps to compost over time without the overflowing of the main bins.